ANSON, Sir George (1769-1849), of Rushall Hall, Staffs. and 5 Bulstrode Street, Mdx.

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A ‘gallant, distinguished and venerable officer’ and ‘worthy old general’, Anson, a Whig with a distinguished military record in the Peninsula War, continued to sit on the interest of his nephew, Thomas William Anson, 2nd viscount Anson and 1st earl of Lichfield.1The Standard, 5 Nov. 1849; Morn. Chro., 6 Nov. 1849. He had first been elected for Lichfield in 1806 on the interest of his brother, Thomas Anson, 1st viscount Anson (1767-1818). His parliamentary career had been interrupted by his service during the French wars, but Anson was always a rather lax attender.2HP Commons, 1820-32, iv. 66-7.

Anson topped the poll in 1832 and 1835 after facing a token Radical opponent, and was returned unopposed in 1837. Describing himself as ‘an old Reformer’ whose ‘principles were unchanged’ in 1835, two years later a parliamentary guide remarked that ‘the politics of the Anson family have always been Whig, and Sir George invariably acts with that party’.3Staffordshire Advertiser, 10 Jan. 1835; The assembled Commons (1837), 7. Writing privately to Charles Dod, Anson succinctly summarised his politics as ‘Liberal opinions – no pledges’.4Dod MS, i. 47. Anson is not known to have spoken in debate, and his activity was mostly confined to the division lobby, and then only to the key party votes. He supported Abercromby for the speakership, 19 Feb. 1835, voted against the address a week later, and supported Russell’s resolutions on the Irish church, 2 Apr. 1835. He cast further votes in favour of reform of the Irish church and tithes on 3 June 1836, 15 May 1838, and divided in favour of Villiers’ motion for the House to go into committee on the corn laws, 18 Mar. 1839, which perhaps reflected the views of his nephew, who was ‘not friendly’ to the current corn laws.5Dyott’s diary, ed. R.W. Jeffrey (1907), ii. 302. He offered characteristically loyal support to the Whig government on Peel’s motion of no confidence, 4 June 1841.

The septugenarian soldier reluctantly stood his ground at the 1841 general election, as his personal influence and popularity was deemed vital to securing the return of a second Whig candidate against strong Conservative opposition.6Morn. Chro., 1 July 1841; The Standard, 10 Sept. 1841. This achieved, Anson resigned, 8 Sept. 1841, by applying for the stewardship of the Poynings Hundred, a nominal crown office rarely used by MPs seeking to retire.7Gent. Mag. (1841), ii. 562; Morning Post, 9 Sept. 1841; House of Commons Information Office, Factsheet P11: The Chiltern Hundreds (2010), 3. This permitted the return of a young nobleman as Lord Lichfield’s nominee, leading the Staffordshire Tory William Dyott to express sympathy for ‘poor old Sir George Anson, who had been made the puppet for the whole proceeding’.8Dyott’s diary, ii. 349. Anson was appointed lieutenant-governor of Chelsea hospital in 1846, a position he held until his death in 1849. An obituary noted that in the position, ‘as in all his preceding appointments, he was most universally loved and respected for his noble, just, and charitable bearing’.9Gent. Mag. (1850), i. 87-8. By his will, dated 1 Feb. 1849, the benefits of a trust fund established by his marriage settlement and his personalty were divided equally between his surviving children.10PROB 11/2103/898; IR26/1828/911, qu. in HP Commons, 1820-1832, iv. 67.