Constituency : County Clare 1859-60, County Longford 1861-2, Kidderminster 1862-5
Luke was the son and heir of Henry White MP for Longford , the family descending from an eighteenth century bookseller who ended up a creditor of the Dublin administration. He was educated at Eton then went into the army achieving the rank of colonel.
Luke was elected along with the Tory Crofton Vandeleur in 1859 but his election was declared void ( the Liberals won the by-election anyway ). In 1861 his father made way for him at Longford. A year later Palmerston made him a junior Lord of the Treasury but he lost the consequent by-election when Major O'Reilly who had led a brigade defending the Pope against Garibaldi stood against him on the government's Italian policy. Both sides accused the other of intimidation in a disorderly contest but O'Reilly's victory was clear. Luke retreated to England where two months later the MP for Kidderminster stood down for him.
Luke lost the seat against the trend in 1865 when a scurrilous letter describing his Conservative opponent as "a fraudulent adventurer" backfired on him.
Luke was State Steward in Earl Spencer's Irish administration from 1868 to 1873. He inherited his father's title in 1873 and died aged 58 in 1888.
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