Thomas Grenville

Thomas Grenville PC ( * December 31, 1755, † December 17, 1846 in Piccadilly, London ) was a British politician, diplomat and bibliophile. From 1806 to 1807, he was First Lord of the Admiralty.

Life

His father was George Grenville, his older brother George Nugent -Temple - Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, his younger brother, William Wyndham Grenville and his uncle of the same sailor.

Grenville was lieutenant in 1779. From 1780 to 1790 he was a member of Parliament. In 1806 he became President of the Board of Control and was from 1806 to 1807 First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1798 he was appointed a member of the Privy Council.

In a secret diplomatic Misson to Berlin aboard HMS Proserpine, he was stranded in 1799 before Scharhörn and found refuge in the tower of Neuwerk before he was able to travel later on Cuxhaven on.

In the 1820s he began to collect books. Until his death, there were 20,240 volumes, with 16,000 titles and 59 manuscripts. He bequeathed his collection of books to the British Museum, which they built in 1847. It is now housed in the British Library at King's Library Tower.