George William Spencer Lyttelton CB FRGS (12 June 1847 – 5 December 1913) was an English civil servant from the Lyttelton family who acted as private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone during three of his terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was also one of eleven members of the Lyttelton family to play first-class cricket; primarily for Cambridge University during his time studying there. Early life and cricket career George William Spencer Lyttelton was born in Westminster, London on 12 June 1847, the fourth son of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton and his first wife Mary Glynne. Having studied at Eton College, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 1869 and received his Master of Arts (M.A.) in 1874. He played a number of cricket matches for Eton during his time at the school, including the annual fixture against Harrow in each of 1863, 1864 and 1865. In his first of these contests, he claimed four wickets in Harrow's only batting innings of a drawn match, and he scored a half-century in the second, but could not prevent Eton losing by an innings that year. In both of these contests, he played alongside his older brother Neville. In his final year at Eton, he was the captain of the cricket team. In the match against Harrow that year, in which Lyttelton claimed three wickets, his side once again lost by an innings. He made his first-class debut during his first year at Cambridge; appearing against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in May 1866. He claimed a wicket in each innings, and scored 23 runs in his only appearance at the crease. Facing Cambridgeshire later that month, he took seven wickets in the first innings, conceding 33 runs; the best bowling figures of his career. He collected three further wickets in the second innings to complete the only ten wicket haul of his career. He received his blue that year by appearing in the match against Oxford. He made scores of one and three with the bat, and took three tail-end wickets in a match which Cambridge lost by 12 runs. Despite his bowling achievements in 1866, in which he claimed 16 wickets for Cambridge at an average of 14.75, he was used as wicket-keeper for his first appearance in the subsequent year, taking five stumpings against the MCC.