Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was a British lawyer whose spirited leadership of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons in the late 19th century marked him as one of the ablest of Great Britain's parliamentary figures.
Background
Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was born on October 14, 1827. Harcourt was the second son of the Rev. Canon William Vernon Harcourt, of Nuneham Park, Oxford and his wife Matilda Mary Gooch, daughter of Colonel William Gooch.
Education
William's childhood was an austere one, educated at home by a Swiss governess, he was sent to a private school at Southwell, Nottinghamshire when he was eight. William's father denied him a public school education, sending him to be educated in classics at the small class of Rev. John Owen Parr. He left Parr in 1844 and, after two more years' study at home, William entered Trinity College, Cambridge to pursue his interest in mathematics. At Cambridge he became an Apostle, and graduated with first-class honours in the classics tripos in 1851, but he did not enjoy the mathematics, graduating only senior optime.
At Cambridge, William rejected his family's Tory instincts and began to write for the Morning Chronicle in support of Sir Robert Peel. William's father encouraged him to seek a Cambridge fellowship or a career in politics but William chose law and journalism. He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1852 and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1854.
Career
From 1855 William started to write for the Saturday Review. He practised in railway law, commentating, especially in The Times on international law. In 1862, he wrote some famous letters to The Times over the signature of "Historicus," supporting Britain's neutrality in the American Civil War and condemning the widespread public sympathy for the Confederate States. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1866, and was appointed Whewell professor of international law at the University of Cambridge in 1869.
Harcourt entered parliament as Liberal member for Oxford, and sat from 1868 to 1880, being appointed Solicitor General and knighted in 1873. He was re-elected in the Liberal victory at the United Kingdom general election, 1880 and he was appointed Home Secretary.
His name became connected with the passing of the Ground Game Act 1880 and the Arms (Ireland) Act 1881. As Home Secretary at the time of the Phoenix Park killings and the subsequent London bombings he reacted rapidly, and the Explosive Substances Act 1883 was passed through all its stages in the shortest time on record. His robust stand on law and order brought him into conflict with the Irish members. In 1884 he introduced an aborted bill for unifying the municipal administration of London and was responsible for demanding the prosecution in the survival cannibalism case of R v. Dudley and Stephens. In 1885 he was responsible for commuting John "Babbacombe" Lee's death penalty to life imprisonment after his execution failed three times.
In 1886 Harcourt was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, an office which he again filled from 1892 to 1895. Between 1880 and 1892 Harcourt acted as Gladstone's political deputy. In 1894 he introduced and carried a memorable budget, which equalised the death duties on real and personal property. After Gladstone's retirement in 1894 and Lord Rosebery's selection as prime minister, Harcourt became the leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons.
During Harcourt’s period as leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, the all-House enquiry into the failed Jameson Raid took place. Harcourt’s performance in the enquiry disillusioned sections of the Liberal partyand in December 1898 Harcourt retired from the party and resigned his Leadership of the Opposition.
Harcourt was offered a peerage in 1902 but he declined it in order to stay in the House of Commons, and to allow his son to advance his political career.
Connections
On 5 November 1859, Harcourt married his first wife Maria Theresa Lister, known as Therese. She was a daughter of novelist Thomas Henry Lister and Lady Maria Theresa Villiers. They had two children: Julian Harcourt (6 October 1860 - 2 March 1862). Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (31 January 1863 - 24 February 1922). Lewis Harcourt served as Private Secretary to his father and later became a prominent politician in his own right, most notably as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1910 to 1915.
His first wife died on 1 February 1863, only a day after giving birth to their second and last son. Harcourt remained a widower for thirteen years. On 2 December 1876, he married his second wife Elizabeth Cabot Motley. Elizabeth was a daughter of American historian John Lothrop Motley and his wife Mary Benjamin. She had been previously married to naval officer Thomas Poynton Ives. Ives was among the casualties of the American Civil War. By this second marriage, Harcourt had his third and final son: Robert Harcourt (born 7 May 1878). He married Marjorie Laura Cunard. Their daughter Mary Elizabeth Harcourt married Ian Rochfort Johnston, a Commander of the Royal Navy.