Editing Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey (section)

==Youth, education, and early career==

[[File:Albert Grey, photographed at Harrow.jpg|thumb|At [[Harrow School|Harrow]]]]
[[File:Shakespeare Society, Cambridge, 1873 cropped.jpg|thumb|Grey in 1873 (front row, second from right), Shakespeare Society, [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]]]Grey was the younger and only surviving son of [[Charles Grey (British Army officer)|General Sir Charles Grey]]—a younger son of former British prime minister [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|the second Earl Grey]] and later the [[private secretary]] to [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]] and later still to [[Queen Victoria]]—and his wife, Caroline Eliza Farquhar, eldest daughter of [[Farquhar baronets|Sir Thomas Harvie Farquhar, Bt]]. He was born at Cadogan House, Middlesex. Many members of the family had enjoyed successful political careers based on reform, including to colonial policies; Grey's grandfather, while prime minister, championed the [[Reform Act 1832]] and in 1846, Grey's uncle, the [[Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey|third Earl Grey]], as [[Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]] during the first ministry of [[Lord John Russell]], was the first to suggest that colonies should be self-sustaining and governed for the benefit of their inhabitants, instead of for the benefit of the United Kingdom.<ref name=GG>{{cite web| url=http://www.gg.ca/document.aspx?id=55| last=Office of the Governor General of Canada| author-link=Governor General of Canada| title=The Governor General > Former Governors General > Earl Grey| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=13 December 2010}}</ref>

Grey was educated at [[Harrow School]] and then [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], where he studied history and law.<ref name=GG /><ref>{{acad|id=GRY870AH|name=Grey, Albert Henry George}}</ref> After graduating in 1873, Grey became private secretary to [[Henry Bartle Frere|Sir Henry Bartle Frere]] and, as Frere was a member of the [[Council of India]], Grey accompanied [[Edward VII|Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales]], on his tour of [[British Raj|India]]. In 1877, Grey married [[Alice Grey, Countess Grey|Alice Holford]], daughter of [[Robert Stayner Holford]], the Member of Parliament for East Gloucestershire. Together, they had five children, one of whom died in early childhood.<ref name=GG />