Constituency : North West Riding 1865-82
Frederick won the new seat of North West Riding.
Frederick was the younger brother of Lord Hartington. Like him he was home educated in Lancashire before going to Cambridge. He served as a cornet in the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry. He became Lord Granville's private secretary in 1859 and travelled to the USA and Spain. He supported the North in the American Civil War acquiring the nickname "Old Yankee Freddie". In 1864 he married Gladstone's neice.
Like his brother six years earlier Frederick moved the Queen's Speech after the election victory. He became Gladstone's private secretary and then from 1872 a whip. Gladstone rated his abilities higher than those of his brother though critics have suggested this was because Frederick gave him more uncritical support. In 1880 he was made Financial Secretary to the Treasury where he did much of the routine financial work because the Chancellor of the Exchequer was Gladstone himself.
Frederick was generally more Radical than his brother and enthusiastic about parliamentary reform. In contrast to his brother's laid back style he was fiery and tactless with an aggressive oratorical approach marred by speech defects.
In 1882 Frederick was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland after the resignation of Forster. On his first day in Dublin he was walking through Phoenix Park, Dublin with the permanent under-secretary Burke when the latter was attacked by assassins from an extreme nationalist group. Burke was the target and Frederick was only killed as a result of trying to defend him; the killers didn't even know who he was. He was 45. Half the Commons came up to Chatsworth on a special train for his funeral.
His murder had profound political consequences . Frederick had acted as a bridge between Gladstone and Hartington , the PM sometimes asking him for Hartington's opinions rather than directly contacting the latter. It led directly to the final breach between them.
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