Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl Of Balfour

Gerald William Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour, PC, was born on 9 April 1853 in Edinburgh and died on 14 January 1945. He was a member of the British Conservative Party and became a peer in 1930 following the death of his elder brother, Arthur Balfour, who had served as Prime Minister.

He was the fourth son of James Maitland Balfour of Whittingehame, Haddingtonshire, and Lady Blanche Cecil, daughter of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. His familial relations included two Prime Ministers: his elder brother, Arthur Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, and his uncle, Lord Salisbury. Gerald Balfour received education at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he achieved First Class Honours in the Classical Tripos.

His political career began with his election as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Leeds Central, a position he held from 1885 until 1906. During his tenure, he served on the Commission on Labour and was private secretary to his brother Arthur Balfour when he was President of the Local Government Board from 1885 to 1886. Gerald Balfour was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland in 1895 and to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1905.

He served as Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1895 to 1900, President of the Board of Trade from 1900 to 1905, and briefly as Local Government Board President in 1905. Following his parliamentary career, he was appointed chairman of the 1908 Commission on Lighthouse Administration and led the Cambridge Committee on the Review of Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

In 1930, he succeeded his brother Arthur as the second Earl of Balfour, which placed him in the House of Lords. He had previously been granted an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree by Cambridge University and was a fellow of Trinity College.

Gerald Balfour resided at Fisher's Hill House, a large residence designed by the architect Edwin Lutyens, located in Hook Heath, Woking, Surrey. By 1911, he was living in the rural hamlet with other notable figures, including Alfred Lyttelton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the Duke of Sutherland.

He expressed interest in parapsychology and served as President of the Society for Psychical Research during 1906–1907.

In his personal life, Balfour married Lady Elizabeth Edith "Betty" Bulwer-Lytton in 1887, the daughter of the 1st Earl of Lytton, who had been Viceroy of India. They had six children: Lady Eleanor Balfour, Lady Ruth Balfour, Mary Edith Balfour, Lady Evelyn Barbara "Eve" Balfour, Robert Arthur Lytton Balfour (who succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Balfour), and Lady Kathleen Constance Blanche Balfour. An extramarital affair with Winifred Coombe Tennant resulted in a child named Augustus Henry.

Lady Elizabeth Edith Balfour died in 1942 at age 74. Gerald Balfour passed away at Whittingehame in 1945 at the age of 91. He was the last surviving member of the long-serving cabinets of Prime Minister Salisbury at the time of his death. His titles were inherited by his son Robert.