Eustace Balfour

Colonel Eustace James Anthony Balfour (8 June 1854 – 14 February 1911) was a London-based Scottish architect. The brother of one British Prime Minister and nephew of another, his career was built on family connections. His mother was the daughter of a Marquess, and his wife Frances, a noted suffragist, was the daughter of a Duke. Frances's sister in-law was Princess Louise, daughter of the reigning Queen Victoria. Balfour's initial work was on English and Scottish country houses, but he won only one major commission in this field. However, his appointment as surveyor of the Grosvenor Estate in London gave him architectural control over much of Mayfair and Belgravia in the 1890s and 1900s, and the opportunity to design many buildings himself. Balfour was a senior officer of the Volunteer Force in London. His outspokenness on military matters was a factor in his appointment as an aide-de-camp to King Edward VII. A fastidious and somewhat withdrawn individual, Balfour succumbed to alcoholism in his fifties. This brought about his early death.