Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook, (22 January 182615 November 1904) was a British

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

statesman. Gladstone appointed him

Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

1872–1876. His major accomplishments came as an energetic reformer who was dedicated to upgrading the quality of government in the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

. He reduced taxes and overcame bureaucratic obstacles in an effort to reduce both starvation and widespread social unrest. He served as

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

between 1880 and 1885.

Background and education

Northbrook was the eldest son of

Francis Baring, 1st Baron Northbrook Francis Thornhill Baring, 1st Baron Northbrook, (20 April 1796 – 6 September 1866), known as Sir Francis Baring, 3rd Baronet, from 1848 to 1866, was a British Whig politician who served in the governments of Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russ ...

, by his first wife Jane, daughter of the

Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet, (10 October 1767 – 3 October 1828) was a British Royal Navy officer and a scion of the noble House of Grey. He served with the Royal Navy from the age of 14 and was on active service from 1781 to 1804, during the ...

. Jane died when young Thomas was less than thirteen, and he studied under a tutor, Mr. Bird, at home and took an interest in natural history. At fourteen Thomas wrote to his father who was holidaying at Weymouth to capture a yellow butterfly with black spots at the end of each wing known to be found on Portland Island. He was sent briefly to another tutor, Mr. Vaughan Johnson at Chalons-sur-Marne, to study French. He also took an interest in sketching, learning from S. Palmer, and later his friend Edward Lear. He went to Christ Church, Oxford in 1843, and graduated with honours in 1846. He travelled in Europe and took an interest in mountaineering, joining his friend from Oxford, Alfred Seymour.

Political career

Northbrook entered upon a political career, and was successively private secretary to

Henry Labouchere Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

(Board of Trade), Sir George Grey (Home Office), and Sir Charles Wood (India Office and then Admiralty to 1857). In 1847 he served on the committee 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 ...

. In 1857, he was returned to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

for Penryn and Falmouth, which he represented until becoming a peer on the death of his father in 1866. He served under

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

Civil Lord of the Admiralty The Civil Lord of the Admiralty formally known as the Office of the Civil Lord of Admiralty also referred to as the Department of the Civil Lord of the Admiralty was a member of the Board of Admiralty who was responsible for managing the Royal N ...

between 1857 and 1858, as

Under-Secretary of State for War The position of Under-Secretary of State for War was a British government position, first applied to Evan Nepean (appointed in 1794). In 1801 the offices for War and the Colonies were merged and the post became that of Under-Secretary of State fo ...

in 1861, as

Under-Secretary of State for India This is a list of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State and Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Permanent Under-Secretaries of State at the India Office during the British India, period of British rule be ...

between 1861 and 1864, under Palmerston and Lord Russell as

Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department This article lists past and present Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State serving the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom at the Home Office. Non-permanent and parliamentary under-secretaries, 1782–present *April 1782: Evan Nepean *April 1 ...

between 1864 and 1866 and under Russell as

Secretary to the Admiralty S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. Histor ...

in 1866. When

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 ...

acceded to power in 1868, Baring was again appointed Under-Secretary of State for War, and this office he held until February 1872, when he was appointed

. On 3 May he was Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India and ex officio Grand Master of the Order. In January 1876, however, he resigned. He had recommended the conclusion of arrangements with Sher Ali Khan which, as has since been admitted, would have prevented the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

; but his policy was overruled by the

Duke of Argyll Duke of Argyll ( gd, Diùc Earraghàidheil) is a title created in the peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The earls, marquesses, and dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerfu ...

, then

Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...

. in 1876 he was created Viscount Baring, of Lee in the County of Kent, and Earl of Northbrook, in the County of Southampton. Northbrook Granville Selbourne Salisbury Vanity Fair 5 July 1882

Northbrook Granville Selbourne Salisbury Vanity Fair 5 July 1882

From 1880 to 1885 Northbrook held the post of

in Gladstone's second government. During his tenure of office the state of the navy aroused much public anxiety and led to a strong agitation in favor of an extended shipbuilding programme. The agitation called forth

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

's poem ''The Fleet''. In September 1884, Northbrook was sent to

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

as special commissioner to inquire into its finances and condition. The inquiry was largely unnecessary, all the essential facts being well known, but the mission was a device of Gladstone's to avoid an immediate decision on a perplexing question. Northbrook, after six weeks of inquiry in Egypt, sent in two reports, one general, advising against the withdrawal of the British garrison, and one financial. His financial proposals, if accepted, would have substituted the financial control of Britain for the international control proposed at the London Conference of June–August of the same year, but this was not carried out. When Gladstone formed his third ministry in 1886 Baring held aloof, being opposed to the

Home Rule Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...

policy of the prime minister; and he then ceased to take a prominent part in political life.

Other work

Arthur Stockdale Cope - Thomas George Baring, Earl of Northbrook

Baring had served in the

Hampshire Yeomanry The Hampshire Yeomanry was a yeomanry cavalry regiment formed by amalgamating older units raised between 1794 and 1803 during the French Revolutionary Wars. It served in a mounted role in the Second Boer War and World War I, and in the air defenc ...

, reaching the rank of major, and was appointed the regiment's Honorary Colonel on 26 January 1889. In 1890 he was appointed

Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. Since 1688, all the Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Hampshire. From 1889 until 1959, the administrative county was named the County of Southampton. *W ...

. In the 1880s he was president of an offshoot of the National Indian Association, which was named the Northbrook Indian Society after its president. From 1890 to 1893 he was president of the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

. In 1898 he sold the land of Manor House Gardens, to the London County Council, and also gifted land in Lee to public use, which was opened as Northbrook Park in 1903. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Botanic Society in November 1902.

Family

Lord Northbrook married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Charles Sturt and sister of Lord Alington, in 1848. They had two sons and one daughter. She died in June 1867, aged 40. Lord Northbrook remained a widower until his death at Stratton Park,

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, in November 1904, aged 78. There is a memorial to him at All Saints, East Stratton. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Francis.

Legacy in India

The Ghanta Ghar Multan, or Clock Tower of

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the old ...

, was named 'Northbrook Tower'. It is located in the center of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

province,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. A library named 'Northbrook Hall' is located in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Northbrook, Thomas Baring, 1st Earl Of 1826 births 1904 deaths People educated at Twyford School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India Baring, Thomas Lord-Lieutenants of Hampshire First Lords of the Admiralty Baring, Thomas Baring, Thomas Baring, Thomas Baring, Thomas Northbrook, E1 UK MPs who were granted peerages Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Thomas Viceroys of India 1870s in British India Presidents of the Royal Asiatic Society Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society Liberal Party (UK) hereditary peers Liberal Unionist Party peers Northbrook Eldest sons of British hereditary barons Lords of the Admiralty