| William Waddington | |
|---|---|
| 42nd Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 4 February 1879 – 28 December 1879 |
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| Preceded by | Jules Dufaure |
| Succeeded by | Charles de Freycinet |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 December 1826 |
| Died | 13 January 1894 (aged 67) |
| Political party | None |
William Henry Waddington (11 December 1826 – 13 January 1894) was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France in 1879.
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He was born at Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre (Eure-et-Loir), the son of a wealthy Englishman, who had established a large spinning factory in France and had been naturalised as a French subject, and his French wife. After receiving his early education in Paris, he was sent to Rugby School, and then to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was second classic and won the chancellor's medal.[1] He rowed in the victorious Cambridge eight in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on the River Thames in March 1849. He did not take part in the re-row in December that year which Oxford won.[2]
In Paris he married Mary Alsop King, an American author born in New York City to Charles King an American academic, politician, newspaper editor and the ninth president of Columbia College (now Columbia University) and his second wife, Henrietta Liston Low.
The Waddingtons raised one son, Francis Richard, who on 18 January 1903 in Paris married Charlotte Sallandrouze de Lamornaix, the daughter of Admiral Sallandrouze de Lamornaix.
Returning to France, he devoted himself for some years to archaeological research. He travelled in Asia Minor, Greece and Syria, and his experiences and discoveries were recorded in two Mémoires, recognised by the French Institute, and in his Mélanges de numismatique et de philologie ("Numismatic and Philological Miscellanies", 1861).
Except for his essay on "The Protestant Church in France", published in 1856 in Cambridge Essays, his remaining works all concerned archaeology. They include his Fastes de l'empire romain ("The Splendours of the Roman Empire"), and editions of Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices and of Philippe Lebas' Voyage archéologique (1868–1877). He was elected, in 1865, a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
After standing unsuccessfully for a Chamber of Deputies seat for the département of the Aisne constituency in 1865 and 1860, Waddington was returned by that constituency in the election of 1871. He was Minister of Public Instruction in the short-lived cabinet of 19 May 1873.
In 1876, having been elected senator for the Aisne, he was again entrusted by Prime Minister Dufaure with the Ministry of Public Instruction. Because he was a Protestant, he was not permitted to combine the Ministry of Public Worship with the Public Instruction portfolio, as had been the custom in ministerial assignments. His most important project, a bill transferring the granting of degrees to the state, was passed by the Chamber, but thrown out by the Senate.
He continued to hold office under Jules Simon, with whom he was overthrown on the famous seize mai (16 May 1877). The triumph of the republicans at the general election brought him back to power the following December as Minister of Foreign Affairs, again under Dufaure. He was one of the French plenipotentiaries at the Berlin Congress. The cession of Cyprus to the United Kingdom was, at first, denounced by the French newspapers as a great blow to his diplomatic reputation, but he obtained, in a conversation with Lord Salisbury, a promise that the United Kingdom would, in return, allow France a free hand in Tunis.
Early in 1879 Waddington succeeded Dufaure as Prime Minister. Holding office by sufferance of Léon Gambetta, he kept peace between the radicals and the reactionaries till the delay of urgent reforms lost him the support of all parties. He was forced on 27 December to retire from office.
He refused an offer to become ambassador in London, and in 1880 was reporter of the committee on the adoption of the scrutin de liste at elections, on which he delivered an adverse judgment.
In 1883 he accepted the London embassy, which he continued to hold till 1893, showing an exceptional tenacity in defence of his country's interests. His wife, the American Mary Alsop King, wrote her recollections of their diplomatic experiences – Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883–1900 (New York, 1903), and Italian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife (1904).
Changes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Jules Simon |
Minister of Public Instruction 1873 |
Succeeded by Anselme Batbie |
| Preceded by Henri Wallon |
Minister of Public Instruction 1876–1877 |
Succeeded by Joseph Brunet |
| Preceded by Marquis de Banneville |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1877–1879 |
Succeeded by Charles de Freycinet |
| Preceded by Jules Dufaure |
Prime Minister of France 1879 |
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