Walter Stafford Northcote, 2nd Earl of Iddesleigh CB (7 August 1845 – 26 May 1927) was an English landowner, peer, civil servant, and author, a member of the House of Lords from 1887 until his death.[1]
The son of Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh and Cecilia Frances Farrer, Northcote was Commissioner, deputy-chairman, and chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue between 1877 and 1892. In 1887 he succeeded his father in the recently-created peerages of Viscount Saint Cyres and Earl of Iddesleigh.[2] In his youth his was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford.[3]
Walter worked and promoted from commissioner in 1877 to become department chairman of the Inland Revenue in 1886, then chairman from 1892.[3] He was also a Justice of the Peace for Devon and in 1887 was appointed as a Companion of the Order of the Bath.[2][3]
Iddesleigh, Alberta, was named in his honour.[4]
On 23 September 1868 Northcote married Elizabeth Lucy Meysey-Thompson, a daughter of Sir Harry Stephen Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baronet, and Elizabeth Anne Croft.[2] They had a son and three daughters:
The second Earl of Iddesleigh died on 26 May 1927, at the age of 81. As his only son had died childless the year before, he was succeeded by a nephew, Henry Stafford Northcote, 3rd Earl of Iddesleigh (1901–1970).[2]