(1809 - 1898)
William Ewart Gladstone was born in Liverpool, the son of Sir John Gladstone, a successful businessman and Canningite. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, and first entered Parliament as a Conservative MP in December 1832. In the 1850s his personal political beliefs moved closer to liberalism, and by 1859 he was serving for the second time as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Palmerston’s Government. He eventually became Prime Minister four times over sporadic periods between 1868-1894. The increasing liberalism of his later career was demonstrated by his support for social and political reforms, most notably self-government in British colonies, Irish Home Rule, and his wider personal convictions in social reform for the public at large.
Gladstone was also involved in foreign policy issues during his long career. From 1858-1859 he became Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, which were under British Protectorate. During this period he published his Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. Later in the 1880s, his Government was criticised due to its allegedly ineffectual efforts to avert General Gordon’s massacre at Khartoum in the Sudan in 1885, which caused national outcry. Gladstone finally resigned as Prime Minister in 1894, but continued to speak publicly and publish texts on religious matters, until his death at Hawarden Castle, his family seat in northeast Wales.
