Viscount Torrington

A carte-de-visite portrait of the colonial administrator and royal courtier George Byng, 7th Viscount Torrington (1811-1884).

The son of Vice-Admiral George Byng, 6th Viscount Torrington, he succeeded his father in the viscountcy in 1831 at the age of eighteen.

In 1847 he was appointed Governor of Ceylon, a post he held until 1850. He is remembered there for his harsh suppression of the 1848 civil uprising. He later served as a Permanent Lord-in-Waiting to the Prince Consort from 1853 to 1859 and to Queen Victoria from 1859 to 1884.

He died on 27 April 1884, aged 71. He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his nephew, George.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London in 1860.