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William Court Gully, 1st Viscount Selby

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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WILLIAM COURT GULLY SELBY, 1sT ViscouNT (1835-1909), Speaker of the British House of Commons, was born on the 29th of August 1835, the son of Dr James Manby Gully of Malvern. His grandfather was Daniel Gully, a Jamaican coffeeplanter. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was president of the Union. He was called to the bar in 1860, went the northern circuit, and took silk in 1877. In 1880 and 1885 he unsuccessfully contested Whitehaven as a Liberal, but was elected for Carlisle in 1886, and continued to represent that constituency until his elevation to the peerage. In April 1895 he was elected Speaker by a majority of eleven votes over Sir Matthew White Ridley (cr. Viscount Ridley, 190o), the Unionist nominee. In 1905 he resigned and was raised to the peerage with the title of Viscount Selby, the name being that of his wife, Miss Elizabeth Selby (d. 1906), whom he married in 1865. He died on the 6th of November 1909, and was succeeded by his son, James William Herschell Gully (b. 1867).