Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/108

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Gathorne-Hardy
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Gathorne-Hardy

and was buried at Gambela. A tablet was put up to his memory in Claverley church, Shropshire.

Gatacre married (1) in 1876 Alice Susan Louisa, third daughter of Anthony La Touche Kerwen, D.D., dean of Limerick, by whom he had three sons, and whom he divorced in 1892; (2) on 10 Nov. 1895 Beatrix, daughter of Horace, Lord Davey [q. v. Suppl. II], who survived him without issue.

[An admirable life of him, by Lady Gatacre, 1910; The Times, 6 March 1906; Captains G. J. and F. E. Younghusband, The Relief of Chitral, 1895; G. W. Steevens, With Kitchener to Khartum, 1898; Sir F. Maurice, Official History of the War in South Africa; S.A. War Commission, Evidence, ii. 272-8.]

E. M. L.

GATHORNE-HARDY, GATHORNE, first Earl of Cranbrook (1814–1906), statesman, born on 1 Oct. 1814 at the Manor House, Bradford, was third son of John Hardy (d. 1855), of Dunstall Hall,' Staffordshire, the chief proprietor of Low Moor ironworks, judge of the duchy of Lancaster court at Pontefract and member of parlia- ment for Bradford, by his wife Isabel, the eldest daughter of Richard Gathorne of Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland. After attending preparatory schools at Bishopton near Studley, at Hammersmith, and at Haslewood near Birmingham, Gathorne was admitted in 1827 to Shrewsbury school, and in January 1833 he entered Oriel College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1836 with a second class in classics, and proceeded M.A. in 1861 in order to vote against Gladstone. On 2 May 1840 Hardy was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, and joined the northern circuit. Shrewd business qualities combined with family interest and Yorkshire clannishness soon attracted clients. He rapidly attained prominence in his profession, and by 1855 he had acquired a complete lead on sessions and at the parliamentary bar. In the same year he applied for silk, but to his disappointment promotion was refused him. His father's death, however, in 1855 left him ample means, and allowed him to devote himself to politics.

Henceforth political interests became all-absorbing. In 1847 Hardy had unsuccessfully contested Bradford in the conservative interest, and in 1856 he entered the House of Commons as conservative member for Leominster, which he continued to represent till 1865. He rapidly won the esteem and confidence of Spencer Walpole [q. v.], and on his recommendation he was appointed under-secretary for the home department on 25 Feb. 1858, in Lord Derby's second administration. Like other members of the tory party, Hardy began by distrusting Benjamin Disraeli, then chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, as 'a shifty and unsafe tactician.' When a circular from the chief whip. Sir William Jolliffe [q. v.], requested closer attention to his parliamentary duties. Hardy impulsively tendered his resignation, which he withdrew on the interposition of Spencer Walpole. He remained in office till the fall of the Derby ministry on 14 June 1859. In opposition Hardy found more scope for initiative and independence. His dashing attacks on John Bright and Lord John Russell contributed to the withdrawal of the abortive reform bill of 1860; and at the end of the session he declined an offer of the post of chief whip. Active in championing the rights and privileges of the Church of England, he helped in 1862 to reject a bill relieving nonconformists from the payment of church rates. Devotion to the established church recommended Hardy to the electors of the University of Oxford when they were bent, in 1865, on opposing Gladstone's re-election. Hardy somewhat reluctantly accepted the nomination of the conservatives. His victory by a majority of 180 on 18 July gave him a foremost place in the affairs of his party.

On the formation of Lord Derby's third administration Hardy was appointed on 2 July 1866 president of the poor law board, and was sworn of the privy council. After an exhaustive inquiry he introduced a poor law amendment bill on 8 Feb. 1867, and carried it through all its stages without any substantial alteration. This measure for the relief of the London poor established a metropolitan asylum for sick and insane paupers, provided separate accommodation for fever and smallpox patients, and gave some relief to poor parishes by a more equitable re-apportionment of the metropolitan poor rate and by charging the salaries of medical officers upon the common fund.

Hardy remained in the cabinet amid the dissensions over the reform bill of 1867, to which, despite misgivings, he gave a full support. Disraeli's personality told upon him and he had become an enthusiastic disciple.

In May 1867, on the resignation of Spencer Walpole after the Hyde Park riots. Hardy accepted the difficult post of home secretary. The liberal opposition compelled him to withdraw a bill declaring it to be illegal to