Obituary.
Lord Queenborough died at his home, Carfield Place, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire, yesterday at the age of 88. He -was well known in the yachting world and on the turf, and was president of the Royal Society of St. George and a former president of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations. The Right Hon. Sir Almeric Hugh Paget, G.B.E., first Baron Queenborough, of Queenborough, County Kent, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, was born on March 14, 1861, the sixth son of General Lord Alfred Henry Paget and a grandson of the first Marquess of Anglesey, who was severely wounded at the battle of Waterloo. His mother was Cecilia daughter of George Thomas Wyndham, of Cromer Hall, Norfolk. He was educated at Harrow and then worked for some years in the fitting shop of the Mid- land Railway Company at Derby. While still a young man he emigrated to the United States with the intention of becoming a farmer, and there he worked as a day labourer and cowboy until, having saved enough to buy a wagon and horses, he became a carrier in the far west. Later he went into business at St. Paul, where in due course he was appointed representative of some English banking interests. "Out West " he became a well known businessman, interested himself successfully in railway enterprises, and eventually moved to New York, having amassed a fortune. For a time he was president of the Chihuahua and Pacific Railroad. Having returned to England Paget stood for Cambridge in the General Election of 1906, but without success. In January, 1910, however, he contested the constituency again and was returned as its Unionist member. The year after he became Parliamentary Provincial Whip for the Eastern and Home Counties. In 1918 be resigned his seat and was raised to the peerage. Lord Queenborough continued to take an active part in politics and was president of the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations from 1928 to 1929 and again in 1940 and 1941. After having been treasurer for 16 years of the League of Nations Union he resigned in 1936 on the grounds that the league was "no longer a real League of Nations," and that he did not believe that it could function as an effective instrument for peace. His two great sporting interests were the turf - his horse St. Louis won the 2,000 Guineas in 1922-and yacht racing; for many years he was vice-commodore of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, and he .was a member of the council of The Yacht Racing Association. One of his daughters, Miss Dorothy Paget, is a well known race-horse owner. Lord Queenborough, who was created a G.B.E. in 1926 and was a Knight of Justice of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, was twice married. His first wife was Pauline, daughter of Mr. William C. Whitney, Secretary of the United States Navy, whom he married in 1895. She died in 1916 and he married in 1921 Edith, daughter of Mr. William Starr Miller, of New York. She died in 1933. By his first marriage he had two daughters and by his second, three, all of whom survive him. He had no son and the peerage therefore becomes extinct.
Almeric Hugh Paget was educated at Harrow. Afterwards he worked in the shops of the Midland Railway, at Derby, England, In 1881 he went to America and engaged in farming and ranching in the Western States for several years. He then undertook commercial life in St. Paul, Minn., and New York City, becoming very successful. He was a founder of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company of Canada.
In 1902 Mr. Paget returned to England and since then has been much engaged in politics. He stood as Unionist candidate for Parliament for Cambridge in the general election of 1908, but was defeated. In 1910 he defeated his former opponent, and still (1911) remains a member of Parliament for Cambridge Borough. He was High Sheriff for the County of Suffolk in 1909.He is identified with the Central Land Association and the Tariff Reform League, being on the Executive Committee of both organizations, and he is president of the Eastern Provincial Division of the National Union of Conservative Associations.
Following the example of his father, Mr. Paget makes yachting his principal diversion. For several years he raced with considerable success the Herreshoff 30-footer one-design Pollywog at Newport, and since his return to England he has successively owned and raced both in English and Mediterranean waters, the South Coast one-design boats Caprice, Cuckoo II, Gracie, and the 15-meter Maroona, carrying off the first prize in the open handicap race from Cannes to Monte Carlo in 1902, and the Czar's prize at Cowes, in 1909.
He is a member of the Carlton, Turf, Garrick and other London clubs and is Rear-Commodore of the Royal Thames Yacht Club, of which his father was Commodore for many years.
