594 Charles Parker

Constituency : Perthshire  1868-74, Perth  1876-92

Charles  took  the  Tory  stronghold  of  Perthshire.

Charles  was  a  merchant's  son. He  was  educated  at  Eton  and  Oxford  and  became  a  public  examiner  at  the  latter  institution.  He  was  a  keen  mountaineer  and  made  the  second  and  fourth  attempts  on  the  Matterhorn  in  1860-61.  From  1864  to  his  election  he  was  private  secretary  to  Edward  Cardwell  and  married  his  sister.

Charles  was  an  intellectual  Radical. He  sat  on  a  number  of  Commissions  on  education  during  his  first  term  as  an  MP. He  was  a  contributor  to  Essays  In  Reform.

Charles  was  defeated  in 1874  but  won  at  Perth in  a  by-election  in  1876. In  the  1885-86  Parliament  he  was  chairman  of  referees  on  private  bills.

Charles  became  something  of  a  historian  of  the  Peelites. In  1899  he  published  Peel's  papers  and  eight  years  later  published  the  life  and  letters  of  Graham. He  was  a  friend  of  Gladstone  and  visited  him  at  Hawarden  frequently. He  also  went  climbing  in  the  Alps  with  Gladstone's  sons.

Charles  lost  in  1892  when  another  Liberal  candidate  split  the  vote. Strangely  Gladstone  blamed  him , the  sitting  MP  , for  not  standing  down.

He  died  in  1910  aged  80.