Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

Biography

Edward Smith-Stanley was born in 1799 at Knowsley Hall in Lancashire, the eldest son of the 13th Earl of Derby, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the Commons in 1822 as a Whig, the party of his family. As Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1830 he pursued tough coercive policies and in 1831 wrote the Stanley Letter that set up Ireland's system of national primary schools; in 1833 he became Colonial Secretary and steered the bill abolishing slavery through Parliament.

A devout Anglican, he left Lord Grey's government in 1834 over reform of the Church of Ireland and led a small group of ex-ministers who drifted towards Robert Peel's Conservatives. He returned to the Colonial Office under Peel in 1841, moved to the House of Lords in 1844, and broke with Peel in 1845 over repeal of the Corn Laws, taking most of the party with him. From 1846 he led the protectionist Conservatives, and he succeeded his father as earl in 1851.

Derby was prime minister three times, in 1852, 1858-1859 and 1866-1868, always at the head of a minority government with Benjamin Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer. His second ministry ended the rule of the East India Company after the 1857 rebellion, and his third passed the Reform Act of 1867, which greatly widened the vote. He retired on medical advice in early 1868 and Disraeli succeeded him.

He led the Conservative Party for 22 years, longer than any other British party leader, and was also a classical scholar and a keen patron of horse racing. He died at Knowsley in October 1869.