Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

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The Right Honourable The Viscount Palmerston KG GCB PC FRS
Palmerston in 1857
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 12 June 1859 – 18 October 1865
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	The Earl Russell
In office 6 February 1855 – 19 February 1858
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Aberdeen
Succeeded by	The Earl of Derby
Ministerial positions Home Secretary In office 28 December 1852 – 6 February 1855 Prime Minister The Earl of Aberdeen Preceded by Spencer Horatio Walpole Succeeded by Sir George Grey Foreign Secretary In office 6 July 1846 – 26 December 1851 Prime Minister Lord John Russell Preceded by The Earl of Aberdeen Succeeded by The 2nd Earl Granville In office 18 April 1835 – 2 September 1841 Prime Minister The Viscount Melbourne Preceded by The Duke of Wellington Succeeded by The Earl of Aberdeen In office 22 November 1830 – 15 November 1834 Prime Minister The Earl Grey The Viscount Melbourne Preceded by The Earl of Aberdeen Succeeded by The 2nd Earl Granville Secretary at War In office November 1809 – May 1828 Prime Minister Spencer Perceval The Earl of Liverpool George Canning The Viscount Goderich Preceded by The 1st Earl Granville Succeeded by Sir Henry Hardinge
Personal details
Born	Henry John Temple (1784-10-20)20 October 1784 Westminster, Middlesex, England
Died	18 October 1865(1865-10-18) (aged 80) Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey
Political party	Tory (1806–1830) Whig (1830–1859) Liberal (from 1859)
Spouse	Emily Lamb ​ (m. 1839)​
Parent	Henry Temple (father)
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh St John's College, Cambridge
Signature
Nicknames	Harry[1] Pam

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC, FRS (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865), known as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman and politician who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1855 to 1858 and from 1859 to 1865. A member of the Liberal Party, Palmerston was the first Liberal Prime Minister, and he dominated British foreign policy from 1830 to 1865, when Britain stood at the height of its imperial power.

He held office almost continuously from 1807 until his death in 1865. He began his parliamentary career as a Tory, defected to the Whigs in 1830, and became the first prime minister from the newly formed Liberal Party in 1859. He was highly popular with the British public. David Brown argues that "an important part of Palmerston's appeal lay in his dynamism and vigour".^[2]

Temple succeeded to his father's Irish peerage (which did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords, leaving him eligible to sit in the House of Commons) as the 3rd Viscount Palmerston in 1802. He became a Tory MP in 1807. From 1809 to 1828 he was Secretary at War, organising the finances of the army. He first attained Cabinet rank in 1827, when George Canning became prime minister, but he resigned from office one year later. He was Foreign Secretary 1830–1834, 1835–1841 and 1846–1851. In this office, Palmerston responded effectively to a series of conflicts in Europe.

In 1852, the 4th Earl of Aberdeen formed a coalition government. The Peelites insisted that Lord John Russell be foreign secretary, forcing Palmerston to take the office of home secretary. As home secretary Palmerston enacted various social reforms, although he opposed electoral reform. When Aberdeen's coalition fell in 1855 over its handling of the Crimean War, Palmerston was the only man able to sustain a majority in Parliament, and he became prime minister. He had two periods in office, 1855–1858 and 1859–1865, before his death at the age of 80 years, a few months after victory in a general election in which he had obtained an increased majority. He remains the most recent British prime minister to die in office.

Palmerston masterfully controlled public opinion by stimulating British nationalism. Although Queen Victoria and most of the political leadership distrusted him, he received and sustained the favour of the press and the populace, from whom he received the affectionate sobriquet "Pam". Palmerston's alleged weaknesses included mishandling of personal relations, and continual disagreements with the Queen over the royal role in determining foreign policy.^[3]

Historians rank Palmerston as one of the greatest foreign secretaries, due to his handling of great crises, his commitment to the balance of power (which provided Britain with decisive agency in many conflicts), and his commitment to British interests. His policies in relation to India, China, Italy, Belgium and Spain had extensive long-lasting beneficial consequences for Britain. However, Palmerston's leadership during the Opium Wars was questioned and denounced by other prominent statesmen such as William Ewart Gladstone.^[4] The consequences of the conquest of India have been reconsidered by more recent scholarship weighing the burdens placed on India in colonial rule and British uncertainty on proper governance.^[5] The consequences of his policies towards France, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States proved more ephemeral.