When I began this blog I didn't expect to unearth a personal connection beyond my mother's brief acquaintance with Cyril Smith and my own superficial encounters with latter-day Liberal Democrats but here we are with William whose much-younger second wife was my grandmother's aunt ( does that make her my great-great aunt ? I don't know ).
William was born at Dublin Castle and educated at Harrow and Oxford. He was first elected in a by-election for Dublin as a young Tory in 1842 but lost out by a mere 7 votes in 1847. He then went travelling publishing books on his adventures in Egypt and Tunis in the 1850s before returning to Parliament under the Peelite "Liberal Conservative" designation and perhaps more importantly as an enthusiast for Palmerston in 1857 at County Galway. He was a Protestant himself but had strong support from the Roman Catholic clergy.
William was averse to further parliamentary reform and attacked the 1860 Reform Bill in an able speech dwelling on the horrors of American democracy.
William supported the South in the American Civil War and was vigorously anti-Turkish as well. He was not enamoured of Russell and turned down the Secretaryship to the Admiralty joining the Adullamite faction instead. When Russell fell he turned down the same job offer from Derby and remained in the Liberal fold.
William was an avid fan of horse racing and often in financial difficulty as a result
William resigned his seat in 1872 to become Governor of Ceylon , a post he held for five years. He did not return to political life. In 1873 his first wife died after only 18 months of marriage and he married Isabella Persse , 35 years his junior seven years later. They had one son Robert who died in a friendly fire incident towards the end of World War One. They spent most of their married life travelling with visits to Egypt and Ceylon.
William died in London in 1892 aged 72.
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