Kenneth D. Brown - The Unknown Gladstone: The Life of Herbert Gladstone, 1854-1930

Kenneth D. Brown is Professor Emeritus of History at Queens University Belfast. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and author of The English Labour Movement 17001951 (1982); A Social History of the Nonconformist Ministry in England and Wales 18001939 (1988) and The British Toy Business (1996).

Herbert Gladstone, youngest son of William Ewart Gladstone, the political colossus who bestrode the late nineteenth century, has languished in the shadow of his father, although he attained one of the great offices of state, the Home Secretaryship, in 1906. Herbert had exercised considerable political influence over the emergence of Irish Home Rule, and his crucial work as Chief Whip in consolidating and revitalising the Liberal Party culminated in the Liberal electoral triumph of 1906. He served as the first Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, and here the author of this book defends Herbert against the criticism that he supported a government that paved the way for apartheid. This study, based as it is on an exceptionally wide range of sources, is a particularly fine type of political biography.

Professor David William Bebbington,
University of Stirling

THE UNKNOWN
GLADSTONE

The Life of Herbert Gladstone,
18541930

K ENNETH D. B ROWN

Published in 2018 by

I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd

London New York

www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2018 Kenneth D. Brown

The right of Kenneth D. Brown to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

Library of Victorian Studies 11

ISBN: 978 1 78831 024 6

eISBN: 978 1 78672 298 0

ePDF: 978 1 78673 298 9

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been several years in the making and I have been much aided by the many archivists who guided me with unfailing courtesy through the various documents listed in the bibliography. Quotations from the Glynne-Gladstone papers appear by kind permission of Mr Charles Gladstone; from the diary of the first Lord Ponsonby by permission of Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede; from the diaries of Margot Asquith by permission of Christopher Osborn; from the Trevelyan and Runciman Papers by permission of the Librarian, Robinson Library, University of Newcastle; from the C.P. Scott Diary by permission of the University of Manchester Library; from the Crewe and Hardinge papers by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; from the archives of the National Liberal Club by permission of Bristol University Special Collections; from the Milner papers by permission of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford; from the Herbert and Margot Asquith, Bryce, Harcourt, Morley, Murray, Ponsonby and Selborne papers by permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. I apologise if I have failed to acknowledge other copyright holders.

I am also indebted to the following: the warden and staff who make working and staying at the Gladstone Library such a delightful experience; Professor David Bebbington of Stirling University who read the entire manuscript and offered innumerable helpful suggestions from his unrivalled knowledge of the Gladstones; Professor Ritchie Ovendale, formerly of the University of Aberystwyth, who kindly read the chapter on South Africa; Dr Robin Darwall-Smith for directing me to important material in the archives of University College; and to Dr Andrew Brown of Queens University for help with the technical matters that persistently baffle me.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF PLATES

Plate 1 Hawarden Castle. Credit: Alamy.

Plate 2 Parliamentary tennis match. Credit: Getty Images.

Plate 3 Herbert Gladstone MP. Credit: Alamy.

Plate 4 A Gladstone family group. Credit: National Portrait Gallery.

Plate 5 Margot Tennant. Credit: Victoria and Albert Museum.

Plate 6 Herbert Gladstone as home secretary. Credit: Getty Images.

Plate 7 The Campbell-Bannerman Cabinet in 1906. Credit: Alamy.

Plate 8 The London Eucharistic Procession of 1908. Public Domain.

Plate 9 Suffragette leaflet. Public Domain.

Plate 10 Herbert Gladstone in court. Credit: Alamy.

Plate 11 Dorothy Gladstone. Credit: Alamy.

Plate 12 The Rand Strike. Public Domain.

Plate 13 Belgian refugees in London. Public Domain.

Plate 14 Little Munden church and graveyard. Public Domain.

CHAPTER 1

Hawarden to Westminster

In the flickering light the fathers shadow, distorted by the presence on his back of an excited 11-year-old, lay dark and heavy over the cradle in which lay his newest-born son, peacefully sleeping, the light occasionally glimmering on his barely discernible ruddy gold hair. It was a shadow which the baby, soon to be christened Herbert John, was never fully to escape even though his future was to include stints as under-secretary for Ireland, commissioner of works, chief Liberal whip, home secretary, and first governor-general of South Africa. This was by most standards an impressive record until set against that of the father, William Ewart Gladstone, who at the time of Herberts birth in January 1854 was chancellor of the exchequer and was eventually to serve as prime minister on four occasions, the dominant figure in British public life for the better part of half a century. A more difficult act to follow would be hard to imagine, even allowing for the fact that in British politics very few sons, Winston Churchill certainly and William Pitt the Younger and Neville Chamberlain possibly being the exceptions, have outshone their fathers. Nor in fact did Herbert Gladstone ever show any inclination to eclipse his parent. The intense emotional and psychological empathy between the two men fuelled the sons lifetime commitment to honouring and defending the name, principles and achievements of the father, a word which he invariably capitalised in his own correspondence. Even his autobiography was mostly a spirited defence of the Grand Old Mans actions, wrapped up in some personal reminiscences of his own.