Figure timeline
William Ewart Gladstone was a British statesman who served four times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He began in politics as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Newark and ended as the face of the Liberal Party. His four non-consecutive terms — the most of any British prime minister — took place between 1868 and 1894. He also served four times as Chancellor of the Exchequer, fiv…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
politics · British statesman (1809–1898) · politician · diplomat · statistician · writer · head of government · also William Ewart Gladstone, Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart), William Gladstone, The Rt Hon William Ewart Gladstone, W. E. Gladstone, Gladstone
Born 29 December 1809 · Died 19 May 1898 · Q160852
97 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
14 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
“Hall in Dalkeith, was the result of having deluged many a hill and valley with blood. The Zulus were doing no more than would patriotic Britons, defending their own country. In Afghanistan, the Tories”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I give you the same reply that Cromwell gave,”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“the principle announced by the vice-president of the South...which asserts the superiority of the white man, and therewith founds on it his right to hold the black in slavery, I think that principle detestable, and I am wholly with the opponents of it”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“seriously tainted by its connection with slavery”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“much to estrange me, and had for many, many years”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“At last, my friends, I am come among you; and I am come – to use an expression which has become very famous and is not likely to be forgotten – I am come”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“In time of peace nothing but dire necessity should induce us to borrow”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“the dividing line ... between the educated and the labouring part of the community”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Public attention spiked: 3,102 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.4× the usual 902, with 0 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
insider.si.edu: William Ewart Gladstone
MutualArt.com: William Ewart Gladstone Solomon
“In 1834 the Government...did themselves high honour by the new Poor Law Act, which rescued the English peasantry from the total loss of their independence”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Died 1898-05-19.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I mean this, that together with the so-called increase of expenditure there grows up what may be termed a spirit which, insensibly and unconsciously perhaps, but really, affects the spirit of the people, the spirit of parliament, the spirit of the public departments, and perhaps even the spirit of those whose duty it is to submit the estimates to parliament.”
“I believe the slave trade to be by far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind in any Christian or pagan country.”
“This is the negation of God erected into a system of Government.”
“If you ever have to form a Government, you must steel your nerves, and act the butcher”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I venture on assuring you that I regard the design formed by you and your friends with sincere interest, and in particular wish well to all the efforts you may make on behalf of individual freedom and independence as opposed to what is termed Collectivism”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
In his last noteworthy speech, he denounced Armenian massacres by Ottomans in a talk delivered at Liverpool
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I desire to record my solemn declaration and assurance, as in the sight of God and before His Judgement Seat, that at no period of my life have I been guilty of the act which is known as that of infidelity to the marriage bed.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“a dead man, one fundamentally a Peel–Cobden man”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the age of 85, Gladstone bequeathed £40,000 (equivalent to approximately £4
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“break to pieces the continuous action of my political life, nor trample on the tradition received from every colleague who has ever been my teacher”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
During Gladstone's final ministry, a Royal Commission was set up to examine poverty in old age,
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 25th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1892–1895).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1892–1894).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Arguing that "Are we, because there was once a Liberal Party, to bow down and worship Gladstone – the great Minister who was too Christian in his charity, too Russian in his proclivities, to raise voice or finger" to def
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1886–1892).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone's party allied with Irish Nationalists to defeat Lord Salisbury's government
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 24th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1886–1886).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1886–1886).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Leader of the Opposition (1886–1892).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 23rd Parliament of the United Kingdom (1885–1886).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“In principle, perhaps my Coalwhippers Act of 1843 was the most Socialistic measure of the last half century”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone wrote that "In principle, perhaps my Coalwhippers Act of 1843 was the most Socialistic measure of the last half century"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Fellow of the Royal Society (1881).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Established the Irish Coercion Act, which permitted the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to detain people for as "long as was thought necessary", as there was rural disturbance in Ireland between landlords and tenants as Ca
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Chancellor of the Exchequer (1880–1882).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1880–1885).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Liberals won again and the Liberal leaders, Lord Hartington (leader in the House of Commons) and Lord Granville, retired in Gladstone's favour
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 22nd Parliament of the United Kingdom (1880–1885).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“s Christian subjects in 1880,”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
That: "I deeply deplore the manner in which, what I may call Judaic sympathies, beyond as well as within the circle of professed Judaism, are now acting on the question of the East"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 21st Parliament of the United Kingdom (1874–1880).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Instituted the Universities Tests Act
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
His government passed the Trade Union Act allowing trade unions to organise and operate legally for the first time (although picketing remained illegal)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
His government passed the Irish Land Act and Forster's Education Act
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Had entitled Irish tenants, if evicted, to compensation for improvements which they had made on their property, but had little effect) which gave Irish tenants the "3Fs" – fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Irish Church Resolutions were proposed as a measure to reunite the Liberal Party in government (on the issue of disestablishment of the Church of Ireland – this would be done during Gladstone's First Government in 18
