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William Court Gully, 1st Viscount Selby

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The Right Honourable
The Viscount Selby
PCKC
Gully in 1895
Speaker of the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom
In office
10 April 1895 – 8 June 1905
MonarchsVictoria
Edward VII
Prime MinisterArchibald Primrose
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
Arthur Balfour
Preceded bySir Arthur Peel
Succeeded bySir James Lowther
Personal details
Born29 August 1835(1835-08-29)
Died6 November 1909(1909-11-07)(aged 74)
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal
SpouseElizabeth Selby (died 1906)
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

William Court Gully, 1st Viscount SelbyPC,KC(29 August 1835 – 6 November 1909) was a British lawyer andLiberalpolitician. He served asSpeaker of the House of Commonsbetween 1895 and 1905.

Background and education[edit]

Gully was the son ofJames Manby Gullyof Malvern, a successful physician who became involved in the mysterious death ofCharles Bravoin April 1876. His grandfather was Daniel Gully, a Jamaican coffee planter. He was educated atUniversity College School,London and thenTrinity College, Cambridge,[1]where he was president ofthe Union.He was called to the bar by theInner Templein 1860, went the northern circuit, and took silk in 1877.[2]

Political career[edit]

Gully in the Speaker's rooms, 1905
"Mr Speaker" as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) inVanity Fair,September 1896

In 1880 and 1883 Gully unsuccessfully contestedWhitehavenas aLiberal,but was elected forCarlislein 1886, and continued to represent that constituency until his elevation to thepeerage.In April 1895 he was elected Speaker by a majority of eleven votes overSir Matthew White Ridley,theUnionistnominee.[2]The choice of Gully was a surprise toLord Rosebery's cabinet. Rosebery did not want a Unionist as the new Speaker of the House of Commons, but rejected the two alternatives ofRichard HaldaneandSir Frank Lockwood.Rosebery faced hostility in his cabinet fromSir William Vernon Harcourtand from the opposition, and Harcourt wanted the Liberal UnionistLeonard Courtneyas Speaker. Harcourt viewed this as purely a matter for the House of Commons (Rosebery being in the House of Lords). To Rosebery it became a minor cabinet crisis. Finally in disgust Harcourt placed the onus of the decision on Rosebery. Eventually the backbenchers of the Commons who knew Gully propelled him - most likely because he was close toSir William Herschell.Harcourt was forced to produce the name to the House of Commons. The Conservatives were not happy about his selection, and (recalling the scandal that engulfed his father) would greet his appearance in the House with cries of "Bravo, Gully!".[3]In 1905 he resigned and was raised to the peerage with the title ofViscount Selby,of theCity of Carlisle,[4]the name being that of his wife (see below).

He died in November 1909, aged 74, and was succeeded by his son, James.[2]

Family[edit]

Lord Selby married, in 1865, Elizabeth Selby (died 1906), daughter of Thomas Selby. They had six children:

  • James William Herschell Gully, 2nd Viscount Selby(1867–1923)
  • Hon. Edward Walford Karslake Gully, CB (1870–1931), who married 1901 Ada Symon
  • Hon. Gertrude Anne Gully (died 1949), who married 1888 His Honour James Aloysius Scully, Judge of Brighton District Court.
  • Hon. Florence Julia Gully (died 1949), who married 1892 SirWilliam Guy Granet.
  • Hon. Mary Honorah Rhoda Gully (died 1961), who married 1894 SirAdrian Donald Wilde Pollock(1867–1943).
  • Hon. Elizabeth Kate Shelley Gully (died 1908), who married first 1902 Captain Carleton Salkeld, and secondly Hon. Edward Brabazon Meade.

Arms[edit]

Coat of arms of William Court Gully, 1st Viscount Selby
Coronet
ACoronet of a Viscount
Crest
Between two wings erect Or an arm vested Sable cuffed Argent the hand grasping a sword erect Proper.
Escutcheon
Argent a lion rampant Sable between four escallops Gules on a chief of the last as many escallops Or.
Supporters
Dexter an owl Sable charged with a balance Or sinister an eagle Sable charged with a portcullis Or.
Motto
NEC TEMERE NEC TARDE (Neither Rashly Nor Slowly)

[5]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^"Gully, William Court (GLY851WC)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
  2. ^abcChisholm 1911.
  3. ^Ruddick, p. 185
  4. ^"No. 27814".The London Gazette.7 July 1905. p. 4699.
  5. ^Debrett's Peerage.2019. p. 4322.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of ParliamentforCarlisle
1886–1905 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Speaker of the House of Commons
1895 – 1905 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Viscount Selby
1905 – 1909 		Succeeded by
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