Ralph Lingen, 1st Baron Lingen
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The Right Honourable The Lord Lingen KCB |
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Ralph Robert Wheeler, Lord Lingen, by George Percy Jacomb-Hood, 1896
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| Permanent Secretary to the Treasury | |
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In office 1869–1885 |
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| Preceded by | George Alexander Hamilton |
| Succeeded by |
Sir Reginald Welby & Sir Edward Hamilton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 December 1819 |
| Died | 22 July 1905 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | civil servant |
Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen, 1st Baron Lingen KCB (19 December 1819 – 22 July 1905) was an English civil servant.
Lingen was born in Birmingham, where his father was in business. He was the grandson of Ralph Lingen, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and was a descendant of Elisabeth de Burgh (d. 1522). Lingen was first educated at Bridgnorth Grammar School and then became a scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1837. He won the Ireland (1838) and Hertford (1839) scholarships; and after taking a first-class in Literae Humaniores (1840), Was elected a fellow of Balliol (1841). He subsequently won the Chancellor's Latin Essay (1843) and the Eldon Law scholarship (1846).
After teaching as an assistant master at Rugby School he entered the Inns of Court as a Barrister at Lincoln's Inn. He was called to the bar in 1847; but instead of practising as a barrister, he accepted an appointment in the Education Office. It was in this role that he became involved with the 1847 Blue Books episode in 1847-8. After a short period was chosen in 1849 to succeed Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth as its secretary or chief permanent official. He retained this position till 1869. The Education Office of that day had to administer a somewhat chaotic system of government grants to local schools, and Lingen was conspicuous for his fearless discrimination and rigid economy, qualities which characterized his whole career. When Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke) became, as vice-president of the council, his parliamentary chief, Lingen worked congenially with him in producing the Revised Code of 1862 which incorporated "payment by results"; but the education department encountered adverse criticism, and in 1864 the vote of censure in parliament which caused Lowe's resignation, founded (but erroneously) on an alleged "editing" of the school inspectors' reports, was inspired by a certain antagonism to Lingen's as well as to Lowe's methods.
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