George Canning

Biography

George Canning was born in Marylebone, London, in 1770 into an Anglo-Irish family; his father died in poverty when he was one year old and his mother became a stage actress. His merchant uncle Stratford Canning became his guardian and paid for his schooling at Eton, where he finished top of the school, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1791.

Turning from the Whig circle of his uncle to the patronage of William Pitt the Younger, he entered Parliament in 1793 and helped found the Anti-Jacobin, writing much of its satirical verse. He served as Paymaster of the Forces from 1800 and followed Pitt out of office in 1801, then became Treasurer of the Navy in 1804. As Foreign Secretary under the Duke of Portland from 1807 he was the dominant figure in the cabinet and directed the seizure of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen. His feud with Lord Castlereagh ended in their 1809 duel, in which Canning was wounded, and he was passed over for the premiership in favour of Spencer Perceval.

After Perceval's assassination he returned to office under Lord Liverpool as ambassador to Portugal and then President of the Board of Control. In 1822 he again became Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons. He signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, which divided British and Dutch spheres in the East Indies, and recognised the independence of the new Spanish American republics through commercial treaties, opening their markets to British trade.

When Liverpool retired in April 1827, Canning became prime minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Wellington and Peel refused to serve under him, splitting the Tories, and he brought several Whigs into his cabinet. He died of pneumonia at Chiswick House on 8 August 1827, after 119 days in office, the shortest premiership until 2022.