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Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Derby
KG GCMG PC
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby-1865.jpg
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
28 June 1866 – 27 February 1868
Monarch Victoria
Preceded by Lord John Russell
Succeeded by Benjamin Disraeli
In office
20 February 1858 – 11 June 1859
Monarch Victoria
Preceded by Lord Palmerston
Succeeded by Lord Palmerston
In office
23 February 1852 – 19 December 1852
Monarch Victoria
Preceded by Lord John Russell
Succeeded by The Earl of Aberdeen
Leader of the Opposition
In office
11 June 1859 – 28 June 1866
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister Lord Palmerston
Lord John Russell
Preceded by Lord Palmerston
Succeeded by Lord John Russell
In office
19 December 1852 – 20 February 1858
Monarch Victoria
Prime Minister The Earl of Aberdeen
Lord Palmerston
Preceded by Lord John Russell
Succeeded by Lord Palmerston
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office
29 June 1846 – 27 February 1868
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel
Succeeded by Benjamin Disraeli
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
In office
3 September 1841 – 23 December 1845
Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel
Preceded by Lord John Russell
Succeeded by William Ewart Gladstone
In office
3 April 1833 – 5 June 1834
Prime Minister The Earl Grey
Preceded by The Viscount Goderich
Succeeded by Thomas Spring Rice
Chief Secretary for Ireland
In office
29 November 1830 – 29 March 1833
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
In office
31 August 1827 – 21 January 1828
Prime Minister The Viscount Goderich
Preceded by R. W. Horton
Succeeded by Lord Leveson-Gower
Personal details
Born (1799-03-29)29 March 1799
Knowsley Hall, Knowsley, Lancashire, England
Died 23 October 1869(1869-10-23) (aged 70)
Knowsley Hall, Knowsley, Lancashire, England
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Emma Bootle-Wilbraham (m. 1825)
Children Edward
Frederick
Emma
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford
Religion Church of England
Signature Cursive signature in ink

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, GCMG, PC (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869) was a British statesman, three times 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 3 years 280 days.

Historian Frances Walsh says it was:

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 Stockbridge 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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