George Armitstead, 1st Baron Armitstead

George Armitstead, 1st Baron Armitstead (28 February 1824 in Riga, Latvia – 7 December 1915 in London) was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal politician.

Armitstead was born on 28 February 1824 at Riga, the second son of an English jute merchant living in Latvia. His grandfather was the vicar of Easingwold in East Yorkshire and his great-grandfather was a farmer in Austwick. He was educated in Wiesbaden and Heidelberg, Germany.

He came to Dundee in 1843 and established the George Armitstead & Co shipping line and jute business in which he was senior partner.

Armitstead was Member of Parliament for Dundee between 1868 and 1873 and from 1880 to 1885. He held the office of Justice of the Peace (JP) and of Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Forfarshire and Dundee. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (F.R.G.S.).

He donated £5,000 to the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund and shortly afterwards was created Baron Armitstead, of Castlehill in the City of Dundee, on 19 July 1906, by Arthur Balfour, having refused an offer in 1893 by his great friend William Ewart Gladstone. This friendship was significant for both of them, but more comfortable than influential, which is probably why it worked so well. He paid for Gladstone's holidays abroad in Biarritz and Cannes and often accompanied him almost as a paid companion except that Armitstead foot the bill. He is mentioned frequently in Gladstone's diary but without elaboration and was a pallbearer at Gladstone's funeral.

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