Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley
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The Right Honourable The Earl of Derby KG GCMG PC |
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Carte de visite of Derby c. 1860s
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| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
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In office 28 June 1866 – 25 February 1868 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | Lord John Russell |
| Succeeded by | Benjamin Disraeli |
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In office 20 February 1858 – 11 June 1859 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | Lord Palmerston |
| Succeeded by | Lord Palmerston |
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In office 23 February 1852 – 17 December 1852 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | Lord John Russell |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Aberdeen |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
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In office 11 June 1859 – 28 June 1866 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister |
Lord Palmerston Lord John Russell |
| Preceded by | Lord Palmerston |
| Succeeded by | Lord John Russell |
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In office 19 December 1852 – 20 February 1858 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister |
The Earl of Aberdeen Lord Palmerston |
| Preceded by | Lord John Russell |
| Succeeded by | Lord Palmerston |
| Leader of the Conservative Party | |
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In office 29 June 1846 – 27 February 1868 |
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| Preceded by | Sir Robert Peel |
| Succeeded by | Benjamin Disraeli |
| Secretary of State for War and the Colonies | |
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In office 3 September 1841 – 23 December 1845 |
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| Prime Minister | Sir Robert Peel |
| Preceded by | Lord John Russell |
| Succeeded by | William Ewart Gladstone |
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In office 3 April 1833 – 5 June 1834 |
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| Prime Minister | The Earl Grey |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Goderich |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Spring Rice |
| Chief Secretary for Ireland | |
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In office 29 November 1830 – 29 March 1833 |
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| Prime Minister | The Earl Grey |
| Preceded by | Sir Henry Hardinge |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Hobhouse, Bt |
| Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies | |
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In office 31 August 1827 – 21 January 1828 |
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| Prime Minister | The Viscount Goderich |
| Preceded by | R. W. Horton |
| Succeeded by | Lord Leveson-Gower |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
29 March 1799 Knowsley Hall, Knowsley, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 23 October 1869 (aged 70) Knowsley Hall, Knowsley, Lancashire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations |
Whig (before 1841) |
| Spouse(s) | Emma Bootle-Wilbraham (m. 1825) |
| Children |
Edward Frederick Emma |
| Parents |
Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby Charlotte Margaret Hornby |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Signature |  |
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, GCMG, PC (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, to date, the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley. He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. However, his ministries all lasted less than two years, and totalled three years and 280 days.
Historian Frances Walsh says it was,
Derby who educated the party and acted as its strategist to pass the last great Whig measure, the 1867 Reform Act. It was his greatest achievement to create the modern Conservative Party in the framework of the Whig constitution, though it was Disraeli who laid claim to it.
Stanley was born to Lord Stanley (later the 13th Earl of Derby) and his wife, Charlotte Margaret (née Hornby), the daughter of the Reverend Geoffrey Hornby. The Stanleys were a long-established and very wealthy landowning family whose principal residence was Knowsley Hall in Lancashire. Stanley was educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford.
In 1822 Edward Stanley, as he was then, was elected to Parliament in the rotten borough of as a Whig, the traditional party of his family. In 1824, however, he alienated his Whig colleagues by voting against Joseph Hume's motion for an investigation into the established Protestant Church of Ireland. When the Whigs returned to power in 1830, Stanley became Chief Secretary for Ireland in Lord Grey's Government, and entered the Cabinet in 1831. As Chief Secretary Stanley pursued a series of coercive measures which frequently brought him into conflict with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Anglesey. In October 1831, Stanley wrote a letter, the Stanley Letter, to the Duke of Leinster establishing the system of National Education in Ireland—this letter remains today the legal basis for the predominant form of primary education in Ireland. In 1833, Stanley moved up to the more important position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, overseeing the passage of the Abolition of Slavery Bill.
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Wikipedia