Charles Robert Grey was born in 1879, the only son of Albert, 4th Earl Grey, and his wife, Alice, daughter of Robert Herford, of Westonbirt. Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Grey briefly served in the army before his employment as assistant private secretary to Lord Milner, High Commissioner for South Africa, in 1904. In 1906, he married Lady Mabel Palmer, only daughter of Lord Selborne. After unsuccessfully standing for Parliament in the Unionist interest in Bradford during the 1910 General Election, Grey served as a member of the Northumberland Fusiliers in France throughout the First World War. In 1917, he succeeded to the earldom after the death of his father, confining his primary interests to his estate and various business investments. Unlike his predecessors, Grey was never as active in his political life, being only an infrequent speaker in the House of Lords. His greatest achievement, however, was his role in the administration and reform of the Church of England. Appointed as a member of the House of Laity in the newly-formed Church Assembly in 1919 and chairman of the Central Board of Finance in 1925, Grey used his shrewd business sense to strengthen the foundations of the Church, introducing a number of proposals including the quota system and actively campaigning for the establishment of training colleges for teachers in church schools and pensions for clergymen and their dependents. His influential role in the Church of England was officially recognised with his appointment as chairman of the House of Laity in 1946. In later life, Grey suffered the personal tragedies of his wife's death in 1958 and his own partial blindness. He died in 1963.
From the guide to the Papers of Charles Robert, 5th Earl Grey, 1904-1941, (Repository Unknown)
