Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax

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Photography around 1870
Oil painting from 1873 by Anthony de Brie

Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax ( December 20, 1800 - August 8, 1885 ) was a British politician.

Life

Wood was the eldest son of Sir Francis Lindley Wood, 2nd Baronet . He attended Eton College and studied until 1824 at Oriel College of Oxford University . In 1826, at the age of 26, he was first elected to the House of Commons . He was MP for Great Grimsby from 1826 to 1831, Wareham from 1831 to 1832 , Halifax from 1832 to 1865 , and Ripon from 1865 to 1866 . He was introduced to the affairs of government as the private secretary of his father-in-law Charles Gray, 2nd Earl Gray , who had become Prime Minister in 1830 . In 1832, after the Reform Act was passed , Wood became Secretary of the Treasury.

On the death of his father in 1846 he inherited his title of nobility as 3rd Baronet , of Barnsley in the County of York , which had been awarded to his grandfather in 1784 in the Baronetage of Great Britain. After serving as secretary to the Admiralty for some time , Wood was given a seat in Russell's first cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1846 . He held this office until 1852. His handling of state finances, however, was massively criticized and did not neglect the Whig government.

He was then President of the Board of Control for the British East India Company in the Aberdeen Cabinet (1852). During this time he initiated a significant increase in school education in India, including the establishment of the first universities based on the British model. In the following years Wood then successively took over the offices of the First Lord of the Admiralty in the coalition cabinet Palmerston (1854), the Minister for India in the second government of Palmerston (1859).

In 1856 he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath . On the occasion of his departure from the House of Commons he was raised to hereditary peer on February 21, 1866 as Viscount Halifax , of Monk Bretton in the West Riding of the County of York , and thereby became a member of the House of Lords . In the Gladstone government from July 1870 until its dissolution in 1874 he held the office of Lord Keeper of the Seal.

Cape Wood on Flat Island off the north coast of Victoria Land is named after Wood in Antarctica .

Marriage and offspring

On July 29, 1829, he married Lady Mary Gray, daughter of Charles Gray, 2nd Earl Gray . With her he had seven children:

  • Hon. Blanche Edith Wood († 1921) ⚭ 1876 Hon. Henry William Lowry-Corry;
  • Hon. Alice Louisa Wood († 1934) ⚭ 1870 Hon. John Charles Dundas;
  • Charles Lindley Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax (1839-1934);
  • Hon. Emily Charlotte Wood (1840–1904) ⚭ 1863 Hugo Francis Meynell Ingram;
  • Hon. Francis Lindley Wood (1841–1873), Captain of the Royal Navy ;
  • Hon. Henry John Lindley Wood (1843–1903), Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army , ⚭ 1897 Laura Adeline Thellusson;
  • Hon. Frederick George Lindley Meynell (1846–1910) ⚭ 1878 Lady Mary Lindsay.

When he died on August 8, 1885 at the age of 84, his eldest son Charles inherited his title of nobility.

Web links

Commons : Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frederick M. Powicke, Edmund B. Fryde (Eds.): Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 106.
  2. ^ Frederick M. Powicke, Edmund B. Fryde (Eds.): Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 134.
  3. ^ Frederick M. Powicke, Edmund B. Fryde (Eds.): Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society, London 1961, p. 96.
predecessor Office successor
Francis Wood Baronet, of Barnsley
1846-1885 		Charles Wood
New title created Viscount Halifax
1866-1885 		Charles Wood
James Graham First Lord of the Admiralty
1855-1858 		John Pakington
personal data
SURNAME Wood, Charles, 1st Viscount Halifax
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wood, Charles, 3rd Baronet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1800
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1885