Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone, GCB, GCMG, GBE, PC (18 February 1854 – 6 March, 1930) was a British Liberal statesman. The youngest son of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and the younger brother of Henry Neville 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 Leeds West.

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 in 1903 he negotiated on behalf of the Liberals an electoral pact with the Labour Representation Committee.

Gladstone returned to office in 1905 when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman appointed him Home Secretary. Because of his position as a Cabinet Minister he was automatically made a member of the King's Privy Council for the United Kingdom. His tenure as Home Secretary was not widely considered a great success and notably included the inept handling of a (somewhat controversial) parade by Catholics through the streets of London. This incident disturbed both the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, and King Edward VII, and directly led to his leaving the position of Home Secretary after five years to become 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 in 1910. This was the effective end of the political career of the only offspring of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone who became seriously involved in politics, let alone rose to the its highest levels.

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 76 at his Ware home, and was buried in the town's Little Munden Church. With no children, his title became extinct at his death.----Further Reading

Ian Machin, entry in "Dictionary of Liberal Biography", Brack et al (eds.) Politico's, 1998