Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Earl of Birkenhead
Office1:Lord-in-Waiting
Government Whip
Monarch1:George VI
Elizabeth II
Primeminister1:Winston Churchill
Term Start1:5 November 1951
Term End1:28 January 1955
Predecessor1:The Lord Burden
Successor1:The Lord Chesham
Monarch2:George VI
Primeminister2:Neville Chamberlain
Term Start2:12 July 1938
Term End2:10 May 1940
Predecessor2:The Earl of Munster
Successor2:The Viscount Clifden
Office8:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start8:30 September 1930
Term End8:10 June 1975
Hereditary Peerage
Predecessor8:The 1st Earl of Birkenhead
Successor8:The 3rd Earl of Birkenhead
Birth Name:Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith
Birth Date:7 December 1907
Party:Conservative
Module:
Embed:yes
Notable Works:Rudyard Kipling (1978)

Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead (7 December 1907 – 10 June 1975) was a British biographer and Member of the House of Lords. He is best known for writing a biography of Rudyard Kipling that was suppressed by the Kipling family for many years, and which he never lived to see in print.

Biography

The son of F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, he was known as Viscount Furneaux from 1922, when his father, then 1st Viscount Birkenhead, was created Earl of Birkenhead. He had two sisters, Eleanor (1902–1945) and Pamela (1914–1982). Lord Furneaux was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.[1] [2] He inherited his father's peerages in 1930.[3]

In 1935, he married The Hon Sheila Berry (1913–1992), second daughter of the 1st Viscount Camrose. The couple had a son, Frederick William Robin Smith, 3rd Earl of Birkenhead, in 1936 and a daughter, Lady Juliet Margaret Smith (later Lady Juliet Townsend), in 1941. Lady Juliet served as Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret from 1965 to 2002; her daughter Eleanor Townsend is a god-child of the Princess. Lady Juliet was made a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (DCVO) in the 2014 Birthday Honours having previously received the LVO in 1981 and was Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire from 1998 to 2014.[4] She died on 29 November 2014.[5]

For the first three years of the Second World War, Lord Birkenhead served with a Territorial Army Anti-Tank unit. Following a course at the Staff College, Camberley, Major "Freddy" Birkenhead was assigned to the Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department, popularly known as the Political Warfare Executive, or PWE for short. He saw action in Croatia, as second-in-command of a sub-mission headed by Randolph Churchill, under Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean's 37th Military Mission, which included Evelyn Waugh. As a result, he plays a prominent role in Waugh's diaries.

Lord Birkenhead served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Lord Halifax (1938–1939), and as Lord-in-waiting to King George VI (1938–1940 and 1951–1952) and Queen Elizabeth II (1952–1955).

As a writer, Lord Birkenhead primarily authored political biographies, including books on Lord Cherwell and Lord Halifax. In the late 1940s, Lord Birkenhead was commissioned by Rudyard Kipling's daughter Elsie Bambridge to write a biography of Kipling. An agreement with Lord Birkenhead gave Bambridge control over the contents, ownership of copyright, and two-thirds of any profits. Ultimately, Bambridge did not accept Lord Birkenhead's work, and it remained unpublished through his death in 1975 and her death in 1976. The biography was finally published in 1978 with the agreement of Bambridge's heirs.[6]

Lord Birkenhead died in June 1975 at age 67.[7] At the time of his death, he was working on a biography of Winston Churchill (who was his godfather); the completed portion, covering Churchill's life until 1922, was published in 1989.[8]

Books

Arms

Escutcheon:Ermine on a pale Gules between four cross crosslets of the second a like cross Or.
Crest:A cubit arm couped fessways vested Gules cuffed Argent the hand Proper grasping a sword erect also Argent pommel and hilt Or.
Supporters:Dexter a griffin Or wings per fess Or and Sable, sinister a lion Azure charged on the shoulder with a crozier Or.
Motto:Faber Meæ Fortunæ [9]

Notes and References

  1. News: Eton Lives Over Its Past . . London . 9 . 11 February 1927 . 8 December 2021 . newspapers.com.
  2. News: (untitled) . . London . 15 . 1 November 1928 . 8 December 2021 . newspapers.com.
  3. News: Birkenhead Succumbs To Long Illness . . . 23 . 1 October 1930 . 8 December 2021 . newspapers.com.
  4. Web site: Birthday Honours lists 2014. 14 June 2014. 3 July 2014. gov.uk. HM Government. Honours.
  5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11271144/Lady-Juliet-Townsend-obituary.html The Daily Telegraph, Obituary, 4 December 2014
  6. News: Suppressed Biography . William J. . Clew . . . 12D . 31 December 1978 . 7 December 2021 . newspapers.com.
  7. News: Earl Of Birkenhead, At Age 67, British Political Biographer . . . . 17 . 11 June 1975 . 8 December 2021 . newspapers.com.
  8. News: Yet another one on Churchill . Michael . Sexton . . 49 . 27 January 1990 . 8 December 2021 . newspapers.com.
  9. Book: Burke's Peerage . 1959.