Gathorne Hardy was a British Conservative politician to serve as a Home Secretary from 1867 to 1868.
Background
Gathorne Hardy was born on 1 October 1814 at the Manor House, Bradford, the son of John Hardy of Dunstall Hall, Staffordshire. His father was the chief owner of Low Moor ironworks in Bradford, judge of the Duchy of Lancaster court at Pontefract, and M.P. for Bradford. His mother was Isabel, the eldest daughter of Richard Gathorne of Kirby Lonsdale, Westmoreland.
Education
After attending various preparatory schools and Shrewsbury school, Gathorne attended Oriel College, Oxford, where he obtained a B.A. in 1836, and, in order to vote against Gladstone, an M A. in 1861, which conferred upon him the right to vote in the university constituency.
In 1840 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple and became a barrister in the northern circuit, where he built up a substantial clientele.
Career
In 1846 Hardy unsuccessfully contested Bradford for the Conservatives. In 1856 he was elected as Conservative M.P. for Leominster, which he represented until 1865. He became undersecretary for the Home Office on 25 February 1858, in Lord Derby’s second ministry, under Home Secretary Spencer Walpole. He remained in that office until the fall of Derby’s ministry in June 1859.
In 1865 he was returned to Parliament as M.P. for the University of Oxford, opposing Gladstone’s reelection; and in July 1866 he was appointed president of the Poor Law Board and a member of the Privy Council in Lord Derby’s third ministry.
On 17 May 1867, after the Hyde Park riots, Hardy replaced Walpole as home secretary. His immediate concern was to deal with the Irish Fenian threat. Because he did not commute to a life sentence the capital punishment imposed upon the Fenian murderers at Manchester, his life was threatened on several occasions. He resigned along with other members of the Disraeli government in October 1868.
Hardy held many other positions in subsequent Conservative governments. In Disraelis second ministry he filled the post of secretary of war between 1874 and 1878, preparing for the possibility of a Mediterranean War. In 1878 he became secretary for India, replacing Lord Salisbury, who had gone to the Foreign Office. At this point, on 11 May 1879, Hardy was raised to the House of Lords as Viscount Cranbrook of Hem- sted, whereupon he assumed the additional surname of Gathorne. Now at the India Office, he supported the Vernacular Press Act of 1878— which allowed the government to silence any Indian newspapers that promoted disaffection—although he was unhappy with the intent of the bill. He also was in tune with the general concern about Russian expansionism and the restoration of Britain’s relations with Afghanistan.
With the collapse of Disraeli’s second ministry in 1880, Cranbrook played a less dominant role in politics. He was Lord President of the Council in Salisbury’s 1885 ministry, continuing in that role in Salisbury’s second ministry, from 1886 to 1892. In 1892 he was created Earl of Cranbrook. Thereafter he offered his services to the Conservative Party as and when required, but he never assumed office again. He died at Hemsted Park on 30 October 1906.
Personality
A popular politician and a good speaker, he was remembered as a good administrator.
Connections
He married Jane, the third daughter of James Orr, of Ballygowan, Irdand.