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William Edwardes (1835-1896) was Liberal MP for Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire during the period 1868-85. Though succeeding to the title of Baron Kensington in the Peerage of Ireland in 1872, he remained in the House of Commons, as a whip, a member of the Privy Council and, latterly, Comptroller of the Household (1880-85). Created 1st Baron Kensington in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1886, he then entered the House of Lords, and acted as its Liberal Chef Whip in 1892-96.
“Three generations ago there was a Lord Kensington of great possessions who was addicted to the then fashionable vice of gambling. On one occasion he staked the whole of that estate now known as Holland Park, and now worth probably a million of money, against ten thousand pounds, and, having lost it, left his family with an inconsiderable number of acres in Kensington which appeared unlikely ever to be of any value. His son and grandson were poor men; but the Metropolitan Railway having come into existence, the unregarded land of the family has enormously increased in value, and the present Lord Kensington is the possessor of a very handsome peer's income, as well as the inheritor of family traditions of a Welsh ancestry extending beyond the limits of history.
Born three-and-forty years ago, he was sent to Eton, and into the Coldstream Guards, adopted Liberal opinions and was elected a Member of Parliament for Haverfordwest when three-and-thirty. Since that time he has addressed himself to Parliamentary work with much industry, and though he has not made himself known as an orator, his knowledge of the House is much relied upon by his chiefs, so that they have made him a Whip of the Party. He is well-mannered, well-known, well-liked, and a gentleman.”
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