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Captain Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough, (27 October 1880 – 10 March 1956) was a British businessman and politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 14th since Canadian Confederation. Ponsonby was born and educated in England, obtaining a degree in law from the University of Cambridge, and then entered the political field wherein he served as a member of the London County Council before being in 1910 elected to the British House of Commons. Upon the death of his grandfather, ten years later, Ponsonby became the Earl of Bessborough and took his place in the House of Lords until 1931. He was in 1931 appointed as governor general by King George V, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Ramsay MacDonald, to replace the Earl of Willingdon as viceroy, and occupied that post until succeeded by the Lord Tweedsmuir in 1935. Bessborough strongly promoted the new communication technologies and offered support to the Canadian populace during the Great Depression. After the end of his viceregal tenure, he returned to the United Kingdom, where he continued to practise business and also work with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office before his death in March 1956. ==Early life, education, and career== Ponsonby was born in London, United Kingdom, the first son and third child of Edward and Blanche Ponsonby (herself the daughter of John Josiah Guest, Baronet, the great-uncle of Winston Churchill). They enrolled Vere at Harrow School, from where he graduated and then attended Trinity College at the University of Cambridge from 1898 to 1901, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. By 1903 he had started a career in law, being called to the bar at the Inner Temple. After the death of his grandfather in 1906, as the then eldest son of the Earl of Bessborough, he used the courtesy title of Viscount Duncannon. Six years later, on 25 June 1912, Duncannon married Roberte de Neuflize, with whom he had four children: Frederick, born 29 March 1913; Desmond, born 4 August 1915; Moyra Blanche Madeleine, born 2 March 1918; and George, born 14 August 1931. Desmond, however, did not live past the age of ten, dying on 8 April 1925 from a riding accident, and George, who was born in Canada and given the middle name ''St. Lawrence'' (after the river),〔 would also predecease his father on 16 May 1951. Prior to his marriage, he had entered the realm of politics, holding a seat on the London County Council between 1907 and 1910, before being elected on 10 February 1910 to the British House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cheltenham. He lost that seat in the election of 19 December that same year, but re-entered the Commons in 1913 as the MP for Dover. By the following year, however, the First World War erupted, and whilst retaining his parliamentary seat, Ponsonby enlisted as a second lieutenant in Royal Bucks Hussars, then was transferred on 11 November 1914 at the same rank to the Suffolk Hussars (both units were part of the Territorial Force and were sent into action overseas), where he was later appointed captain, then a temporary major. He was at Gallipoli in 1915, and on military staff in France, 1916–18. During his wartime service, he was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the ''Croix de chevalier'' of the Legion of Honor, France; the Order of St Maurice and St Lazarus, Italy; the Order of Leopold II, Belgium; the Order of the Redeemer, Greece; and the Order of St Anna, Third Class, Russia. At the conclusion of the war, Ponsonby was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George by King George V in the New Year Honours List in 1919.〔 After the death of his father on 1 December 1920, he succeeded to the Earldom of Bessborough, in the Irish peerage. As Lord Bessborough, he thus on 17 December was appointed as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern so that he might resign his place in the Commons and instead take up his seat in the House of Lords. The Earl also pursued a successful business career, holding directorships in several large commercial firms, including acting as head of both the São Paulo Railway and the Margarine Union, as well as deputy chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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