Politician. He was a British politician, who held many appointed and elected career posts including a Member of Parliament, 11th Governor General of Canada, and a Cabinet member. Born Victor Christian William Cavendish, the oldest son in the old noble family of Cavendish, he was educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1891 the same year as his father's death. His father was William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire. After graduation, he studied law and accounting in preparation to becoming a politician and a farmer. Becoming the youngest British Member of Parliament at the time, he entered politics at age 23 as an unopposed candidate, representing his late father's district of West Derbyshire. On July 30, 1892, he married Lady Evelyn Petty-Fitzmaurice, the elder daughter of Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, Governor General of Canada from 1883 to 1889. The couple had two sons and five daughters. He was treasurer of the royal household from 1900 to 1903, and financial secretary to the treasury from 1903 to 1905. He served in various government posts both prior and after his rise to peerage. After his uncle, John Spencer Cavendish's death, he inherited his uncle's peerage of Duke of Devonshire in 1908, thus becoming a member of the House of Lords. He served as mayor of Eastbourne and Chesterfield. During World War I, he served as Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1915 to 1916. His youngest brother, Lord John Spencer Cavendish, was killed in World War I in 1914. In 1916 he was appointed Governor General of Canada by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, serving the 8th Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden. Although his father-in-law supported the appointment, his wife did not want to leave England, and Canadians were upset that his appointment was done without the advice of Borden. After arriving to Canadian, he supported the development of agriculture, established the Duke of Devonshire Trophy for the Ottawa Horticultural Society and encouraged farmers to take leadership role in global agricultural research. His past political experience as a Member of Parliament, both in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, proved to be worthy, gaining him political allies as well as friends. He was the last Governor General of Canada to maintain an entirely British household. In 1917 his daughter Maud was the first daughter of a Governor General to be married in Ottawa. His daughter Dorothy returned in London in 1920 to marry Harold MacMillian, who would serve as British Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963. As Governor General, he traveled throughout the nation, undertaking two official tours of western Canada and three tours of eastern Canada. Although he loathed making public speeches, especially in French, he participated in numerous formal public ceremonies. In 1916, during his first tour of Quebec he received an honorary degree from McGill University. Traveling to the United States in 1918, he and his wife were the guests of President Woodrow Wilson at the White House. He acted as mediator between the British and Canadian government concerning the question of whether British titles and honors should be bestowed by the King of England on Canadians, which was eventually stopped. The 1920 sale and demolition of his London residence inspired the Great War poet Siegfried Sassoon to pen, "Monody on the Demolition of Devonshire House." After Borden resigned as Prime Minister of Canada for health reasons in 1920, he left Canada in 1921. Returning to England, he became Colonial Secretary from 1922 to 1923 in the cabinet of Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law, the only British Prime Minister born in Canada. Leaving this appointment, he retired from politics. He was then chairman of the British Empire Exhibition from 1924 to 1925. In 1925, he suffered from a stroke with complications of dysphasia causing bursts of anger, which was unlike his prior personality. He died thirteen years later.