Friday, 4 January 2013
9 George Hamilton-Gordon (Lord Haddo)
Constituency : Aberdeenshire 1854 - 1860
George was the son of the Peelite Prime Minister, the Earl of Aberdeen . He was educated at Cambridge and came into Parliament during his father's term of office when his uncle stepped down for Aberdeenshire in 1854 . He won the seat despite being absent in Egypt seeking recovery from what was probably tuberculosis. He was officially titled Lord Haddo.
George made his maiden speech in favour of the secret ballot. He spoke in defence of his father's government against Roebuck's motion in 1855.He defended his relative Colonel Gordon in debate on The Crimean War. His last contribution to the Commons was a not very liberal resolution proposing to outlaw public money to schools of art which used nude models. It was suggested during the debate that he had not got his facts right and Palmerston himself spoke against it. It was easily defeated.
He relinquished his seat in 1860 when his father died and he became the 5th earl of Aberdeen. The Conservatives took the seat in the by-election. He returned to Egypt where he occupied himself with trying to convert the Copts to Evangelical Protestantism. He returned to Scotland to die in Haddo House in 1864 at the age of 47 not , as we shall see , the last Prime Minister's son to die prematurely.
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