James Harris, 5th Earl of Malmesbury

James Edward Harris, 5th Earl of Malmesbury DL (18 December 1872 – 12 June 1950), styled Viscount FitzHarris from 1889 to 1899, was a British peer and conservative politician.

He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the part-time 3rd (Hampshire Militia) Battalion, Hampshire Regiment, on 18 December 1895 and was promoted to Captain on 3 May 1899,[1][2] before resigning on 24 December 1902;[3] He was Assistant Private Secretary (unpaid) to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Onslow, in 1901, and a member of the London County Council from 1904 to 1905.

[1] He had retained his links with the 3rd Hampshires, and the battalion was carrying out its annual training on his estate at Christchurch, Dorset, when World War I broke out in August 1914.

[1] Between 1922 and 1924 he served as a Lord-in-waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) under Bonar Law and then Stanley Baldwin.

They had two children:[1] Lord Malmesbury died in June 1950, aged 77, and was succeeded in the earldom by his only son William.