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Spencer Horatio Walpole

British Conservative politician

Summary

British Conservative politician

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	Spencer Horatio Walpole
honorific-suffix
image	Spencer Horatio Walpole.JPG
order	Home Secretary
term_start2	27 February 1852
term_end2	19 December 1852
primeminister2	The Earl of Derby
predecessor2	Sir George Grey
successor2	The Viscount Palmerston
term_start1	26 February 1858
term_end1	3 March 1859
primeminister1	The Earl of Derby
predecessor1	Sir George Grey
successor1	T. H. S. Sotheron-Estcourt
term_start	6 July 1866
term_end	17 May 1867
primeminister	The Earl of Derby
predecessor	Sir George Grey
successor	Gathorne Hardy
birth_date
death_date
nationality	British
party	Whig
Conservative
alma_mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
spouse

| honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable | honorific-suffix = Conservative

Spencer Horatio Walpole (11 September 1806 – 22 May 1898) was a British Conservative Party politician who served three times as Home Secretary in the administrations of Lord Derby.

Background and education

Walpole was the second son of Thomas Walpole and Lady Margaret Perceval, youngest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Egmont and sister of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. His grandfather was Thomas Walpole, son of the diplomat the 1st Baron Walpole, younger brother of Prime Minister the 1st Earl of Orford. Walpole was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He chose law as his profession, and was called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, in 1831. He built up a successful practice and was made a Queen's Counsel in 1846.

Political career

Walpole then turned to politics, and in 1846 he was elected to Parliament for Midhurst as a Tory, a seat he would hold until 1856. He quickly gained a reputation in the House of Commons, and when the Tories came to power in early 1852 under Lord Derby, Walpole was appointed Home Secretary in the so-called "Who? Who? Ministry". He was admitted to the Privy Council at the same time. However, the government fell in December 1852.

In 1854, Walpole was appointed to the Royal Commission for Consolidating the Statute Law, a royal commission to consolidate existing statutes and enactments of English law.

In 1856 Walpole was elected to Parliament for Cambridge University. Two years later the Tories (or the Conservatives as they became known during the 1850s) returned to office under Lord Derby. Walpole was again appointed Home Secretary, but resigned in January 1859 after disagreements over electoral reforms. The government was dismissed in July the same year. The Conservatives remained out of office for seven years, but in 1866 they again came to power under Derby, who made Walpole Home Secretary for the third time. However, he was severely criticised for his handling of the movement for parliamentary reform, and resigned in May 1867. He nonetheless continued to serve in the cabinet as Minister without Portfolio until February 1868, when Benjamin Disraeli became prime minister. Walpole never held office again, but remained a Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge University until 1882.

Family

Walpole married his first cousin, Isabella Perceval, daughter of Spencer Perceval, in 1835. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. Their elder son Sir Spencer Walpole was a well-known historian. Walpole died in May 1898, aged 91.

Notes

References

{{acad. WLPL824SH. Spencer Horatio Walpole
Ilbert, Courtenay. (1901). "Legislative methods and forms". [[Clarendon Press]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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