George Fitzroy Seymour (
Witley
Witley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, England centred south west of the town of Godalming and southwest of Guildford. The land is a mixture of rural (ranging from woodland protected by the Surrey Hills AO ...
8 February 1923 -
Thrumpton
Thrumpton is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census it had a population of 152, increasing to 165 at the 2011 census. It is located on the A453 road south-west of West Bridgford. The 13th centur ...
12 May 1994) was
High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuri ...
in 1966 and Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire.
Family
He was the son of
Richard Sturgis Seymour and Lady Victoria Alexandrina Mabel FitzRoy. He was educated at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
.
He married Hon. Rosemary Nest Scott-Ellis, daughter of
Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden and Margherita van Raalte, on 1 June 1946. This marriage produced two children
*
Miranda Jane Seymour (b. 8 Aug 1948)
*Thomas Oliver Seymour (b. 20 Oct 1952)
Career
He spent much of his life working for the preservation of
Thrumpton Hall
Thrumpton Hall is an English country house in the village of Thrumpton near Nottingham. It operated as a wedding venue until November 2020.
History
This historic house incorporates a substantial part of an older house which was occupied by t ...
, his home in
Thrumpton
Thrumpton is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. At the time of the 2001 census it had a population of 152, increasing to 165 at the 2011 census. It is located on the A453 road south-west of West Bridgford. The 13th centur ...
,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...
. He had moved here when he was one, in 1924. His diplomat father had been posted to
La Paz
La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...
in
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and George's mother went too. Her brother-in-law was the 10th Lord Byron. Although he moved back to his family when they returned to London 18 months later, he spent his holidays here. At the age of 13, he was writing school essays about life as a squire - or a squarson.
He fought in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
between 1941 and 1942, with the
King's Royal Rifle Corps
The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...
(60th Rifles), and was invalided.
After his uncle's death in 1949, with heavy death-duties Seymour was compelled to buy the house he had expected to inherit and, in a country auction, as many of its contents as he could afford. He borrowed £50,000, (equivalent to £ as of ) and by selling the majority of the estate, paid it back within the year.
He held the office of
High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire
This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire.
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuri ...
for 1966–67. He was a Justice of the Peace for Nottinghamshire for over 30 years. He had been the longest-serving member on the Council of the
Magistrates' Association
The Magistrates' Association is the membership organisation for magistrates in England and Wales. By virtue of its education and training functions it is a charitable organisation and is funded by its members to promote the magistracy.
History
...
and between 1975 and 1978 he served as chairman of the association's Juvenile Courts Committee. He also held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire.
He was a great supporter, benefactor and President of Thrumpton Village Cricket club from 1949. He was also a member of
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called the ...
and
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...
, but the village club enjoyed much of his time amidst a wide variety of public duties.
When the Thrumpton club lost its ground on Church Lane at the end of 1967, he offered the use of his park and since 1968 the ground has been one of the most picturesque in the County.
He is posthumously the subject of the book
''Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father’s House'' written by his daughter,
Miranda Seymour
Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer. The lives she has described have included those of Robert Graves and Mary Shelley. Seymour, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, has in r ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, George Fitzroy
1923 births
1994 deaths
People educated at Winchester College
Deputy Lieutenants of Nottinghamshire
High Sheriffs of Nottinghamshire
People from Surrey
King's Royal Rifle Corps officers