| The Right Honourable The Viscount Cardwell PC, PC (Ire), FRS |
|
|---|---|
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 28 December 1852 – 31 March 1855 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Aberdeen Viscount Palmerston |
| Preceded by | J. W. Henley |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Stanley of Alderley |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 25 July 1861 – 7 April 1864 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | Viscount Palmerston |
| Preceded by | Sir George Grey, Bt |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Clarendon |
| Secretary of State for War | |
| In office 9 December 1868 – 17 February 1874 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Sir John Pakington, Bt |
| Succeeded by | Hon. Frederick Stanley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 July 1813 |
| Died | 15 February 1886 Torquay, Devon |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Tory Peelite Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Annie Parker (d. 1887) |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Edward Cardwell, 1st Viscount Cardwell PC, PC (Ire), FRS (24 July 1813 – 15 February 1886) was a prominent British politician in the Peelite and Liberal parties during the middle of the 19th century. He is best remembered for his tenure as Secretary of State for War between 1868 and 1874 and the introduction of the Cardwell Reforms.
Contents |
Cardwell was the son of John Henry Cardwell, of Liverpool, a merchant, and Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Birley. He was educated at Winchester and Balliol College, Oxford, from where he took a degree in 1835. He was called to the bar, Inner Temple, in 1838.[1]
Cardwell was employed in the Colonial Office in the late 1830s, and directly involved in drafting written instructions (sent to Sydney) to Capt Hobson RN, as to how to 'treat with the natives' (Maori) of New Zealand; thus he was indirectly involved in what would become the founding document of New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi, signed February 6, 1840. Cardwell was elected Member of Parliament for Clitheroe in Lancashire in 1842.[1][2] He became a follower and confidante of Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister, and held his first office under him as Financial Secretary to the Treasury between 1845 and 1846.[1] When Peel split the Conservative Party in 1846 over the issue of repealing the Corn Laws, Cardwell followed Peel, and became a member of the Peelite faction. When the Peelites came to power in 1852, Cardwell was sworn of the Privy Council[3] and made President of the Board of Trade by Lord Aberdeen, a position he held until 1855.[1] In 1854 he passed the Cardwell Railway Act which stopped the cut-throat competition between Railway Companies which was acting to their and the railusers' disadvantage.
During these years, Cardwell moved from seat to seat in Parliament. In 1847, he was elected as MP for Liverpool.[1][4] In 1852, he lost elections for Liverpool and for Ayrshire, but won a seat at Oxford. In 1858, he was defeated for the Oxford seat, but a second election for the seat was held shortly after, which he won (beating William Makepeace Thackeray).[1][5] The Peelite faction disintegrated in the late 1850s, and Cardwell officially became a Liberal in 1859, joining Lord Palmerston's cabinet as Chief Secretary for Ireland.[1] Unhappy in that position, he moved two years later to another cabinet post, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.[6] A second move within the cabinet came in 1864, when Cardwell became the Secretary of State for the Colonies,[7] a position he kept until the Liberals were turned out of office in 1866.
When the Liberals returned to power under William Ewart Gladstone in the 1868 election, Cardwell reached the peak of his career, as Gladstone's Secretary of State for War.[8] During his six years in the post, in what became known as "Cardwell reforms", Cardwell reorganized the British army, introduced professional standards for officers (including advancement by merit rather than purchase), and formed a home reserve force. After Gladstone's defeat in the 1874 election, Cardwell was raised to the peerage as Viscount Cardwell, of Ellerbeck in the County Palatine of Lancaster.[9] His ennoblement ended his active political career.
Lord Cardwell married Annie, daughter of Charles Stuart Parker, in 1838. They had two children, Margaret and Paul. He died in Torquay, Devon, in February 1886, aged 72. Lady Cardwell only survived him by a year and died in February 1887.[1] The town of Cardwell in Queensland, Australia, was named after Lord Cardwell, and the current branch of the Cardwells married into an Carinthian Austrian noble family.[10]