AskBiography Logo   Latest News  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Google Buzz  Became Fan - Facebook  Subscribe to RSSRSS   Bookmark and Share

William Ewart Gladstone

Personal data
Date of birth29 December 1809
Place of birthLiverpool, Lancashire, England
Date of death19 May 1898(age 88)
Place of deathHawarden Castle, Flintshire, Wales
Political partyConservative, Peelite and Liberal
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
ReligionChurch of England (High church)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office15 August 1892 - 2 March 1894
MonarchVictoria
Succeeded byThe Earl of Rosebery
Preceded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
In office1 February - 20 July 1886
Succeeded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
In office23 April 1880 - 9 June 1885
Succeeded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded byBenjamin Disraeli
In office3 December 1868 - 17 February 1874
Succeeded byBenjamin Disraeli
Preceded byBenjamin Disraeli
Leader of the Opposition
In office20 July 1886 - 11 August 1892
Succeeded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
In office9 June 1885 - 28 January 1886
Succeeded byThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded byThe Earl of Beaconsfield
In office17 February 1874 - 21 April 1880
Succeeded byThe Earl of Beaconsfield
Preceded byBenjamin Disraeli
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office28 April 1880 - 16 December 1882
Prime ministerHimself
Succeeded byHugh Childers
Preceded byStafford Northcote

     Home | Office Holder | William Ewart Gladstone



William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS (29 December 1809 � 19 May 1898) was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868 � 1874, 1880 � 1885, February � July 1886 and 1892 � 1894), more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time. He had also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times (1853 � 1855, 1859 � 1866, 1873 � 1874, and 1880 � 1882).

Gladstone first entered Parliament in 1832. Beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. After the split of the Conservatives Gladstone was a Peelite � in 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs and the Radicals to form the Liberal Party. As Chancellor Gladstone became committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, earning him the sobriquet "The People's William".

Gladstone's first ministry saw many reforms including Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the introduction of secret voting. After his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, but from 1876 began a comeback based on opposition to Turkey's Bulgarian atrocities. Gladstone's Midlothian Campaign of 1879 � 1880 was an early example of many modern political campaigning techniques. After the 1880 election, he formed his second ministry, which saw crises in Egypt (culminating in the death of General Gordon in 1885), and in Ireland, where the government passed repressive measures but also improved the legal rights of Irish tenant farmers. The government also passed the Third Reform Act.

Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish Home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep them out of office, with one short break, for twenty years. In 1892 Gladstone formed his last government at the age of 82. The Second Irish Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. Gladstone resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure. He left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88.

Gladstone is famous for his oratory, for his rivalry with the Conservative Leader Benjamin Disraeli and his poor relations with Queen Victoria, who once complained, "He always addresses me as if I were a public meeting."

Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as "The People's William" or the "G.O.M." ("Grand Old Man", or, according to Disraeli, "God's Only Mistake").


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/William/Ewart/Gladstone?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 410 Gone in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/William/Ewart/Gladstone?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10" in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Fatal error: Call to a member function children() on a non-object in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 260