Robert William Hanbury PC (24 February 1845 – 28 April 1903) was a British Conservative politician. He served as

President of the Board of Agriculture The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a United Kingdom cabinet position, responsible for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The post was originally named President of the Board of Agriculture and was created in 1889. ...

from 1900 to 1903.

Background and education

Hanbury was the only son of Robert Hanbury, of Bodehall House, Tamworth,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, and his wife Mary, daughter of Major T. B. Bamford, of Wilnecote Hall,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. The Hanbury family were landowners but mainly derived their wealth from collieries. He was orphaned at an early age and was later educated at

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and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

Political career

In 1872 he was elected to the House of Commons as one of two representatives for Tamworth, a seat he held until 1878, and then sat for Staffordshire North until 1880, when he lost his seat. He unsuccessfully contested

Preston Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to: Places England *Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement **The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement **County Boro ...

in 1882, but won the seat in 1885. During the Liberal stay in power from 1892 to 1895 Hanbury was a vigorous critic of

William Ewart Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

Second Home Rule Bill The Government of Ireland Bill 1893 (known generally as the Second Home Rule Bill) was the second attempt made by Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, to enact a system of home rule for Ireland. ...

from a financial perspective. When the Conservatives came to power in 1895 under

Lord Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...

, he was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury and sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. After the 1900 general election he was promoted to

, with a seat in the cabinet, by Salisbury. He held this post until his death three years later, the last year under the premiership of Arthur Balfour. In August 1901 he received the

Freedom of the City The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

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''for services rendered in connection with the effort to obtain a licence to establish a municipal telephone exchange''. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

in November 1902.

Personal life

Hanbury married firstly Ismena Tindal, daughter of Thomas Morgan Gepp, in 1869. She died in 1871. He married secondly Ellen, only child of Knox Hamilton, in 1884. There were no children from the two marriages. He died suddenly from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in April 1903, aged 58. He was buried in the churchyard at his country seat of Ilam, near

Ashbourne, Derbyshire Ashbourne is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district in Derbyshire, England. Its population was measured at 8,377 in the 2011 census and was estimated to have grown to 9,163 by 2019. It has many historical buildings and independent sho ...

. His widow later married Victor Bowring and assumed the surname of Bowring-Hanbury.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanbury, Robert William 1845 births 1903 deaths Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1868–1874 UK MPs 1874–1880 UK MPs 1885–1886 UK MPs 1886–1892 UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 UK MPs 1900–1906