Sir William Algernon Cajetan Law, K.C.M.G. C.B. ^13,326

  General Notes:

From The Times, October 28, 1943

Sir Algernon Law, K.C.M.G., C.B., Assistant Under-Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs from 1914 to 1916, died at his home at Gerrards
Cross yesterday the age of 87.
William Algernon Cajetan Law was born at Hampton Court on August 7,
1856, the ninth and last surviving son of the Rev. the Hon. William
Towry Law, by his marriage with Miss Matilda Montgomery, daughter of
Sir Henry Montgomery, of Indian fame. he was the grandson of the
great Lord Ellenborough, and in 1826, after his retirement, he made an
important contribution to Indian historical and political bibliography
in editing "India under Lord Ellenborough", unpublished dispatches of
his uncle, the Governor-General. Law, who was educated at Oscott
College and abroad, was appointed a Clerk in the Foreign Office at the
age of 23. He spent almost the whole of the next 36 years in the
Foreign Office, serving under eight Secretaries of State, beginning
with Lord Granville, who had first held office before the Crimean war.
Law was sent to The Hague for a short time in 1883; in April, 1899, he
was promoted Assistant Clerk, and was made Acting Senior Clerk in
charge of the Commercial Department in 1902, receiving the substantive
rank two years later.
When the Internation Sugar Commission was convened at Brussels in 1908
Law was appointed the British delegate, and later he was made Royal
Commissioner for the internation exhibitions, held at Brussels in 1910
and at Rome and Turin in the following year. From 1912 to 1916 he
held the double office of Controller of Commercial and Consular
Affairs. In June, 1914, he attained the rank of Assistant
Under-Secretary of State. The last war brought about many changes and
new deveopments in the Foreign Office. Out of the commercial
department there sprang the blockade and commercial intelligence
departments, and Law felt that a younger man should try to cope with
its increasing complications. He accordingly retired, being created
a K.C.M.G.
Law was a man with a very high sense of public duty. He disliked
intensely all forms of self-advertisement, holding that anonymous
service to the State was the proper ideal for a civil servant. His
wonderfully accurate memory, his thoroughness in detail, and his grasp
of the essential points in any question made him a model head of a
Foreign Office department. Outside his work he had many and varied
private interests, and these combined with a great charm of manner
made him a delightful companion. As well as Indian history, English
local history had an unfailing interest for him, and he was an
authority on genealogy and English family annuls, on which subject he
could throw some amusing side-lights.
Sir Algernon Law married in 1885 Miss Constance Mary Bagot, daughter
of the Rev. Charles Walter Bagot, Rector of Castle Rising, by whom he
had one son. She died in 1909, and three years later he married the
Hon. Catharine Rose Hozier, daughter of the first Lord Newlands, and
sister of Lady Lamington. In 1930 he ws again left a widower.

  Birth Notes:

Birth

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Census UK 1911: 1911, Hatch Gate, Ashtead, Surrey. ¹⁰

2. Resided: 27 October 1943, The Dene, Oval Way, Gerrard's Cross, Buckinghamshire. ¹³

3. He had an estate probated on 8 February 1944 in Llandudno, Wales. ¹³

William married Constance Mary Bagot, daughter of Reverend Charles Walter Bagot and Mary Chester, on 22 December 1885 in The Oratory, Brompton, London.⁷⁶⁴ (Constance Mary Bagot was born on 27 December 1849 in The Rectory, Castle Rising, Norfolk ⁷⁶⁴ and died on 11 February 1909 in Ashtead, Surrey ^13,54.)

William next married Catherine Rose Hozier in 1912. (Catherine Rose Hozier died on 30 July 1930 in Bunchfield, Shottermill, Haslemere, Surrey ¹³.)