Herbert Colstoun Gardner, 1st Baron Burghclere Personal Computer was a British Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 until he was raised to the peerage in 1895.
Background
Gardner was the son of Alan Gardner, 3rd Baron Gardner, by his second wife, the professional actress Juliah Sarah (née Fortescue). However, he was born two years before his parents" marriage and was consequently not allowed to succeed in the barony of Gardner on his father"s death in 1883.
Education
He was educated at Harrow and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Career
He served as President of the Board of Agriculture between 1892 and 1895. At Cambridge, he was a member and eventually manager of the Amateur Dramatic Club which was "flourishing exceedingly" under his management. He later acted with the Canterbury Old Stagers for whom he and William Yardley wrote some of the best plays and epilogues they produced.
In 1867 Gardner was admitted at Inner Temple and was a Deputy Lieutenant of Middlesex.
He served in the Liberal administrations of William Ewart Gladstone and later Lord Rosebery as President of the Board of Agriculture from 1892 to 1895. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1892 and in 1895 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Burghclere, of Walden in the County of Essex.
Gardner was a director of the P and O Steamship Company. He was an Ecclesiastical Commissioner from 1903 to 1921 and chairman of Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.
He published a translation of Virgil"s Georgics in 1904.
Lord Burghclere married Lady Winifred Anne Henrietta Christiana, daughter of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, and widow of Captain the Honorary Alfred John George Byng, in 1890. They had four daughters.
Lord Bughclere died in May 1921, aged 74.
As he had no sons the barony became extinct on his death. Lady Burghclere died in September 1933, aged 69.
Membership
23rd United Kingdom Parliament. 24th United Kingdom Parliament. 25th United Kingdom Parliament]
At the 1885 general election Gardner was elected Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden, a seat he held until 1895.