GREY, ALBERT HENRY GEORGE, 4TH EARL (1851 1917), British administrator, the son of General Charles Grey, Queen Victoria's private secretary, and grandson of the 2nd earl, the prime minister, was born on Nov. 20, 1851 ; he was educated at Harrow and at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first class in law and history in 1873. As his uncle, the 3rd earl, had no children, Albert Grey was the heir-presumptive to the earldom. He sat in parliament as a Liberal, first for South Northumberland, and then for the Tyneside Division, from 188o to 1886. He was an enthusiastic social reformer, and a whole hearted imperialist. He was one of the 93 dissentient Liberals who by voting against the Liberal Government decided the fate of the Home Rule bill of 1886. He lost his seat in the ensuing general election and did not reappear in parliament till he suc ceeded his uncle in the earldom in 1894. The interval had been largely filled with travel—chiefly along the by-ways of the British empire. He was appointed in 1895, after the Jameson raid, ad ministrator of Rhodesia in succession to Dr. Jameson. There he became a close friend and ardent admirer of Cecil Rhodes, and on returning to England, he joined, in 1899, the board of the Chartered Company.
He went as governor-general to Canada in 1904, and his term of office was twice prolonged, until Oct. 1911. After his return to public life in England, he devoted himself to propaganda in favour of imperial federation and proportional epresentation. He showed much interest in agriculture and endeavoured to assist licensing reform by the foundation of the Public House Trust. He died at Howick, Northumberland, on Aug. 29, 1917, leaving, by his wife Alice Holford, a son who succeeded him in the earldom.
See Harold Beebie, Albert, fourth Earl Grey, a last word (1917) .