Stephen Edmund Spring Rice (31 August 1814 – 9 May 1865), styled The Honourable from 1839 until his death, was an Anglo-Irish civil servant and philanthropist. He served as the Secretary of the

British Relief Association The British Association for the Relief of Distress in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, known as the British Relief Association (BRA), was a private charity of the mid-19th century in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Establis ...

between 1847 and 1848.

Early life

Spring Rice was the eldest son of

Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, (8 February 17907 February 1866) was a British Whig politician, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839. Background Spring Rice was born into a notable Anglo-Irish fam ...

and his first wife, Lady Theodosia Pery, daughter of

Edmund Pery, 1st Earl of Limerick Edmund Henry Pery, 1st Earl of Limerick PC (8 January 1758 – 7 December 1844), styled Lord Glentworth between 1794 and 1800, and Viscount Limerick until 1803, was an Irish peer and politician. Pery was the son of William Cecil Pery, 1st B ...

. He was born at

Mount Trenchard House Mount Trenchard House is an Irish stately home located near Foynes, County Limerick, overlooking the River Shannon. It was the ancestral seat of the Rice, and subsequently Spring Rice, family. The estate was originally granted to Francis Trenc ...

, and educated at

Bury St Edmunds Grammar School King Edward VI School is a co-educational Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The school in its present form was created in 1972 by the merging of King Edward VI Grammar School, with the Silv ...

, Suffolk and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. He was a

Cambridge Apostle The Cambridge Apostles (also known as ''Conversazione Society'') is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.W. C. Lubenow, ''The Ca ...

Career

From university, Spring Rice entered the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was appointed Commissioner of Customs in 1838 and Deputy Chairman of the

Board of Customs HM Customs (His or Her Majesty's Customs) was the national Customs service of England (and then of Great Britain from 1707, the United Kingdom from 1801) until a merger with the Department of Excise in 1909. The phrase 'HM Customs', in use si ...

in 1856. He served as

High Sheriff of County Limerick The High Sheriff of Limerick was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Limerick, Ireland from the 13th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Limerick County Sheriff. ...

in 1837. On 1 January 1847 he attended the inaugural meeting of the British Relief Association, held at the home of his friend Baron

Lionel de Rothschild Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (22 November 1808 – 3 June 1879) was a British Jewish banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit a ...

. Spring Rice, whose family owned estates in

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

, had first-hand experience of the

Great Irish Famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a ...

. As one of only two Irishmen on the Association's Committee, he was appointed its Honorary Secretary. Spring Rice donated £1,050 to the charity himself. The first public donor to the Association was

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, who sent a cheque for £1,000 to Spring Rice shortly after the charity's establishment. Spring Rice refused to accept the payment, and immediately wrote to

Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey (28 December 18029 October 1894), known as Viscount Howick from 1807 until 1845, was an English statesman. Background Grey was the eldest son of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who served as Prime Minister in the ...

to complain that the donation was "not enough". This was communicated to the Palace, and the Queen's donation was doubled. His letters show that he regularly clashed with

Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, 1st Baronet, (2 April 1807 – 19 June 1886) was a British civil servant and colonial administrator. As a young man, he worked with the colonial government in Calcutta, India. He returned to Britain and took ...

about the nature and extent of the British Relief Association's activities, and his influence was pivotal in ensuring the charity's success. Spring Rice's frustration with the overly-bureaucratic approach regarding the giving of government relief was evident in a letter to Trevelyan dated 26 February, when he requested that the Association be allowed to make immediate use of food in government stores, offering instant payment in return. On 15 March 1850 he was made Vice-President of

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...

's Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness. Spring Rice was poet throughout his adult life and in 1863 he published in Dublin ''Irish Crime, A Letter to A. Beresford Hope, a proprietor of the Saturday Review''.

Personal life

He married Ellen Mary Frere, daughter of William Frere, at

Grundisburgh Grundisburgh is a village of 1,584 residents situated in the English county of Suffolk. It is in the East Suffolk district, six north-east from Ipswich and north-west of Woodbridge located on the B1079. Flowing through the village are the ri ...

, Suffolk on 11 March 1839. Together they had ten children: *Hon. Aileen Spring Rice (died 15 June 1916), married John Raynor Arthur *

Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon (31 May 1849 – 24 December 1926) was an Anglo-Irish politician and landowner, who helped to found the anti-partition Irish Dominion League and was a key figure in the development of Irish co ...

(31 May 1849 – 24 December 1926) *Hon. Lucy Spring Rice (died 10 May 1884), married Octavius Knox *Hon. Theodosia Spring Rice (died 6 July 1926) *Mary Spring Rice (died 25 April 1868) *Hon. Alice Spring Rice (died 23 December 1929) - Unmarried, died in Dublin aged 82 years *Hon. Frederica Spring Rice (died 8 April 1924) *Hon. Catherine Ellen Spring Rice (died 22 September 1930) *Hon. Amy Spring Rice (died 13 June 1920) *

Francis Spring Rice, 4th Baron Monteagle of Brandon Commander Francis Spring Rice, 4th Baron Monteagle of Brandon (1 October 1852 – 22 December 1937) was an Anglo-Irish peer. Spring Rice was the son of Hon. Stephen Edmond Spring Rice, son of Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, a ...

(1 October 1852 – 22 December 1937) Spring Rice died on 9 May 1865 while returning from the Mediterranean on the steamship ''Tripoli''. As he predeceased his father, the family title passed to Spring Rice's son, Thomas, upon the first Baron's death a year later. In 1870, all of Spring Rice's living children were granted the right to bear the title of the child of a baron. Many of his letters are held by the

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is ...

and provide an important insight into political and social activity surrounding the Great Irish Famine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Stephen Spring 1814 births 1865 deaths 19th-century Anglo-Irish people British civil servants Eldest sons of British hereditary barons Heirs apparent who never acceded High Sheriffs of County Limerick Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge People educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

19th-century British philanthropists