1182 William Gully

Constituency  : Carlisle  1886-1905 ( from  1895  Speaker )

William  succeeded  Robert  Ferguson  at  Carlisle.

William  was  the  son  of  Sir  William  Gully, the  royal  physician   from  Malvern. He  was  educated  at  University  College  School, London  and  Cambridge where  he  was  President  of  the  Union. He  became  a  barrister. He  contested  Whitehaven  in  1880  and  1883.

William's  maiden  speech  in  1887  was  against  the  Irish  coercion  bill. In  1889  he  acted  for  the  Parnellite  MP  William  O  Brien  when  he  brought  a  slander  case  against  Salisbury  who  had  claimed  that  he  incited  murder  by  his  speeches. Salisbury  won  the  case.

In  1895  William  was  propelled  to  the  Speakership  after  a  protracted  row  between  Rosebery  and  Harcourt . The  Unionists  were  unhappy  at  his  selection  and  greeted  him  with  cries  of  "Bravo  Gully  ! ( referring  to  the  cause  celebre  death of    Charles  Bravo  with  which  his  father  had  been  innocently  connected ).  He  made  his  son  Edward  his  Secretary  but  Edward  was  kept  on  by  his  successor.  He  was  regarded  as  a  relatively  weak  Speaker.

In  1905  William  resigned  and  was  elevated  to  the  peerage  as  Viscount  Selby.

He  died  in  1909  aged  74.