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Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone, GCB, GCMG, GBE (February 18, 1854 - March 6, 1930) was a British Liberal politician and statesman. The youngest son of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, he was born in Downing Street where his father was living at the time as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was educated at Eton and University College, Oxford. He lectured in History at Keble College, Oxford, for three years before becoming private secretary to his father in 1880. That same year, having unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Middlesex, he was elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Leeds, and in the 1885 General Election was returned to Parliament for West Leeds.

Having been a junior Lord of the Treasury in 1881, Gladstone became Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Works in 1885, and the following year served for a brief period as Financial Secretary to the War Office. In 1892, on his father's return to power, he was made Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, and two years later he became First Commissioner of Works in Lord Rosebery's government. He became the Liberals' Chief Whip in 1899, and returned to office in 1905 when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman appointed him Home Secretary. Five years later, he was appointed the first Governor-General of the Union of South Africa as well as the High Commissioner there, being appointed GCMG and created Viscount Gladstone, of the County of Lanark.

After his return from South Africa in 1914, Lord Gladstone was appointed GCB, and spent much of the First World War being involved with various charities and charitable organizations, including the War Refugees Committee, the South African Hospital Fund, and the South African Ambulance in France. He was appointed GBE in 1917.

Lord Gladstone died aged 70 at his Ware home, and was buried in the town's Little Munden Church. With no children, his title became extinct at his death.


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(none) | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Governor-General of South Africa
1910–1914 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
The Viscount Buxton

Last updated: 05-23-2005 01:36:14