Researching George Palmer

Palmer was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of George H. Palmer and Elizabeth Thompson, and was educated in Yarmouth. He was a railway employee in Halifax and later worked as a train dispatcher in Manitoba. In 1905, he married May Slocomb. Palmer was elected mayor of Dauphin in 1925.

He was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1920 provincial election, as a Labour candidate in the constituency of Dauphin. He defeated incumbent Liberal William J. Harrington by 422 votes. The Labour Party and its allies jumped from one seat to eleven in this election, and Palmer served with the labour group in parliament for the next two years.

He was defeated in the 1922 election, losing to Liberal Archibald Esplen by 83 votes.

Palmer attempted to return to the legislature in the 1927 provincial election. This time, he ran as Progressive supporting John Bracken's government. He finished second to Conservative Robert Ferguson.

He died in Winnipeg at the age of 65.

He was born in Reading, the son of George Palmer and his wife, Elizabeth Sarah, the daughter of Robert Meteyard. Like his father, George William Palmer served as mayor of Reading and represented the town in parliament. He served as Liberal Member of Parliament for the Reading borough constituency from 1892 until his defeat at the 1895 general election. He regained the seat at a by-election in 1898, and held it until he resigned from Parliament in 1904, due to advancing deafness.

He received the honorary Freedom of the Borough of Reading on 3 December 1902, for valuable public service rendered to the town. He was only the second person to receive this honour, the first being his father.

His country estate was Marlston House in Bucklebury.

Palmer was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1861); while in Congress he was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Thirty-sixth Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1860, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Baltimore in 1864. He was appointed United States Consul to Crete by President Abraham Lincoln and was United States judge on the International Court for Suppression of Slave Trade on the West Coast of Africa from 1866 to 1870, when he resigned. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Clinton Co.) in 1885 and 1886. He engaged in iron manufacturing at Clinton, New York. He died in Plattsburgh in 1916; interment was in Riverside Cemetery.

George William Palmer was a nephew of John Palmer, a U.S. Representative from New York, and a cousin of William Elisha Haynes, a U.S. Representative from Ohio.

Palmer was the eldest son of Michael Palmer of Berryfield Hall, Wiltshire, and his wife Mary Ann, daughter of Joshua Bates of Halifax, Yorkshire. He was educated at Harrow School and abroad.

He married in 1881 Louie Madeleine, daughter of William Gouldsmith of Rodwell Hall, Trowbridge, Wiltshire. She died in 1925. The couple had one daughter and three sons, one of whom died on active service in World War I.

In 1903–1904, Palmer was High Sheriff of Wiltshire.

Palmer was an officer in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, awarded the TD in 1909, and rose to become Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the regiment from 1910 to 1915. In World War I he commanded the 10th Mounted Brigade from 1915 to 1916 and retired at the rank of honorary Brigadier-General. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1918 New Year Honours.

At the 1918 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Westbury in Wiltshire, having stood as a Coalition Conservative. Palmer had previously fought the Westbury seat unsuccessfully both at the December 1910 general election and at a by-election in 1911, but in 1918 the strength of the "coalition coupon" was enough to wrest the seat by a large margin from the sitting Liberal Party MP Geoffrey Howard.

The Liberals retook Westbury at the 1922 election, and Palmer did not stand for Parliament again. He died in 1932 aged 75.

Palmer made his first-class debut for Leicestershire against Worcestershire in the 1938 County Championship at Park Road, Loughborough. He made four further first-class appearances for the county, the last of which came against Hampshire in the 1939 County Championship. In his five matches, he took 12 wickets at an average of 26.66, with best figures of 3/36. With the bat he scored 31 runs at an average of 6.20, with a high score of 14 not out.

His father John also played first-class cricket.

Palmer made his debut in first-class cricket when he was selected to play for Warwickshire in the County Championship against Glamorgan at Edgbaston. He made eight more appearances in that season, playing his final match for Warwickshire against Leicestershire. He bowled with little success in his nine first-class matches, taking 8 wickets at an expensive average of 56.25, with best figures of 2/21. As a batsman, he scored 87 runs in ten innings, with a high score of 20.

He died at Higham on the Hill in Leicestershire on 1 June 1962.