Biography

George John Shaw-Lefevre (1831-1928), Baron Eversley and politician, was born in Battersea, Surrey, on 12 June 1831. Lefevre was educated at Eton College before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1849, graduating in 1853. He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1854 and practised briefly. Lefevre contested Winchester unsuccessfully in 1859, before being elected as member for Reading in 1863, which he represented until 1885. Lefevre's earliest official duties in 1863 were as the legal member on the royal commission on fisheries. Lefevre quickly secured office, first as a civil lord of the Admiralty in Russell's government (April-June 1866), which gave him a lifelong interest in naval affairs, and in December 1868 as secretary of the Board of Trade under the light rein of John Bright in Gladstone's first government. In April 1880 Lefevre returned to the Admiralty before being appointed first commissioner of works (November 1880-November 1884) and sworn of the privy council. He was returned to the Commons on 21 April 1886 as member for Central Bradford in succession to W. E. Forster, a seat he held until again defeated in 1895. As first commissioner for works (1892–4) once more and president of the Local Government Board (1894-5), Lefevre was responsible for the London (Equalization of Rates) Act of 1894, and personally incorporated the maintenance of footpaths as a public duty on local authorities for the first time. He died at his home, Abbotsworthy House, Kings Worthy, near Winchester, on 19 April 1928, and was buried at Kings Worthy four days later.

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