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone became prime minister for the first time
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The South Lancashire constituency had been broken up by the Second Reform Act into two: South East Lancashire and South West Lancashire
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 20th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1868–1874).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1868–1874).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
And Gladstone became leader of the Liberal Party
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 19th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1865–1868).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The tax was reduced to ninepence (£0–0s–9d), in 1863 to sevenpence, in 1864 to fivepence and in 1865 to fourpence
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I am certain, from experience, of the immense advantage of strict account-keeping in early life. It is just like learning the grammar then, which when once learned need not be referred to afterwards”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone intended to abolish the duty on paper – a controversial policy – because the duty traditionally inflated the cost of publishing and hindered the dissemination of radical working-class ideas
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honour (1859).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Economy is the first and great article (economy such as I understand it) in my financial creed. The controversy between direct and indirect taxation holds a minor, though important place”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1859–1865).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Lord Palmerston formed a new mixed government with Radicals included, and Gladstone again joined the government (with most of the other remaining Peelites) as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to become part of the new Libera
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wrote to his brother, who was a member of the Financial Reform Association at Liverpool: "Economy is the first and great article (economy such as I understand it) in my financial creed
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Had opposed further electoral reform, but he changed his position during Palmerston's last premiership, and by 1865 he was firmly in favour of enfranchising the working classes in towns
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone took up the hobby of tree felling, mostly of oak trees, an exercise he continued with enthusiasm until he was 81 in 1891
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
But Gladstone – who like the other Peelites was still nominally a Conservative – declined a position in his government, opting not to sacrifice his free-trade principles
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1857–1859).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
A select committee was appointed by the Lords in 1857 to look into the question
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Almost completed the work begun by Peel eleven years before in simplifying Britain's tariff of duties and customs
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Had been abolished in 1858 but Gladstone revived it, with lower incomes to pay 6½d
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Following the appointment of Lord Aberdeen as prime minister, head of a coalition of Whigs and Peelites, Gladstone became Chancellor of the Exchequer
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: member of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom (1852–1857).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Responded to his critics in An Examination of the Official Reply of the Neapolitan Government
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone emerged as the leader of the Peelites in the House of Commons
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Founded the Church Penitentiary Association for the Reclamation of Fallen Women
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
– Peel had once held the seat but had lost it because of his espousal of Catholic Emancipation in 1829
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone helped to establish Glenalmond College, then The Holy and Undivided Trinity College at Glenalmond
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone and other Peel loyalists followed their leader in separating from the protectionist Conservatives; instead offering tentative support to the new Whig prime minister Lord John Russell, with whom Peel had coopera
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Joined the breakaway Peelite faction that merged into the new Liberal Party in 1859
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Over the Maynooth Grant issue, which was a matter of conscience for him
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone broke with his father when, as President of the Board of Trade, he advanced proposals to halve duties on foreign sugar not produced by slave labour, in order to "secure the effectual exclusion of slave-grown su
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career landmark: President of the Board of Trade (1843–1845).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone nearly ruined his career when he tried to force a religious mission upon the Conservative Party
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The family name was changed from Gladstones to Gladstone by royal licence
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
By Caroline Eliza Farquhar (daughter of Sir Thomas Harvie Farquhar, 2nd Baronet) and again in 1837 by Lady Frances Harriet Douglas (daughter of George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
At the London home of Old Etonian friend and then fellow-Conservative MP James Milnes Gaskell
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
When slavery was abolished across the British Empire, the owners were paid full value for the slaves
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
With intentions of becoming a barrister, by 1839 he had requested that his name should be removed from the list because he no longer intended to be called to the Bar
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
As a High Tory, a grouping that joined the Conservative Party under Sir Robert Peel in 1834
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
That emancipation should come after moral emancipation through the adoption of education and the inculcation of "honest and industrious habits" among the slaves
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
When the Oxford Union considered a motion in favour of the immediate emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies, Gladstone moved an amendment in favour of gradual manumission along with better protection for the perso
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Studied at Eton College (1821–1827).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
William followed in the footsteps of his elder brothers and attended Eton College before matriculating in 1828 at Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Classics and Mathematics, although he had no great interest in the la
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Gladstone also travelled to London and Cambridge for the first time with his parents
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Young "Willy" visited Scotland for the first time, as he and his brother John travelled with their father to Edinburgh, Biggar and Dingwall to visit their relatives
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born 1809-12-29.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Connections