Gladstone, William ___ 1809-1898 ___ British ___ politician

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Gladstone was born in Liverpool, the son of a prosperous merchant, and educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford. Although planning to enter the church, he decided instead on politics. He was elected a Tory MP for Newark in 1832, when only 23. His talent for public speaking led Prime Minister Robert Peel to give him appointments in the Treasury and then in the Colonial Office. After six years in opposition, he returned to government still under Peel, and was eventually appointed President of the Board of Trade. In the late 1840s and 1850s, Gladstone's political views changed. As a young man, he had been a Tory, and yet by 1859 he had joined the Whigs (or Liberals) and then became Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell. He succeeded Russell as leader of the Liberal party in 1867. He was Prime Minister on four separate occasions (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94), enabling many reforms, including, in his second term the Reform Act, which extended the vote to many rural voters. His last two terms were dominated by the Irish Home Rule issue. In July 1839, Gladstone married Catherine Glynne (who bore eight children) and, at together they set up a 'rescue' home for prostitutes. Gladstone used to wonder the streets of London at night trying to persuade prostitutes to start a new life. Given Gladstone's life and great achievements, it is disappointing to find his diary, kept for 70 years, bald and uninteresting.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1826-1896 ___ political people royalty health historyeye

WEB TEXT LINKS
about campaigning in Scotland
googlebooks pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Lambeth Palace Library - 1925-1935
St Deniol's Library - possibly or else British Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Life of Gladstone
The Gladstone diaries, with cabinet minutes and Prime Ministerial correpondence: 14 vols
 

May 2005, June 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.