Ralph Lingen, 1st Baron Lingen
The Lord Lingen | |
|---|---|
 Ralph Robert Wheeler, Lord Lingen, by George Percy Jacomb-Hood, 1896 | |
| Permanent Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 1869–1885 | |
| Preceded by | George Alexander Hamilton |
| Succeeded by | Sir Reginald Welby & Sir Edward Hamilton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 December 1819 |
| Died | 22 July 1905 (aged 85) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | civil servant |
Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen, 1st Baron Lingen KCB (19 December 1819 – 22 July 1905) was an English civil servant.
Background and education
Lingen was born in
Literae Humaniores (1840), was elected a fellow of Balliol (1841). He subsequently won the Chancellor's Latin Essay (1843) and the Eldon Law Scholarship (1846).[2]
Career
After teaching as an assistant master at
1847 Blue Books episode
in 1847-8 within which his disdain of the Welsh became apparent.
After a short period he was chosen in 1849 to succeed
Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke) became, as vice-president of the council, his parliamentary chief, Lingen worked congenially with him in producing the Revised Code of 1862 which incorporated "payment by results"; but the education department encountered adverse criticism, and in 1864 the vote of censure in parliament which caused Lowe's resignation, founded (but erroneously) on an alleged "editing" of the school inspectors' reports, was inspired by a certain antagonism to Lingen's as well as to Lowe's methods.[2]
Shortly before the introduction of
chancellors of the exchequer. It used to be said that the best recommendation for a secretary of the treasury was to be able to say "No" so disagreeably that nobody would court a repetition. Lingen was at all events a most successful resister of importunate claims, and his undoubted talents as a financier were most prominently displayed in the direction of parsimony. In 1885 he retired. He had been made a CB in 1869 and a KCB in 1878, and on his retirement he was raised to the peerage as Baron Lingen, of Lingen in the County of Hereford.[3] In 1889 he was made one of the first aldermen of the new London County Council
, but he resigned in 1892 with increasing deafness. His portrait contains the heraldic arms of Trinity College and not his personal arms which are recorded in Burke's Peerage and around his neck hangs his KCB order of knighthood.
Personal life
In 1852 Lord Lingen married Emma Hutton (1826-1908), daughter of Robert Hutton. There were no children from the marriage. He died on 22 July 1905, aged 85, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. The grave lies on the western side of the central enclosed roundel. The peerage died with him.[citation needed]
Lady Emma Lingen died in January 1908[4] and is buried with him.
Notes
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1903.
- ^ a b Lucas 1912.
- ^ "No. 25486". The London Gazette. 3 July 1885. p. 3060.
- ^ thepeerage.com Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen, 1st and last Baron Lingen
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lingen, Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen, Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 729.
References
- Lucas, Charles P. (1912). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Sutherland, Gillian. "Lingen, Ralph Robert Wheeler, Baron Lingen (1819–1905)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34548. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Ralph Lingen, Secretary to the Education Department 1849-1870, by A. S. Bishop. British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Jun., 1968), pp. 138–163. Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Educational Studies.