William Lygon, 8th Earl Beauchamp, OStJ, JP, DL (3 July 1903 – 3 January 1979), styled as Viscount Elmley until 1938, was a politician in the United Kingdom. The eldest son of the controversial William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp, sometime leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) for East Norfolk before in 1938 inheriting his father's seat in the House of Lords. He remained a member there until his death.
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Political career
Standing as a Liberal, Lygon was elected as Member of Parliament for East Norfolk at the 1929 general election. At the 1931 general election, when the Liberal Party split over participation in Ramsay MacDonald's National Government, he stood and was elected in the interest of the breakaway Liberal National grouping (known as National Liberal after 1948). This faction aligned itself with the National Government – even after the official Liberals (termed "Samuelites" after their leader Herbert Samuel) crossed the floor into opposition in 1932 – and eventually (in 1968) merged with the Conservative Party.
Lygon, known in the House of Commons by his courtesy title of Viscount Elmley, retained his seat as a Liberal National in the 1935 general election. He succeeded to the peerage as the Earl Beauchamp on his father's death in 1938. At his own death without male issue in 1979, his peerages became extinct.