Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
---|---|
In office 22 February 1866 – 8 August 1885 Hereditary peerage | |
Preceded by | Peerage created |
Succeeded by | The 2nd Viscount Halifax |
Member of Parliament for Ripon | |
In office 11 July 1865 – 21 February 1866 | |
Preceded by | Reginald Vyner |
Succeeded by | Lord John Hay |
Member of Parliament for Halifax | |
In office 10 December 1832 – 11 July 1865 | |
Preceded by | New constituency |
Succeeded by | Edward Akroyd |
Member of Parliament for Wareham | |
In office 2 May 1831 – 12 December 1832 | |
Preceded by | James Ewing |
Succeeded by | John Hales Calcraft |
Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby | |
In office 9 June 1826 – 25 July 1831 | |
Preceded by | William Duncombe |
Succeeded by | John Shelley |
Personal details | |
Born | Whig Liberal | 20 December 1800
Spouse | Lady Mary Grey (d. 1884) |
Children | 7, including Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax |
Alma mater | Oriel College, Oxford |
Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax
Background
Halifax was the son of Sir Francis Wood, 2nd Baronet of Barnsley, and his wife Anne, daughter of Samuel Buck. He was educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford, where he studied classics and mathematics.
Political career
A Liberal and Member of Parliament from 1826 to 1866, Wood abandoned the seat of Great Grimsby and was returned in 1831 for the pocket borough of Wareham, probably as a paying guest, which arrangement enabled him to remain in London in preparation for the reading of the Reform Bill. He confided his views to his father:
the reform is an efficient, substantial, anti-democratic, pro-property measure, but it sweeps away rotten boroughs and of course disgusts their proprietors. The main hope therefore of carrying it, is by the voice of the country, thus operating by deciding all wavering votes ... The radicals, for which heaven be praised, support us ...[1]
He voted meticulously for the bill at every stage, and it received the Royal assent in the following year.
Wood served as
Wood later served as President of the Board of Control under Lord Aberdeen (1852–1855), as First Lord of the Admiralty in Lord Palmerston's first administration (1855–1858), and as Secretary of State for India in Palmerston's second government (1859–1866). He succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1846, and in 1866 he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Halifax, of Monk Bretton in the West Riding of the County of York.[citation needed] After the unexpected death of Lord Clarendon necessitated a reshuffle of Gladstone's first cabinet, Halifax was brought in as Lord Privy Seal, serving from 1870 to 1874, his last public office.
Role in the Irish Famine
The
Wood's dispatch
As the President of the Board of Control, Wood took a major step in spreading education in India in 1854, when he sent a dispatch to Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India. Wood recommended the following:
- An education department should be set in every province.
- Universities on the model of the University of London should be established in large cities such as Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.
- At least one government school be opened in every district.
- Affiliated private schools should be given grant in aid.
- The Indian natives should be given training in the vernacular.
In accordance with the Wood's dispatch, education departments were established in every province and universities were opened at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1857, as well as in Punjab in 1882 and in Allahabad in 1887 [citation needed].
Family
Lord Halifax married Lady Mary Grey (3 May 1807 – 6 July 1884), fifth daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, on 29 July 1829. They had four sons and three daughters:[citation needed]
- Hon. Blanche Edith Wood (d. 21 July 1921) married 21 September 1876, Col Hon Henry William Lowry-Corry (30 June 1845 – 6 May 1927).
- Hon. Alice Louisa Wood (d. 3 June 1934)
- Charles Lindley Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax (7 January 1839 – 19 January 1934)
- Hon. Emily Charlotte Wood (1840 – 21 December 1904) married Hugo Francis Meynell-Ingram (1822 – 26 May 1871)
- Capt. Hon. Francis Lindley Wood, RN (17 October 1841 – 14 October 1873)
- Lt Col. Hon. Henry John Lindley Wood (12 January 1843 – 5 January 1903)
- Hon. Fredrick George Lindley Wood (later Meynell) (4 June 1846 – 4 November 1910)
Lady Halifax died in 1884. Lord Halifax survived her by just over a year and died in August 1885, aged 84. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son Charles, who was the father of Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax.
References
- ^ "Charles Wood". History of Parliament Online.
- ^ Hurd & Young, p. 116.
- ^ Hurd & Young, p. 121.
- ^ Charles Trevelyan, John Mitchel and the historiography of the Great Famine
- ISBN 9780140145151
- ^ a b Potatoes and Providence
- ^ The Irish Hunger and its Alignments with the 1948 Genocide Conventione
Bibliography
- Steele, David (May 2009). "Wood, Charles, first Viscount Halifax (1800–1885)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29865. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Kinealy, Christine (1994). This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845–52. Gill & Macmillan.
- Famine 150: Commemorative Lecture Series. Dublin: U.C.D.1997.
- Kinealy, Christine (1997). A Death-Dealing Famine: The Great Hunger in Ireland. London: Pluto Press.
- Kinealy, Christine (2005). "Was Ireland a Colony? The Evidence of the Great Famine". In Terrence McDonough (ed.). Was Ireland A Colony?. Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
- Boyce, D. George (2005). New Gill History of Ireland Vol. 5: Nineteenth Century Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
- Hickey, D. J.; Doherty, J. E. (2003). A New Dictionary of Irish History from 1800. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
- Ó Gráda, Cormac (2006). Ireland's Great Famine: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Dublin: U.C.D.
External links
- Media related to Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax at Wikisource
- Works by or about Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax at Internet Archive
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Halifax