Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston, GBE (October 21, 1851) - (January 15, 1926) was a British Conservative statesman and politician. Born in Hayes, Kent, he was educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, before being called to the bar in 1875. That same year he took the additional surname of Douglas under royal licence in accordance with a relative's will.
In 1880, Akers-Douglas was returned to the House of Commons as Conservative representative for the Eastern Division of Kent, and five years later he exchanged this seat for that of the St Augustine's Division in the same county. In 1883 he was appointed whip to the Conservatives, and in 1885 he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, and retained this post (with a short interval in 1886 when Gladstone returned to power) for the next seven years.
In 1895, after another brief spell as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, Akers-Douglas was appointed First Commissioner of Works, with a seat in the Cabinet. Seven years later, when Arthur Balfour became Prime Minister, he became Home Secretary, and resigned four years later when the Liberals won the 1906 General Election. In 1911, he was created Viscount Chilston, of Boughton Malherbe in the County of Kent, and Baron Douglas of Baads, of Baads in the County of Midlothian.
During the First World War, Lord Chilston was Chief County Director for the British Red Cross Society, in recognition of which he was appointed GBE in 1920. He died six years later at his London home and was buried at Boughton Malherbe, Kent.
