John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley
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The Right Honourable The Earl of Kimberley KG PC DL |
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Carte de visite showing the Earl of Kimberley, ca. 1868.
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| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
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In office 25 July – 28 December 1882 |
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| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | John Bright |
| Succeeded by | John George Dodson |
| Lord President of the Council | |
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In office 18 August 1892 – 10 March 1894 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Cranbrook |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Rosebery |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
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In office 10 March 1894 – 21 June 1895 |
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| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Rosebery |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Rosebery |
| Succeeded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
7 January 1826 Wymondham |
| Died | 8 April 1902 (aged 76) London |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Spouse(s) | Lady Florence FitzGibbon (d. 1895) |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley KG PC DL (7 January 1826 – 8 April 1902), known as the Lord Wodehouse from 1846 to 1866, was a British Liberal politician. He held office in every Liberal administration from 1852 to 1895, notably as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Foreign Secretary.
Kimberley was born in 1826 in Wymondham, Norfolk, the eldest son of the Hon. Henry Wodehouse (1799–1834) and grandson of John Wodehouse, 2nd Baron Wodehouse. His mother was Anne Gurdon (d. 1880), daughter of Theophilus Thornhagh Gurdon. In 1846 he succeeded his grandfather as third Baron Wodehouse. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first-class degree in classics in 1847.
He was by inheritance a Liberal in politics, and in 1852–1856 and 1859–1861 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Lord Aberdeen's and Lord Palmerston's ministries. In the interval (1856–1858) he had been envoy-extraordinary to Russia; and in 1863 he was sent on a special mission to Copenhagen in the hope of finding a solution to the Schleswig-Holstein question. However, the mission was a failure.
In 1864 Kimberley became Under-Secretary of State for India, but towards the end of the year was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In that capacity he had to grapple with the first manifestations of Fenianism, and in recognition of his services he was created Earl of Kimberley in 1866. In July 1866 he vacated his office with the fall of Lord Russell's ministry, but in 1868 he became Lord Privy Seal in Gladstone's cabinet, and in July 1870 was transferred from that post to be Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was the moment of the great diamond discoveries in southern Africa, and the town of Kimberley in the Cape Colony was named after him. Lord Kimberley has been credited with the change in British policy towards the independent Malay states that led to the signing of the Pangkor Treaty of 1874, after which British political agents known as Residents were placed in the Malay states as advisors to the rulers.
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