Arthur Vivian

Sir Arthur Pendarves Vivian KCB (4 June 1834 – 18 August 1926) was a British industrialist, mine-owner and Liberal politician from the Vivian family, who worked in South Wales and Cornwall, and sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1885.

Early life and education

Vivian was the third son of the industrialist John Henry Vivian and his wife Sarah Jones, daughter of Arthur Jones, of Reigate. His elder brother was Henry Vivian, 1st Baron Swansea and his uncle was Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian. He was educated at Eton College, the Freiberg Mining Academy of Freiberg, Saxony and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He left college in 1855, on his father's death, to manage the family's copper smelting and rolling works and colliery at Port Talbot. His residence in Cornwall was at Glendorgal in the parish of St Columb Minor.

Public and parliamentary service

Vivian was elected as one of two Members of Parliament for Cornwall West in 1868, a seat he held, as a Liberal, until 1885, when the constituency was divided under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

He was a Justice of the Peace (JP) and Deputy Lieutenant for Glamorgan and a JP and Deputy Warden of the Stannaries for Cornwall. He was lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Glamorgan Rifle Volunteers. Vivian was a county councillor for Glamorgan from 1889 to 1898, was High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1889 and was awarded the CB in 1894. He was Colonel commanding the South Wales Volunteer Infantry Brigade from 1895 to 1901. From 1898 to 1926 he was a county alderman for Cornwall and he was knighted in 1902.

Travels and travel-writing

He was a frequent traveller and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He published Wanderings in the Western Land (1879), describing his travels in North America, starting 14 August 1877 in St Johns, Newfoundland. In 1879 he was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. He was President of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall for 1880-81.

Family and personal life

Vivian married firstly, 3 March 1867, Lady Augusta Emily Wyndham-Quin, daughter of 3rd Earl of Dunraven. She died on 11 February 1877. He married secondly, 10 March 1880, Lady Jane Georgina Dalrymple, daughter of 10th Earl of Stair. There were children from both marriages. His second wife died on 8 June 1914. From 1885, Vivian lived at Bosahan, St Anthony in Meneage, Cornwall and died aged 92.

Cornwall Record Office holds 203 items in a deposited collection of his papers (Reference PV). Further papers, mostly relating to his Welsh business affairs at held at the West Glamorgan Archive Service. A photographic likeness of him in the 1860s is held by the National Portrait Gallery and another, with two dogs, at Community Archives Wales.