George Byng, 7th Viscount Torrington (9 September 1812 – 27 April 1884), was a British colonial administrator and courtier.
Family Torrington was the son of Vice-Admiral George Byng, 6th Viscount Torrington (1768–1831).Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 100th Edn, London, 1953.
He succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1831 at the age of eighteen. On 19 March 1833 he married Mary Anne, only daughter of Sir John Astley, 1st Baronet. Their only daughter, Frances Elizabeth, died on 2 September 1853. Lady Torrington died on 26 January 1885.
Career
In 1847 he was appointed Governor of Ceylon, a post he held until 1850. There he is known for his harsh suppression of the 1848 civil uprising.Katherine Prior, ‘Anderson, Sir George William (1791–1857)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 He later served as a Permanent Lord-in-waiting to Albert, Prince Consort from 1853 to 1859 and to Queen Victoria from 1859 to 1884.
He served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Kent Light Infantry Militia (later the 3rd and 4th Battalions, Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)) in the 1850s, was appointed as the regiment's Honorary Colonel in 1869.Army List, various dates.
He was the companion of Andalusia Molesworth after she became a widow. When she died she left her fortune to Byng's nephew and heir as she was estranged from her ex-husband's family.
Death and burial He died on 27 April 1884, at the age of 71. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Lawrence's Church, Mereworth, Kent, in the United Kingdom.
Succession He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his nephew George Byng, 8th Viscount Torrington.
Arms
References
Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
www.thepeerage.com