Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke
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The Right Honourable The Viscount Sherbrooke GCB PC |
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| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
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In office 9 December 1868 – 11 August 1873 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | George Ward Hunt |
| Succeeded by | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Home Secretary | |
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In office 9 August 1873 – 20 February 1874 |
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| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
| Preceded by | Henry Bruce |
| Succeeded by | R. A. Cross |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
4 December 1811 Bingham, Nottinghamshire |
| Died | 27 July 1892 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Georgiana Orred (d. 1884) |
| Alma mater | University College, Oxford |
Robert Lowe, 1st Viscount Sherbrooke, GCB, PC (4 December 1811 – 27 July 1892), British , was a pivotal but often forgotten figure who shaped British politics in the latter half of the 19th century. He held office under William Ewart Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1868 and 1873 and as Home Secretary between 1873 and 1874. Lowe is remembered for his work in education policy, his opposition to electoral reform and his contribution to modern UK company law. The Division of Lowe, a now abolished Australian electoral division located in Sydney, was named after him. Gladstone appointed Lowe as Chancellor expecting him to hold down public spending. Public spending rose, and Gladstone pronounced Lowe "wretchedly deficient"; most historians agree. Lowe repeatedly underestimated the revenue, enabling him to resist demands for tax cuts and to reduce the national debt instead. He insisted that the tax system be fair to all classes. By his own main criterion of fairness – that the balance between direct and indirect taxation remain unchanged – he succeeded. However historians do not believe this balance is a good measure of class incidence and was by that time thoroughly archaic.
Lowe was born in Bingham, Nottinghamshire, England, the second son of the Reverend Robert Lowe (rector of Bingham). His mother was Ellen, the daughter of the Rev. Reginald Pyndar. Lowe had albinism, and his sight was so weak that initially it was thought he was unfit to be sent to school.
In 1822 he went to a school at Southwell, then to one at Risley, and in 1825 to Winchester as a commoner. In Lowe's fragment of autobiography he shows an unpleasing picture of the under-feeding and other conditions of the school life of the time. The languages of Latin and Greek were the main subjects of study and Lowe records that both were easy for him. Lowe then attended University College, Oxford and enjoyed the change; there as a pupil of Benjamin Jowett he gained a first class degree in Classics and a second class in Mathematics, besides taking a leading part in the Union debates. In 1835 he won a fellowship at Magdalen, but vacated it on marrying, on 26 March 1836, Georgiana Orred (d. 1884). Lowe was for a few years a successful tutor at Oxford, but in 1838 was disappointed at not being elected to the professorship of Greek at the University of Glasgow.
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