William Lowther JP DL (14 December 1821 – 23 January 1912) was a British diplomat and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1892.
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Early life
Lowther was the third, but second surviving, son of the Hon. Henry Cecil Lowther and his wife Lady Lucy Eleanor. Among his siblings were brother Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale and sister Augusta Mary Lowther (wife of Hon. Gerard Noel, a son of Charles Noel, 1st Earl of Gainsborough). His father, a longtime MP for Westmorland, was Father of the House of Commons from 1862 until his death in 1867.
His paternal grandparents were William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale and the former Lady Augusta Fane (eldest daughter of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland and, his first wife, Augusta Bertie, a granddaughter of Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven). His maternal grandparents were Philip Sherard, 5th Earl of Harborough and the former Eleanor Monckton (second daughter and co-heiress of Col. Hon. John Monckton of Fineshade Abbey, eldest son, by his second wife, of John Monckton, 1st Viscount Galway).
He was educated privately and at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Career
Lowther entered the diplomatic service, and was an unpaid Attaché to the British embassy in Berlin from 1841 to 1846 and then a paid Attaché at the Berlin Embassy from 1846 to 1852. He was Secretary of the Legation at Naples from 1852 to 1858, at St Petersburg from 1858 to 1859 and at Berlin from 1859 to 1861. He was Secretary of the Embassy at Berlin from 1861 to 1867 and finally Minister to Argentina at Buenos Aires from 1867 to 1868.