Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough

The Right Honourable The Earl of Bessborough GCMG KStJ PC
14th Governor General of Canada
In office 4 April 1931 – 2 November 1935
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	Canadian   • R. B. Bennett   • W. L. M. King British   • Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by	The Earl of Willingdon
Succeeded by	The Lord Tweedsmuir
Personal details
Born	(1880-10-27)27 October 1880 London, England
Died	10 March 1956(1956-03-10) (aged 75) Stoughton, Sussex, England
Spouse	Roberte Poupart de Neuflize
Children	Frederick and Moyra, et alia
Parent(s)	Edward Ponsonby, 8th Earl of Bessborough Blanche Vere Guest
Profession	Diplomat, businessman, and parliamentarian

Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough, GCMG, KStJ, PC (27 October 1880 – 10 March 1956), was an Anglo-Irish businessman and politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the fourteenth since Canadian Confederation.

Born and educated in England into 'the Ascendancy', the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, he graduated with a law degree from Cambridge University. In 1910 he became a member of the London County Council as a member of the British House of Commons. Upon the death of his grandfather ten years later, Ponsonby succeeded as Earl of Bessborough and took his seat in the House of Lords. In 1931 he was appointed as Governor-General by King George V, on the recommendation of British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, to replace The Earl of Willingdon as viceroy. He occupied the post until succeeded by the Lord Tweedsmuir in 1935. Lord Bessborough is remembered for promoting new communication technologies as well as giving support to Canadians during the Great Depression.

After the end of his viceregal tenure, he returned to London, where he continued in business and worked with the Dominions Office and the Foreign Office before his death in March 1956.

The 9th Lord Bessborough was the last Earl of Bessborough to own Bessborough House, the Ponsonby family's ancestral seat near the village of Piltown in the south of County Kilkenny in Ireland. The country house was primarily built in the 1740s for the 1st Earl. It was gutted by fire during the Irish Civil War in February 1923. The 9th Lord Bessborough had the house rebuilt in the late 1920s. However, he sold the house in the late 1930s as he primarily lived in Britain. The house now forms the central part of Kildalton Agricultural College.