John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley

The Right Honourable The Earl of Kimberley KG PC DL
Carte de visite showing the Earl of Kimberley, ca. 1868.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 25 July – 28 December 1882
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	John Bright
Succeeded by	John George Dodson
Lord President of the Council
In office 18 August 1892 – 10 March 1894
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	The Earl of Cranbrook
Succeeded by	The Earl of Rosebery
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 10 March 1894 – 21 June 1895
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by	The Earl of Rosebery
Succeeded by	The Marquess of Salisbury
Personal details
Born	7 January 1826 (2025-01-14UTC02:09:14) Wymondham
Died	London
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Lady Florence FitzGibbon (d. 1895)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford

John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley KG PC DL (7 January 1826 – 8 April 1902), known as the Lord Wodehouse from 1846 to 1866, was a British Liberal politician. He held office in every Liberal administration from 1852 to 1895, notably as Secretary of State for the Colonies and as Foreign Secretary.

Early life and education

Kimberley was born in 1826 in Wymondham, Norfolk, the eldest son of the Hon. Henry Wodehouse (1799–1834) and grandson of John Wodehouse, 2nd Baron Wodehouse. His mother was Anne Gurdon (d. 1880), daughter of Theophilus Thornhagh Gurdon. In 1846 he succeeded his grandfather as third Baron Wodehouse. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a first-class degree in classics in 1847.

Early career (1852–1870)

He was by inheritance a Liberal in politics, and in 1852–1856 and 1859–1861 he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Lord Aberdeen's and Lord Palmerston's ministries. In the interval (1856–1858) he had been envoy-extraordinary to Russia; and in 1863 he was sent on a special mission to Copenhagen in the hope of finding a solution to the Schleswig-Holstein question. However, the mission was a failure.

In 1864 Kimberley became Under-Secretary of State for India, but towards the end of the year was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In that capacity he had to grapple with the first manifestations of Fenianism, and in recognition of his services he was created Earl of Kimberley in 1866. In July 1866 he vacated his office with the fall of Lord Russell's ministry, but in 1868 he became Lord Privy Seal in Gladstone's cabinet, and in July 1870 was transferred from that post to be Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was the moment of the great diamond discoveries in southern Africa, and the town of Kimberley in the Cape Colony was named after him.

Later career (1871–1902)

Lord Kimberley, ca. 1897.

After an interval in opposition from 1874 to 1880, Lord Kimberley returned to the Colonial Office in Gladstone's next ministry. He was in that office when responsible government was granted to Cape Colony and British Columbia was added to the Dominion of Canada, and during the First Boer War. At the end of 1882 he exchanged this office first for that of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and then for the secretaryship of state for India, a post he retained during the remainder of Gladstone's tenure of power (1882–1885, 1886, 1892–1894), though in 1892–1894 he combined with it that of the lord presidency of the council.

In Lord Rosebery's cabinet (1894–1895) he was Foreign Secretary. During this time he signed the landmark Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation. Sir Edward Grey who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary under Kimberley at the Foreign Office portrays him unfavourably as prolix and prone to irrelevant digressions in conversation although concise, definite and clear on paper. However, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "As leader of the Liberal party in the House of Lords he acted with undeviating dignity; and in opposition he was a courteous antagonist and a critic of weight and experience".

Other public positions

On 5 April 1850, he joined the Canterbury Association, formed to establish a colony (in the later Canterbury Region) on the South Island of New Zealand.

Lord Kimberley took interest in education, and after being for many years a member of the senate of the University of London, he became its chancellor in 1899.

Family

Lord Kimberley married Lady Florence FitzGibbon (d. 1895), daughter of Richard FitzGibbon, 3rd Earl of Clare, on 16 August 1847. He died at 35 Lowndes Square in London on 8 April 1902, aged 76, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, John. His second son, the Hon. Armine Wodehouse, was also a Liberal politician but died at an early age. His more distant relations include the writer P. G. Wodehouse.

