Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, OM, PC, FBA (20 July 1838 – 17 August 1928) was a British statesman and author.

Also a writer and historian, Trevelyan wrote his novel The Competition Wallah in around 1864, and The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, his maternal uncle, in 1876.

[2][3] That same year he wrote his Horace at the University of Athens, a topical drama in verse, parts of which are said to have offended William Whewell and lost Trevelyan a fellowship.

[2][5] When the first Gladstone ministry was formed in December 1868, Trevelyan was appointed Civil Lord of the Admiralty, but resigned in July 1870 on a point of conscience connected with the government Education Bill.

He advocated a sweeping reform of the army, including the abolition of the purchase of commissions, and both in and out of parliament he was the foremost supporter for many years of the extension of the county franchise.

In the session of 1874 he brought forward his Household Franchise (Counties) Bill, which was lost on the second reading – it was not till ten years later that the agricultural labourer was enfranchised.

He held this office until May 1882, when, after the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish, he became Chief Secretary for Ireland[2] and sworn of the Privy Council.

In February 1886 he became Secretary for Scotland and vice-president of the Scottish Education Department[2][8] in Gladstone's third administration, but resigned in March over Irish Home Rule.