Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare

Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare

Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare GCB , PC , FRS (born April 16, 1815 in Duffryn , Aberdare , Glamorganshire , † February 25, 1895 in London ) was a British statesman who served in various capacities in the late 19th century Government was involved. Among the most important offices he held were the offices of Home Secretary and Lord President of the Council .

Background and education

Henry Bruce was the son of John Bruce, a landowner in Glamorganshire, and his wife Sarah, the daughter of the Reverend Hugh Williams Austin. John Bruce's original family name was Knight, but in 1805 he took the name of his maternal grandfather, who had been high sheriff in Glamorganshire. Henry attended Swansea Grammar School and became a barrister in 1837 . Shortly after he began his business, the discovery of coal below Duffryn and on other Aberdare Valley estates brought the family to great prosperity.

Political career

Statue of Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, at Cardiff University

From 1847 to 1854 Bruce was fellow magistrate for Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare, but gave up this position in 1854 when he moved into the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party for Merthyr Tydfil . During the same period he began his work in the management of the Dowland Iron Company . In 1862 he became State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior ; In 1868, after losing his seat to Merthyr Tydfil but being elected to Renfrewshire , he was appointed Home Secretary by William Ewart Gladstone . During the time he was in office, a reform of the licensing law took place. Among other things, he was responsible for the Licensing Act of 1872, which granted the magistrate sovereignty over licensing. In 1873, at Gladstone's request, he gave up the Ministry of the Interior to take on the duties of Lord President of the Council , and almost at the same time he was promoted to peer baron Aberdare , of Duffryn in the County of Glamorgan .

Public career after 1874

Bruce's grave in Aberffrwd Cemetery in Mountain Ash, Wales

The deselection of the liberal government in the following year ended Lord Aberdar's public political life, as a result he devoted himself mainly to tasks in the social field, education and economic issues. In 1876 he was elected a member of the Royal Society , from 1878 to 1891 he was President of the Royal Historical Society . In 1881 he assumed the presidency of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Girls' Day School Trust . In 1888 he headed the commission that set up the Official Table of Drops for public executions to ensure the quick and painless death of those convicted.

In 1882 he began to build connections to West Africa that he would cultivate for the rest of his life. He took over the post of Chairman of the National African Company founded by Sir George Taubman Goldie , which was given its own charter in 1886 under the name Royal Niger Company and was taken over by the British government in 1899, with the areas becoming the Protectorate of Nigeria . In addition to his West African activities, he operated in 1894 the constitution of a charter for the University of Wales in Cardiff . Lord Aberdare, who had been accepted into the Order of the Bath as Knight Grand Cross in 1885 , was President of various Royal Commissions .

family

Memorial plaque to Bruce's grave

In 1846 Henry Bruce married Annabella, the daughter of Richard Beadon, in his first marriage. They had a son and three daughters together. After her death in July 1852, he married Norah Creina Blanche, the daughter of the historian William Francis Patrick Napier , whose biography he published. They had two sons and seven daughters, the youngest son being mountaineer Charles Granville Bruce . After his death, his only son from his first marriage, Henry, inherited the title of Baron Aberdare . His wife, Norah Creina Blanche, died in April 1897.

Henry Bruce's grave is in Aberffrwd Cemetery in Mountain Ash in Wales. His large family grave is surrounded by a chain, and his tombstone consists of a simple Celtic cross. It bears the inscription "To God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men more perfect." .

literature

• Article Henry Bruce , Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition

Web links

• Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare of Duffryn on thepeerage.com , accessed August 23, 2015.
• Henry Bruce at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Chambers Biographical Dictionary , ISBN 0-550-18022-2 , p. 4

predecessor	Office	successor
Gathorne Hardy	Home Secretary 1868–1873	Robert Lowe
George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon	Lord President of the Council 1873–1874	Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond
New title created	Baron Aberdare 1873-1895	Henry Bruce