Ancestry

Family of John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley

16. Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet               8. Rt. Hon. John Wodehouse, 1st Baron Wodehouse of Kimberley                       17. Letitia Bacon               4. Rt. Hon. John Wodehouse, 2nd Baron Wodehouse of Kimberley                             18. Hon. Charles Berkeley               9. Sophia Berkeley                       19. Frances West               2. Hon. Henry Wodehouse                                   20. John Norris               10. John Norris                       21. Anne Carthew               5. Charlotte Laura Norris                             22. Hon. and Very Rev. Edward Townshend, Dean of Norwich               11. Charlotte Townsheand                       23. Mary Price               1. Rt. Hon. John Wodehouse, first Earl of Kimberley                                         24. Thornhaugh Gurdon               12. Brampton Gurdon                       25. Sarah Dillingham               6. Theophilus Thornhaugh Gurdon                             26. Philip Bedingfield               13. Mary Bedingfield                       27. Mary Bacon               3. Anne Gurdon                                   28. Joseph Mellish               14. William Mellish                       29. Dorothy Gore               7. Anne Mellish                             30. John Gore               15. Anne Gore                       31. Hannah Sambrooke

Memorials

The following places were named after the 1st Earl of Kimberley:

• the Kimberley region of Western Australia;
• Kimberley, a town in the Cape Colony and;
• Kimberley, New Zealand, a hamlet of in the Selwyn District.
• Kimberley Road in Hong Kong
• Kimberley Street, Penang, Malaysia

References

• Burke and Burke (1847). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, volume 1 (London: Henry Colburn).
• Burke, J.B. (1858). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Harrison).
• Hunter, J. and Clay, J.W. (ed.) (1895). Familiae Minorum Gentium, volume 3. (London: Harleian Society).
• Cokayne, G.E. (1892). Complete Peerage, 1st edition, volume 4 (London: George Bell and Sons; Exeter: William Pollard & Co.)
• Collins, A. (1779). [books.google.co.uk/books?id=zfk-AQAAMAAJ The Peerage of England], 5th edition, volume 6.
• Crisp, F.A. (1911). Visitation of England and Wales: Notes, volume 9 (printed privately).
• Wright, T. (1836). The History and Topography of the County of Essex, volume 1.
• Wroth, W.W. (1895). "Norris, John (1754-1777)", Dictionary of National Biography, volume 41.

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Kimberley
• Archival material relating to John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley listed at the UK National Archives
• Portraits of John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley at the National Portrait Gallery, London

Political offices
Preceded by Lord Stanley	Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1852–1856	Succeeded by The Earl of Shelburne
Preceded by William Vesey-FitzGerald	Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1859–1861	Succeeded by Austen Henry Layard
Preceded by Hon. Thomas Baring	Under-Secretary of State for India 1864	Succeeded by The Lord Dufferin and Claneboye
Preceded by The Earl of Carlisle	Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1864–1866	Succeeded by The Marquess of Abercorn
Preceded by The Earl of Malmesbury	Lord Privy Seal 1868–1870	Succeeded by The Viscount Halifax
Preceded by The Earl Granville	Colonial Secretary 1870–1874	Succeeded by The Earl of Carnarvon
Preceded by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Bt	Colonial Secretary 1880–1882	Succeeded by The Earl of Derby
Preceded by John Bright	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1882	Succeeded by John George Dodson
Preceded by Marquess of Hartington	Secretary of State for India 1882–1885	Succeeded by Lord Randolph Churchill
Preceded by Lord Randolph Churchill	Secretary of State for India 1886	Succeeded by The Viscount Cross
Preceded by The Viscount Cross	Secretary of State for India 1892–1894	Succeeded by Henry Fowler
Preceded by The Viscount Cranbrook	Lord President of the Council 1892–1894	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by The Earl of Rosebery	Foreign Secretary 1894–1895	Succeeded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Party political offices
Preceded by The Earl Granville	Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords 1891–1894	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by The Earl of Rosebery	Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords 1896–1902	Succeeded by The Earl Spencer
Academic offices
Preceded by The Lord Herschell	Chancellor of the University of London 1899–1902	Succeeded by The Earl of Rosebery
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Earl of Kimberley 1866–1902	Succeeded by John Wodehouse
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by John Wodehouse	Baron Wodehouse 1846–1902	Succeeded by John Wodehouse