William Waddington | |
|---|---|
 | |
| France's Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
| In office 1883–1893 | |
| Preceded by | Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour |
| Succeeded by | Alphonse Chodron, baron de Courcel |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 4 February 1879 – 28 December 1879 | |
| President | Jules Grévy |
| Preceded by | Jules Dufaure |
| Succeeded by | Charles de Freycinet |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 December 1826 |
| Died | 13 January 1894(1894-01-13) (aged 67) |
| Political party | None |
| Spouses | |
| Children | Henri Waddington Francis Richard Waddington |
| Parent(s) | Thomas Waddington Anne Chisholm |
| Relatives | Richard Waddington (brother) Charles Waddington (cousin) Walter Shirley (uncle) |
| Education | Rugby School |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Awards | Grand-Croix,Légion d'honneur |
William Henry Waddington (11 December 1826 – 13 January 1894) was a Frenchstatesman who served asPrime Minister in 1879, and as anAmbassador of France toLondon.
Waddington was born at theChâteau ofSaint-Rémy inEure-et-Loir, the son of a rich British industrialist, Thomas Waddington, whose family had established a largecotton manufacturing business in France, Établissements Waddington fils et Cie.
His father and mother Anne (née Chisholm - Scottish) were both naturalised French citizens, and Waddington received his early education at theLycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. He was then sent toRepton School and thenRugby School in Britain, supervised by his uncleWalter Shirley. After Rugby, he was admitted toTrinity College, Cambridge; he took anMA degree, having won Second Prize inClassics as well as the prestigiousChancellor's Gold Medal.[1]
Waddington rowed in the victoriousCambridge eight in theOxford and Cambridge Boat Race on theThames inrace of March 1849; he did not take part in therepeat race in December that year, which Oxford won.[2]
Returning to France, Waddington devoted himself for some years toarchaeological research. He travelled throughoutAsia Minor,Greece andSyria, and his experiences and discoveries are detailed in twoMémoires, the first produced by theFrench Institute and subsequently in hisMélanges de numismatique et de philologie ("Numismatic and Philological Miscellanies", 1861).[3]
Except for his essay on "The Protestant Church in France", published in 1856 inCambridge Essays, his remaining works all concernedarchaeology. They include hisFastes des Provinces Asiatiques de l'Empire Romain ("The Governor-Lists of the Asiatic Provinces of the Roman Empire", 1872), and editions ofDiocletian'sEdict on Maximum Prices and ofPhilippe Le Bas'Voyage archéologique (1868–1877).[3]
AFellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, in 1865, Waddington was also elected amember of theAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.[3]
After contesting theseat of theAisne for theChamber of Deputies unsuccessfully in 1865 and 1860, Waddington was elected asDeputy in January 1871. In 1873, he was appointedMinister of Public Instruction inPrime Minister Dufaure's short-lived second government of 18–24 May 1873.[4]
On 30 January 1876, he was electedSenator for Aisne[5] and was again nominated by Prime MinisterDufaure to the ministerial brief of Public Instruction. He was charged with devising aBill transferring extra powers to the State, a tricky task which he negotiated through the Chamber, but was defeated in theSenate. He continued to hold office underJules Simon's premiership until being thrown out during theSeize mai constitutional crisis (16 May 1877).
The triumph of the Republicans in the followingOctober 1877 General Election returned Waddington to government asMinister of Foreign Affairs, again under Prime MinisterDufaure. He was one of the French plenipotentiaries at theBerlin Congress (1878). The cession ofCyprus to the United Kingdom was, at first, perceived by theFrench newspapers as a great blow to his diplomatic reputation, until it became clear that his discussions withLord Salisbury had resulted in Britain's agreement to allow France a free hand inTunisia.In 1885, he was re-elected for the senate.[5]
Early in 1879 Waddington agreed to take over from Jules Dufaure as a caretakerPrime Minister with the agreement ofLéon Gambetta. He kept peace between the radicals and the reactionaries till the delay of urgent reforms lost him the support of all parties. He stepped down on 27 December.[3]
He refused the immediate offer of ambassadorship to London, preferring to take up the role in 1880 ofrapporteur to theparliamentary committee for theScrutin de liste (of elections); he delivered an adverse judgment.[3]
Ministerial changes
In 1883 Waddington accepted the appointment and dignity ofAmbassadeur de France toLondon. He held this post for ten years until 1893, during which time his wife,Mary Alsop King, wrote some recollections of their diplomatic experiences –Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883–1900 (New York, 1903), andItalian Letters of a Diplomat's Wife (1904), which were published after her husband's death.[3]
Waddington's first wife, whom he married in 1850, was Mathilde (died 1852), daughter of the banker,Henri Lutteroth [fr]; they had a son Henri (1852–1939), acaptain in theChasseurs Alpins (French Army), who married Émilie de La Robertie.
In Paris in 1874, Waddington married his second wife,Mary Alsop King (died 1923), an American-bornauthor from New York City, daughter ofCongressmanCharles King, 9th President ofColumbia College (by his second wife, the travel writer, Henrietta Liston Low).[6] They had one son, Francis Richard, who married (18 January 1903, Paris) Charlotte, daughter of Vice-AdmiralJean-Charles-Alexandre Sallandrouze de Lamornaix.[7] Charlotte was the granddaughter ofCharles Sallandrouze de Lamornaix.[8]
Grand-Croix,Légion d'honneur
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Waddington, William Henry".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 226.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Public Instruction 1873 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Public Instruction 1876–1877 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1877–1879 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1879 | |
General Council of Aisne until 2015 | |
