#2388, George EDGCUMBE

 At the general election in June 1826 George was elected as MP for the rotten borough of Plympton Earle on his father's interest.  However, he resigned his seat in December that year, by taking the sinecure of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.  

In 1835 George was the Secretary of Legation at the British Legation in Florence.  In his wife's memoir she says "Mr Edgcumbe was frequently obliged, even during the first weeks of our married life, to go into Florence in order to sign the Passports of English travellers on their way through Tuscany; for, at that time, no one could move in Italy, nor indeed in any part of the Continent of Europe without a properly vised Passport.

In the month of May 1837 George was appointed Secretary of Legation to the Swiss Confederation, with one year's Leave of Absence before repairing to his new post.  That year having been spent in England George and his family arrived in Berne in May 1838 on the staff of the British Minister, Mr. David Morier.  It turned out to be an uneventful posting (perhaps even boring with an unexpected lack of society), with the possible exception of an audience with The Grand Duchess Constantine of Russia.  On 11th of October 1838 George was appointed Secretary of Legation to Hanover with instructions to take up the role as soon as possible.  He was sad to be moving on so soon and to be leaving his newly cared-for garden but recognised that such disadvantages were more than outweighed by the advantages of a more important posting.