Saturday 21 June 2014

541 Sir Henry Hoare



Constituency : Windsor  1865-6, Chelsea  1868-74

Sir  Henry  was  one of  the  Liberal  victors  in  Windsor  where  they  took  both  seats  from  the  Tories.

Sir  Henry  was  a  baronet  who  had  succeeded  his  uncle  in  1857. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and Cambridge.  He  went  into  the  family  bank.

Sir  Henry  was  unseated  on  petition  in  1866, the  Liberals  winning  again  at  the  by-election  with different  candidates. Before  he  was  ejected  he  used  his  maiden  speech  to  fire  a  warning  shot   across  the  government's  bows  on  Reform : "There  are  in  this  House  a  majority  of  sixty  or  seventy Members  returned  at  the  last  general  election  to  support  the  late  Prime  Minister  ( i.e. Palmerston ), and  it  might  be  supposed  that  these  hon.  Gentlemen  will  remember  the  injunction, Nimium  ne  crede colori- that  they  will  not  follow  blindly  in  the  wake , or  support  the  propositions  of  the  Minister  of the  day".  He  later  gave  a  guarded  welcome  to  the  1866  Reform  Bill  saying  it  must  be accompanied  by  a  redistribution  of  seats  which  boosted  the  counties'  representation. His  last  speech in  1866  supported  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  church.

He  returned  for  Chelsea  in  1868 by  which  time  he  had  shed  his  allegiance  to  Palmerstonian  ideas  and  was  a  radical  but  lost  in  1874  when  the  intervention  of  a third  Liberal  candidate  allowed  the  sole  Tory  to  be  elected.

Sir  Henry  loved  hunting  and  horse  racing  and  lived  beyond  his  means. In  1883  he  had  to  sell family  treasures  to  remain  solvent  during  the  agricultural  depression.

In  later  years  Sir  Henry  moved  to  France. He  died  in  1894  aged  70.




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