Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney

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Leonard Henry Courtney, 1871

Leonard Henry Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney PC (born July 6, 1832 in Penzance , † May 11, 1918 in Chelsea ) was a British politician of the Liberal Party and later the Liberal Unionists .

Life

Courtney was the son of banker John Sampson Courtney and Sarah Mortimer. His brother John Mortimer Courtney (1838–1920) became Deputy Treasury Secretary in Canada and his brother William Prideaux Courtney (1845–1913) was a civil servant and scholar. Courtney studied at Cambridge University (St. John's College), where he was Second Wrangler in the Tripos Exams, won the Smith Prize and became a fellow of St. John's College. He then became a lawyer ( called to the bar in 1858 in Lincoln's Inn). From 1872 to 1875 he was Professor of Political Economy at University College London . In 1889 he became a bencher .

In 1876 he was elected to parliament at the second attempt for the Liberals (Liskeard, after the constituency reform in 1885 Bodmin in Cornwall) and held the seat until 1900, when he no longer stood because of his opposition to the Boer War.

He held various high offices in the second Gladstone administration (1880-1885), first Undersecretary in the Home Department, in 1881 for Colonies (Colonial Office) and in 1882 Secretary of the Treasury. He then fell out with Gladstone's government, first over the electoral reform in 1884, since he saw the principle of proportional representation violated, and in 1885 over Ireland's policy (Home Rule). He resigned in 1884 and was one of those who split from the Liberals in the Liberal Unionist Party.

In 1886 he became Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons ( Chairman of Ways and Means ) and in 1889 a member of the Privy Council . His political independence and declining eyesight prevented his candidacy for speaker in the next election in 1895. In particular, his public commitment to the Boers prevented him from attaining higher political offices again.

On July 14, 1906, he was raised to hereditary peer as Baron Courtney , of Penwith in the County of Cornwall , and thereby became a member of the House of Lords .

From 1897 to 1899 he was President of the Royal Statistical Society . At times he wrote regularly for The Times .

He was since 1883 with Catherine (Kate) Potter (1847-1929), the sister of Beatrice Webb , married. Courtney, in association with Beatrice Webb, supported women's rights. He was friends with the painter Norman Garstin . Since his marriage remained childless, his title of nobility expired on his death in 1918.

Caricature by Courtney: Proper self-sufficiency , Vanity Fair 1880

Quotes

He is credited with the phrase There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics , which was often incorrectly ascribed to Benjamin Disraeli in the past .

Fonts

  • The working constitution of the United Kingdom and its outgrowths. Dent, London 1901, 1920

literature

Web links

Commons : Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The London Gazette : 27933, 4973 , July 20, 1906.
  2. ↑ To My Fellow-Disciples at Saratoga Springs. In: The National Review. No. 26, London 1895, pp. 21-26 (25).
personal data
SURNAME Courtney, Leonard, 1st Baron Courtney
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Courtney, Leonard Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Penzance
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1918
Place of death Chelsea