The Earl of Aberdeen | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Lord Aberdeen in July 1860 | |
| Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
| In office 19 December 1852 – 30 January 1855 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Derby |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Palmerston |
| Foreign Secretary | |
| In office 2 September 1841 – 6 July 1846 | |
| Prime Minister | Sir Robert Peel |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Palmerston |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Palmerston |
| In office 2 June 1828 – 22 November 1830 | |
| Prime Minister | The Duke of Wellington |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Dudley |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Palmerston |
| Secretary of State for War and the Colonies | |
| In office 20 December 1834 – 8 April 1835 | |
| Prime Minister | Sir Robert Peel |
| Preceded by | Thomas Spring Rice |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Glenelg |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 26 January 1828 – 2 June 1828 | |
| Prime Minister | The Duke of Wellington |
| Preceded by | The Lord Bexley |
| Succeeded by | Charles Arbuthnot |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Gordon 28 January 1784[1] Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, Great Britain |
| Died | 14 December 1860 (aged 76)[1] St James's, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom |
| Resting place | St John the Evangelist, Great Stanmore |
| Political party | Peelite (1846–1859) |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal (1859–1860) Conservative (1834–1846) Tory (before 1834) |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 9, including George |
| Parent(s) | George Gordon, Lord Haddo Charlotte Baird |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Signature |  |
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG, KT, PC, FRS, FRSE, FSA Scot (28 January 1784 – 14 December 1860[1]), styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a British statesman, diplomat and landowner, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite politician and specialist in foreign affairs. He served as Prime Minister from 1852 until 1855 in a coalition between the Whigs and Peelites, with Radical and Irish support. The Aberdeen ministry was filled with powerful and talented politicians, whom Aberdeen was largely unable to control and direct. Despite his efforts to avoid this happening, his ministry took Britain into the Crimean War, and fell when the war's conduct became unpopular. Subsequently, Aberdeen retired from politics.
Born into a wealthy family with the largest estates in Scotland, his personal life was marked by the loss of both parents by the time he was eleven, and of his first wife after only seven years of a happy marriage. His daughters died young, and his relations with his sons were difficult.[2] He travelled extensively in Europe, including Greece, and he had a serious interest in the classical civilisations and their archaeology. His Scottish estates having been neglected by his father, he devoted himself (when he came of age) to modernising them according to the latest standards.
After 1812 he became a diplomat, and in 1813, at age 29, was given the critically important embassy to Vienna, where he organised and financed the sixth coalition that defeated Napoleon. His rise in politics was equally rapid and lucky, and "two accidents — Canning's death and Wellington's impulsive acceptance of the Canningite resignations" led to his becoming Foreign Secretary for Prime Minister Wellington in 1828 despite "an almost ludicrous lack of official experience"; he had been a minister for less than six months. After holding the position for two years, followed by another cabinet role, by 1841 his experience led to his appointment as Foreign Secretary again under Robert Peel for a longer term.[3] His diplomatic successes include organizing the coalition against Napoleon in 1812–1814, normalizing relations with post-Napoleonic France, settling the old border dispute between Canada and the United States, and ending the First Opium War with China in 1842, whereby Hong Kong was obtained. Aberdeen was a poor speaker, but this scarcely mattered in the House of Lords. He exhibited a "dour, awkward, occasionally sarcastic exterior".[4] His friend William Ewart Gladstone, said of him that he was "the man in public life of all others whom I have loved. I say emphatically loved. I have loved others, but never like him".[5]