Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bury (Viscount), William Coutts Keppel
BURY (Viscount), The Right Hon. William Coutts Keppel, Lord Ashford, K.C.M.G., called by courtesy Viscount Bury, son of the Earl of Albemarle, born in 1832, and educated at Eton; entered the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1849, and was private secretary to Lord John Russell in 1850–51. He afterwards went to India as aide-de-camp to the late Lord F. Fitz-Clarence, but returned home on sick leave, and retired from the army. In Dec., 1854, he was nominated Civil Secretary and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs for the province of Canada; entered Parliament in 1857, was appointed Treasurer of the Royal Household on the return of Lord Palmerston to office in 1859; and first elected M.P. for Norwich, as a Liberal, in April, 1857. On taking office in 1859, his re-election was declared void. In Nov., 1860, he was elected for the Wick district of burghs, which he ceased to represent at the general election of 1865, when he was a defeated candidate for Dover. Lord Bury, who is married to a daughter of Sir Alan N. M'Nab., Bart., is the author of "The Exodus of the Western Nations," "A Report on the Condition of the Indians of British North America," and other political and historical papers. He has taken an active part in promoting the Volunteer movement, is Lieut.-Colonel of the Civil Service regiment of Volunteers, and was sworn a Privy Councillor in 1859. In 1868 he was elected M.P. for Berwick-on-Tweed, but he was defeated at the general election of Feb., 1874. He unsuccessfully contested Stroud in Feb., 1875, when he polled 2577 votes, 2783 being recorded for Mr. Marling, the Liberal candidate. He was summoned to the House of Peers in his father's barony of Ashford in 1876, and was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War in succession to Lord Cadogan in March, 1878. He held that office until the Conservatives went out of office in 1880. Lord Bury joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1879.