Sir John Eldon Gorst | |
|---|---|
 "Tory organisation". Caricature bySpy published inVanity Fair in 1880. | |
| Solicitor-General | |
| In office 2 July 1885 – 28 January 1886 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | Sir Farrer Herschell |
| Succeeded by | Sir Horace Davey |
| Under-Secretary of State for India | |
| In office 4 August 1886 – 9 November 1891 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | Stafford Howard |
| Succeeded by | George Curzon |
| Financial Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 9 November 1891 – 11 August 1892 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | William Jackson |
| Succeeded by | Sir J. T. Hibbert |
| Vice-President of the Committee on Education | |
| In office 4 July 1895 – 8 August 1902 | |
| Monarchs | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Arthur Dyke Acland |
| Succeeded by | The Duke of Devonshire |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 24 May 1835 (1835-05-24) Preston, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 4 April 1916 (1916-04-05) (aged 80) London, England |
| Political party | |
| Spouse | |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
Sir John Eldon Gorst,PC, KC, FRS (24 May 1835 – 4 April 1916) was a British lawyer and politician. He served asSolicitor-General for England and Wales from 1885 to 1886 and asVice-President of the Committee on Education between 1895 and 1902.
Gorst was born inPreston, Lancashire, the son of Edward Chaddock Gorst, who took the name of Lowndes on succeeding to the family estate in 1853.[1] He graduated thirdwrangler fromSt John's College, Cambridge, in 1857, and was admitted to a fellowship.[2]
After beginning to read for the bar in London, his father's illness and death led to his sailing toNew Zealand. TheMāori had at that time set up a king of their own in theWaikato district and Gorst, who had made friends with the chiefWiremu Tamihana (William Thomson), known as the kingmaker, established a Māori trade school in Te Awamutu and later acted as an intermediary between the Māori and the government.Sir George Grey made him inspector of schools, then resident magistrate, and eventually civil commissioner in Upper Waikato which the Kingite Māori considered their own land. Tamihana's influence secured his safety at the start of the conflict when chief Rewi Maniapoto of the Ngāti Maniapoto tribe and his warriors attempted to kill Gorst. As Gorst was forewarned they made do by destroying the trade school, destroying a printing press and scaring all the settlers out of the Waikato where they had lived peacefully since 1830. This incident and the ambush and killing of British troops walking along a beach near New Plymouth, led to a restart of the war between theMāori King Movement and the New Zealand government in 1863. In 1884 he hosted the Māori King when he and his party came to England to seek an audience with Queen Victoria over issues to do with land. At that time Gorst was a member of the liberal Aborigine Protection League. In 1908 he published a volume of recollections, under the title ofNew Zealand Revisited: Recollections of the Days of my Youth.[1]
Gorst then returned to England and wascalled to the Bar,Inner Temple, in 1865, becoming aQueen's Counsel in 1875. He stood unsuccessfully forHastings as aConservative in the1865 general election,[1] but the next year he entered parliament as member forCambridge.[3][4] He served as chairman of the inaugural meeting of theNational Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in November 1867.[5] He was not re-elected at the1868 general election. After the Conservative defeat of that yearBenjamin Disraeli entrusted him with the reorganization of the party machinery, and in five years of hard work he paved the way for the Conservative success at thegeneral election of 1874.[1]
At a by-election in 1875 Gorst reentered parliament as member forChatham, which he continued to represent until 1892.[1][6] He joinedSir Henry Drummond-Wolff,Lord Randolph Churchill andArthur Balfour in theFourth Party as an advocate ofTory democracy. When the Conservatives came to power in 1885 underLord Salisbury he was madeSolicitor-General[1][7] and knighted. The government fell in January 1886 but when the Conservatives returned to office, in July of the same year, he was appointedUnder-Secretary of State for India by Salisbury.[1] At the India Office he had a reputation for being competent but obsessed by "his bloody career" (according to an Indian administrator) and for treating his bossViscount Cross with ill concealed contempt.[8] He was sworn of thePrivy Council in 1890[1][9] and the following year he becameFinancial Secretary to the Treasury, a post he held until 1892. Between 1888 and 1891 he also served as deputy chairman of committees in theHouse of Commons.[1]
At thegeneral election of 1892 Gorst became one of the two members forCambridge University.[1][4] On the formation of thethird Salisbury administration in 1895 he becameVice-President of the Committee on Education,[1][10] which he remained until August 1902, when the post was renamed President of the Board of Education.[1] However, he was never a member of the Cabinet. In 1897 he was rumoured to have been the next Governor of New Zealand, althoughLord Ranfurly was chosen (and Gorst was said to have twice refused the Cape governorship, a more prestigious position) .[11]
Gorst remained committed to the principles ofTory democracy which he had advocated in the days of the Fourth Party, and continued take an active interest in the housing of the poor, the education and care of their children, and in social questions generally, both in parliament and in the press. However, he became exceedingly independent in his political action.[1] In 1905 he contributed toRobert Morant's dispute concerning a school inspection report byKatherine Bathurst about elementary education for under fives. The report's outspokeness had been encouraged by Gorst who was trying to gain a revenge on Morant. This dispute resulted in Bathurst having to resign and for the ministry publishing her report but (unusually) with Morant's apologies and annotations.[12]
Gorst objected toJoseph Chamberlain's proposals for tariff reform, and at thegeneral election of 1906 he stood as an independentFree Trader, but came third, behind the two official Unionist candidates, and lost his seat. He then withdrew from the vice-chancellorship of thePrimrose League, of which he had been one of the founders, on the ground that it no longer represented the policy ofBenjamin Disraeli. In 1910 he contested Preston as a Liberal, but failed to secure election.[1]
Gorst married Mary Elizabeth Moore, daughter ofLorenzo Moore, inGeelong in 1860; they had met on theRed Jacket travelling from England toMelbourne.[13] Their elder son,Sir Eldon Gorst, becameConsul-General in Egypt. Gorst died inLondon in April 1916, aged 80, and lies buried in St Andrew's churchyard, Castle Combe, Wilts. An account of his connection with Lord Randolph Churchill will be found in theFourth Party (1906), by his younger son, Harold Edward Gorst.[1]
His illegitimate older half brother wasEdward Frankland.[14]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gorst, Sir John Eldon".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 261.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCambridge 1866–1868 With:Sir Francis Powell | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forChatham 1875–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCambridge University 1892–1906 With:Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Solicitor-General for England 1885–1886 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by None | Chairman of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations 1867 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Principal Agent of theConservative Party 1870 – 1877 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Principal Agent of theConservative Party 1880 – 1882 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Under-Secretary of State for India 1886–1891 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1891–1892 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice-President of the Committee on Education 1895–1902 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Rector of the University of Glasgow 1893–1896 | Succeeded by |
