Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway
Encyclopedia
Charles Benjamin Bright McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, PC
, QC
, JP
(12 May 1850 – 23 January 1934), known as Sir Charles McLaren, 1st Baronet between 1902 and 1911, was a Scottish
jurist and Liberal Party
politician. He was a landowner and industrialist.
, McLaren was the son of the politician Duncan McLaren
. The latter's third wife, his mother Priscilla, was the daughter of Jacob Bright and the sister of the Liberal statesman John Bright
. McLaren was educated at Grove House School
and studied then at the University of Heidelberg as well as the University of Bonn
. He finally graduated from the University of Edinburgh
first class honours with a Master of Arts
.
as a barrister
. In 1880, he was elected to the House of Commons
as Member of Parliament
(MP) for Stafford
; he served that constituency until 1886. In 1892, he returned to the Commons as MP for Bosworth
, which he represented until 1910.
McLaren's political career advanced during his second term. In 1897, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel
and in 1902 was created a Baronet, of Bodnant, in the County of Denbigh
. He was sworn of the Privy Council
in 1908, and held the office of Justice of the Peace
in Middlesex, Flint, Denbighshire, and Surrey. In 1911, a year after he had left the Commons (his son replaced him), he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom
with the title Baron Aberconway, of Bodnant, in the County of Denbigh.
McLaren was decorated with the 3rd class of the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure
and received the Serbian Order of Takova. He was awarded a Commander of the Greek Order of the Redeemer
.
.
, in Westminster
; the couple had four children. He and his wife were neighbours and friends of James McNeill Whistler
, owning several of his works.
Laura died in 1933 and McLaren survived her until the following year.
On his death in 1934, in Belgrave Square
in London, the barony and baronetcy passed to his eldest son, Henry
. His second son Francis
sat also in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
, however was killed during the First World War in his father's lifetime. The older daughter Florence was a socialite as well as activist and married the journalist Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet. Her younger sister Elsie was the wife of Sir Edward Johnson-Ferguson, 2nd Baronet.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, JP
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
(12 May 1850 – 23 January 1934), known as Sir Charles McLaren, 1st Baronet between 1902 and 1911, was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
jurist and Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician. He was a landowner and industrialist.
Education
Born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, McLaren was the son of the politician Duncan McLaren
Duncan McLaren
Duncan McLaren was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Edinburgh.Born in Renton, Scotland, Duncan McLaren was the youngest of ten children of John McLaren and Catherine McLellan. Apart from two years of schooling, was self taught. After school, he was apprenticed to a merchant in Dunbar...
. The latter's third wife, his mother Priscilla, was the daughter of Jacob Bright and the sister of the Liberal statesman John Bright
John Bright
John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
. McLaren was educated at Grove House School
Grove School (Tottenham)
Grove House School was a Quaker school in Tottenham, United Kingdom.The school was established in 1828 as a boarding school for boys of the Quaker community, initially under Thomas Binns. One of its founders was Josiah Forster, who had attended the Quaker school his grandfather had founded in 1752,...
and studied then at the University of Heidelberg as well as the University of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
. He finally graduated from the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
first class honours with a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
.
Political career
McLaren began his career in journalism, but turned to the law and in 1874, he was admitted to Lincoln's InnLincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
. In 1880, he was elected to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Stafford
Stafford (UK Parliament constituency)
Stafford is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. The sitting MP is the Conservative Jeremy Lefroy....
; he served that constituency until 1886. In 1892, he returned to the Commons as MP for Bosworth
Bosworth (UK Parliament constituency)
Bosworth is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
, which he represented until 1910.
McLaren's political career advanced during his second term. In 1897, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
and in 1902 was created a Baronet, of Bodnant, in the County of Denbigh
Denbigh
Denbigh is a market town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. Before 1888, it was the county town of Denbighshire. Denbigh lies 8 miles to the north west of Ruthin and to the south of St Asaph. It is about 13 miles from the seaside resort of Rhyl. The town grew around the glove-making industry...
. He was sworn of the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in 1908, and held the office of Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in Middlesex, Flint, Denbighshire, and Surrey. In 1911, a year after he had left the Commons (his son replaced him), he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Peerage of the United Kingdom
The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...
with the title Baron Aberconway, of Bodnant, in the County of Denbigh.
McLaren was decorated with the 3rd class of the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure
Order of the Sacred Treasure
The is a Japanese Order, established on January 4, 1888 by Emperor Meiji of Japan as the Order of Meiji. It is awarded in eight classes . It is generally awarded for long and/or meritorious service and considered to be the lowest of the Japanese orders of merit...
and received the Serbian Order of Takova. He was awarded a Commander of the Greek Order of the Redeemer
Order of the Redeemer
The Order of the Redeemer , also known as the Order of the Savior, is an order of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the modern Greek state.- History :...
.
Career in industry
His father-in-law, a noted industrialist, died in 1895, and McLaren became increasingly involved in the management of the companies inherited from him. He would become chairman of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company and the British Iron Trade Association. McLaren chaired also the London based Metropolitan Railway Company and the shipbuilding firm John Brown & CompanyJohn Brown & Company
John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the...
.
Family
On 6 March 1877, McLaren married Laura, the daughter of the chemist Henry Davis PochinHenry Davis Pochin
Henry Davis Pochin was an English industrial chemist. He was the son of a yeoman farmer of Leicestershire who served an apprenticeship to James Woolley , a manufacturing chemist in Manchester, and in course of time became his partner. Woolley died in 1858 and Pochin kept a manuscript diary of...
, in Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
; the couple had four children. He and his wife were neighbours and friends of James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
, owning several of his works.
Laura died in 1933 and McLaren survived her until the following year.
On his death in 1934, in Belgrave Square
Belgrave Square
Belgrave Square is one of the grandest and largest 19th century squares in London, England. It is the centrepiece of Belgravia, and was laid out by the property contractor Thomas Cubitt for the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, later the 1st Marquess of Westminster, in the 1820s. Most of the houses were occupied...
in London, the barony and baronetcy passed to his eldest son, Henry
Henry McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway
Henry Duncan McLaren, 2nd Baron Aberconway CBE was a British politician, horticulturalist and industrialist. He was the son of Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway and Laura Pochin.- Education :...
. His second son Francis
Francis McLaren
The Honourable Francis Walter Stafford McLaren was a British Member of Parliament killed in World War I.-Career:...
sat also in the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, however was killed during the First World War in his father's lifetime. The older daughter Florence was a socialite as well as activist and married the journalist Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet. Her younger sister Elsie was the wife of Sir Edward Johnson-Ferguson, 2nd Baronet.