Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow

Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow PC (23 June 1654 – 5 December 1717) was a British Whig Member of Parliament, known as Sir Richard Onslow, 2nd Baronet from 1688 until 1716. He served as the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1708 until 1710 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1714 until 1715. Onslow was a very unpopular figure amongst members of both political parties, particularly during his time as Speaker. He was extremely pedantic and showed an absolute devotion to principle, as a result he was given the nickname "Stiff Dick".

Onslow's father, Arthur, was a politician, as was his maternal grandfather Thomas Foote, who had served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1649. He was born in Surrey and attended St Edmund Hall, Oxford before being called to the Inner Temple, but entered Parliament as the Member for Guildford in 1679 before he could be called to the bar. One of Onslow's first actions as a member of Parliament was to support the Exclusion Bill, which aimed, unsuccessfully, to deny the Catholic James II of England the British throne. He was re-elected in 1685. He also served as a Lord of the Admiralty from 1690 to 1693.

Earl of Onslow

Earl of Onslow, of Onslow in the County of Shropshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1801 for George Onslow, 4th Baron Onslow. The Onslow family descends from Arthur Onslow, who represented Bramber, Sussex and Guildford in the House of Commons. He was the husband of Mary, daughter of Thomas Foote, Lord Mayor of London in 1649, who had been created a Baronet in 1660 (a title which became extinct on his death in 1687). In 1674 Onslow was himself created a Baronet in the Baronetage of England, with the precedence of 1660.

Onslow was succeeded by his son, the second Baronet. He was a prominent politician and served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1708 to 1710 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1713 to 1714. In 1716 he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Baron Onslow, of Onslow in the County of Shropshire and of Clandon in the County of Surrey, with remainder, failing male issue of his own, to his uncle Denzil Onslow, and afterwards, to the male heirs of his father. Lord Onslow was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He sat as Member of Parliament for Gatton, Chichester, Bletchingley and Surrey and served as Lord Lieutenant of Surrey. His son, the third Baron, represented Guildford in Parliament and served as Lord Lieutenant of Surrey. He was heirless on his death in 1776.

Richard Onslow

Richard Onslow may refer to:

Richard Onslow (parliamentarian)

Sir Richard Onslow (1601 – 19 May 1664) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1664. He fought on the Parliamentary side during the English Civil War. He was the grandson of one Speaker of the House of Commons and the grandfather of another, both also called Richard Onslow.

Onslow was the son of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle, Cranleigh and his wife Isabel Shirley, daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, Sussex. He was baptised on 30 July 1601. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1617 and at Lincoln's Inn in 1618. He was knighted on 2 June 1624. In 1628 he was elected Member of Parliament for Surrey, and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He was also elected MP for Surrey in April 1640 for the Short Parliament and om November 1640 for the Long Parliament. When the Civil War broke out in 1642, he raised a regiment for Parliament, and in 1644 led his men at the siege of Basing House.

Richard Onslow (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir Richard George Onslow KCB, DSO & Three Bars, DL (1904 – 16 December 1975) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.

Family

Onslow was born in 1904 at Garmston (near Ironbridge), Shropshire, second child and eldest son of George Arthur Onslow, farmer, and his wife Charlotte Riou, daughter of clergyman the Reverend Riou George Benson.

In 1932 he married Kathleen Meriel Taylor, daughter of Edmund Coston Taylor, cotton manufacturer, of Bank House, Longnor, Shropshire; they had two sons.

Naval career

Educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Onslow joined the Royal Navy in 1918 at the end of World War I.

At the start of World War II he was on the Plans Division of the Naval Staff, with a combat interlude in 1940 on an unsuccessful attempt to evacuate the Belgian government and gold reserves from Bordeaux during the Fall of France, nearly becoming prisoner of the Germans. He next became Captain of the destroyer HMS Ashanti in 1941 in the role of defending Russian convoys, as well as the convoys to Malta. His services on the former convoys earned him the initial award of his Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Soviet Order of the Red Banner. He took over the anti-submarine training establishment HMS Osprey in 1943 and went on to be Captain of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in 1944 in which capacity he earned the third of his three bars to his DSO in the attack on a Japanese base at Sabang, Sumatra.