Herbert Gardner, 1st Baron Burghclere

The Right Honourable The Lord Burghclere PC
"amateur theatricals". Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1886.
President of the Board of Agriculture
In office 25 August 1892 – 21 June 1895
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone The Earl of Rosebery
Preceded by	Henry Chaplin
Succeeded by	Walter Long
Personal details
Born	9 June 1846
Died	6 May 1921 (aged 74)
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Lady Winifred Herbert (d. 1933)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Herbert Colstoun Gardner, 1st Baron Burghclere PC (9 June 1846 – 6 May 1921) was a British Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 until he was raised to the peerage in 1895. He served as President of the Board of Agriculture between 1892 and 1895.

Background and education

Gardner was the son of Alan Gardner, 3rd Baron Gardner, by his second wife, the professional actress Juliah Sarah (née Fortescue). However, he was born two years before his parents' marriage and was consequently not allowed to succeed in the barony of Gardner on his father's death in 1883. He was educated at Harrow^[1] and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.^[2] At Cambridge, he was a member and eventually manager of the Amateur Dramatic Club which was 'flourishing exceedingly' under his management. He later acted with the Canterbury Old Stagers for whom he and William Yardley wrote some of the best plays and epilogues they produced.^[2] In 1867 Gardner was admitted at Inner Temple and was a Deputy Lieutenant of Middlesex.^[3]

Political career

At the 1885 general election Gardner was elected Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden, a seat he held until 1895. He served in the Liberal administrations of William Ewart Gladstone and later Lord Rosebery as President of the Board of Agriculture from 1892 to 1895.^[4] He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1892 and in 1895 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Burghclere, of Walden in the County of Essex.^[5]

Gardner was a director of the P and O Steamship Company. He was an Ecclesiastical Commissioner from 1903 to 1921 and chairman of Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. Gardner was also an author of several novels, and of the comedies Time will tell, Our Bitterest Foe, After Dinner and Cousin Zacchary. He published a translation of Virgil's Georgics in 1904.

Family

Lord Burghclere married Lady Winifred Anne Henrietta Christiana, daughter of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, and widow of Captain the Hon. Alfred John George Byng, in 1890. They had four daughters. His youngest daughter, Evelyn, was the first wife of the author Evelyn Waugh. Lord Bughclere died in May 1921, aged 74. As he had no sons the barony became extinct on his death. Lady Burghclere died in September 1933, aged 69.^[1]

References

1. thepeerage.com Herbert Colstoun Gardner, 1st and last Baron Burghclere of Walden
2. "Gardner, Herbert Colstoun (GRDR864HC)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886
4. Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Herbert Gardner
5. The London Gazette: no. 26649. p. 4364. 2 August 1895.

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.

Books

• Lady Winifred Burghclere and her troublesome daughters. Four immoral tales from the Roaring Twenties. by William Cross. ISBN 978-1-905914-41-8 (2017) Book Midden Publishing.

External links

• Books by Winifred Anne Henrietta Christine Herbert Gardner Burghclere
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Herbert Gardner