Henry Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford

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Henry Thurstan Holland, 1st Viscount Knutsford GCMG PC (3 August 182529 January 1914) was a British politician, best known for serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1887 to 1892.

The son of Sir Henry Holland, 1st Baronet, a prominent physician, Holland was educated at Harrow School, Durham University, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and took his degree in 1847. He studied law, and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1849. He practiced law privately until 1867, when he became legal advisor to the Colonial Office. In 1870 he became assistant colonial undersecretary, serving until 1874, and in 1873, having succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative.

In Lord Salisbury's first administration (1885-1886), Holland served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury and then as Vice President of the Committee of Council on Education. He served in this role again at the beginning of Salisbury's second ministry (1886-1887), but was soon promoted to Colonial Secretary (in January 1887).

As Colonial Secretary, Knutsford (as he became when he was raised to the House of Lords as Baron Knutsford in 1888) was largely concerned with South African affairs, being the Colonial Secretary who granted the charter for Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company in 1887.

In 1895, Knutsford was not included in Salisbury's new government, and was instead raised within the peerage as Viscount Knutsford.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Charles George Perceval
Member of Parliament for Midhurst
18741885
Succeeded by
(constituency abolished)
Preceded by
(new constituency)
Member of Parliament for Hampstead
1885–1888
Succeeded by
Edward Brodie Hoare
Political offices
Preceded by
Edward Stanhope
Vice President of the Council
1885–1886
Succeeded by
Sir Lyon Playfair
Preceded by
Sir Lyon Playfair
Vice President of the Council
1886–1887
Succeeded by
Sir William Hart Dyke
Preceded by
Edward Stanhope
Secretary of State for the Colonies
1887–1892
Succeeded by
The Marquess of Ripon
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
New Creation
Viscount Knutsford Succeeded by
Sydney Holland
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Henry Holland
Baronet
(of Sandlebridge)
Succeeded by
Sydney Holland
Languages