Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook

Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1889)

Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook , GCSI , PC , FRS (* 22. January 1826 , † 15. November 1904 in Stratton Park, East Stratton, Micheldever, Hampshire ) was a British politician of the Liberal Party , which between 1857 and 1866 deputy of the lower house ( House of Commons ) was. In 1866 he inherited the title 2nd Baron Northbrook and became a member of the upper house ( House of Lords ) , where he remained until his death. He served as Governor General and Viceroy of India between 1872 and 1876 and was promoted to 1st Earl of Northbrook in 1876 . He was from 1880 to 1885 as First Lord of the Admiralty and held between 1890 and his death in 1904 the office of Lord Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire.

Baring was also active from 1879 to 1880 as President of the Royal Geographical Society . Northbrook Island in Franz Josef Lands in the Arctic Ocean , discovered on August 14, 1880 by the British polar explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith on his fourth polar voyage, was named after him.

Life

Family background, Member of the House of Commons and Undersecretary of State

Thomas George Baring, Baron Northbrook, in a cartoon by Spy in Vanity Fair magazine dated December 9, 1876

Thomas George Baring belonged to that of Lower Saxony coming British branch of the Baring family . He was the son of the politician Francis Thornhill Baring , who was among other things from 1826 to 1865 Member of the House of Commons, from 1839 to 1841 Chancellor of the Exchequer and from 1849 to 1852 First Lord of the Admiralty and on January 4, 1866 as Baron Northbrook , of Stratton in the County of Southampton, raised to the hereditary nobility of the Peerage of the United Kingdom , and his wife Jane Gray. His paternal grandfather, Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet, was also a Member of the House of Commons from 1806 to 1832, while his maternal grandfather, Sir George Gray, 1st Baronet Naval Officer and most recently flag captain of the Royal Navy . His paternal great-grandfather Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, was also a member of the House of Commons from 1784 to 1790 and again between 1794 and 1806 and was given the hereditary title of Baronet , of the City of London on May 11, 1793 in the Baronetage of Great Britain . After attending school, he himself graduated from Christ Church at the University of Oxford , which he completed in 1846 with a Master of Arts (MA). In the following years he worked as a private secretary in the Ministry of Commerce ( Board of Trade ) , Ministry of the Interior ( Home Office ) as well as in India Ministry (India Board) and in the Admiralty (Admiralty) operates.

On March 27, 1857 Baring was for the Whigs , from 1859, the Liberal Party emerged, first deputy of the lower house ( House of Commons ) and represented in this until September 6, 1866 the constituency Penryn and Falmouth . At the beginning of his parliamentary membership he was Lord of the Admiralty between 1857 and 1858 and from 1859 to 1861 Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry for India (Under-Secretary for India) . After he was Under-Secretary for War between January and July 1861 , he served again as Undersecretary in the Ministry for India from 1861 to 1864. He was then from 1864 to 1866 as Under-Secretary for the Home Department and from April to July 1866 Secretary of the Admiralty (Secretary of the Admiralty) .

Member of the House of Lords and Viceroy of India

On the death of his father on September 6, 1866, Thomas George Baring inherited his title as 2nd  Baron Northbrook, which he had only been awarded a few months earlier on January 4, 1866. He was thus a member of the upper house ( House of Lords ) , where he remained until his death. At the same time he inherited the title of 4th  Baronet , of the City of London. He served from 1868 to 1872 again as Under Secretary in the Ministry of War and was at that time on August 7, 1869 also a member of the Secret Privy Council ( Privy Council ) .

On May 3, 1872 he replaced Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo as Governor General and Viceroy of India and held this office until April 12, 1876, whereupon Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Baron Lytton succeeded him. When he took office as Viceroy and Governor General, he became Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI). During his tenure, his cousin Evelyn Baring acted as his private secretary.

President of the Royal Geographical Society and First Lord of the Admiralty

Thomas George Baring was married to Elizabeth Harriett Sturt from 1848 until her death in 1867 (painting by Richard Buckner)

After his return, Thomas George Baring was also named Earl of Northbrook , in the County of Southampton, with the subordinate title Viscount Baring , of Lee in the County of Kent, by a letters patent dated June 10, 1876 in the Peerage of the United Kingdom , raised. On June 21, 1876 an honorary doctorate in civil law (Honorary DCL) was awarded by the University of Oxford. In 1879 he took over the role of President of the Royal Geographical Society from Rutherford Alcock and held this position until his replacement by Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare in 1880. On January 8, 1880, he was also appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).

In the second government Gladstone he took over on April 28, 1880, the office of First Lord of the Admiralty (First Lord of the Admiralty) and at the same time as Lord High Admiral and remained in those positions until the end of the tenure of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone on 23rd June 1885. During this time he acted from 1881 to 1904 as Elder Brother of the beacon administration, the so-called Trinity House . In addition, between August and November 1884 he was also temporarily High Commissioner for Egypt , an office that his cousin Evelyn Baring held from 1883 to 1907. He replaced Thomas Wade as President of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1890 and remained in this position until he was replaced by Donald Mackay, 1st Baron Reay in 1893. In 1892 he was awarded another honorary doctorate in law (Honorary LL.D.) from the University of Cambridge awarded. Most recently he was the successor to Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon from 1890 to 1904 Lord Lieutenant of the county of Hampshire , whereupon Henry Paulet, 16th Marquess of Winchester, was his successor.

Northbrook Island in Franz Josef Lands in the Arctic Ocean , discovered on August 14, 1880 by the British polar explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith on his fourth polar voyage, was named after him.

Family and offspring

Thomas George Baring married Elizabeth Harriett Sturt, daughter of Henry Charles Sturt and Lady Charlotte Penelope Brudenell, and a sister of the House of Commons Henry Sturt , who was promoted to 1st Baron Alington in 1876 ​​at  St. Mary's Church in Bryanston Square , Marylebone on September 6, 1848 has been. From this marriage two sons and a daughter were born. The eldest son Francis George Baring was also a member of the House of Commons between 1880 and 1892 with a short interruption and after his death inherited the title of 2nd  Earl of Northbrook , in the County of Southampton, as well as the subordinate titles as 2nd  Viscount Baring, of Lee , in the County of Kent, 3rd  Baron Northbrook , of Stratton, in the County of Southampton, as well as 5th  Baronet Baring , of the City of London. His only daughter, Lady Jane Emma Baring, was married to Colonel Henry George Louis Crichton, son of John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne . His second and youngest son Arthur Napier Thomas Baring died on September 7, 1870 at the age of only 16 years.

After his wife Elizabeth Harriett Sturt died on June 3, 1867 at the age of 40, Thomas George Baring did not remarry and remained a widower until his death on November 15, 1904. On his death he left a fortune of £ 247,000 .

publication

• Journals and Correspondence of Sir Francis Thornhill Baring, Lord Northbrook , posthumously 1905

Web links

• Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook at the Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• PEERAGE in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook on thepeerage.com , accessed January 6, 2019.
• Baronetage in Leigh Rayment Peerage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PRIVY COUNSELLORS 1836 - 1914 (leighrayment.com)
2. ↑ India: Viceroys and governors-general (rulers.org)
3. ↑ KNIGHTS AND DAMES (leighrayment.com)
4. ↑ United Kingdom: First Lords of the Admiralty (rulers.org)

predecessor	Office	successor
Richard Southwell Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo	Viceroy of India 1872–1876	Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Baron Lytton
William Henry Smith	First Lord of the Admiralty 1880–1885	George Francis Hamilton
Francis Thornhill Baring	Baron Northbrook 1866-1904	Francis George Baring
New title created	Earl of Northbrook 1876-1904	Francis George Baring