Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Viscount Peel
Honorific-Suffix:PC
Order1:Speaker of the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom
Term Start1:26 February 1884
Term End1:8 April 1895
Monarch1:Victoria
Primeminister1:William Ewart Gladstone
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
William Ewart Gladstone
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
William Ewart Gladstone
Archibald Primrose
Predecessor1:Sir Henry Brand
Successor1:Sir William Gully
Office2:Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs
Primeminister2:William Ewart Gladstone
Term Start2:28 April 1880
Term End2:1 January 1881
Predecessor2:Matthew White Ridley
Successor2:Leonard Courtney
Office3:Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
Primeminister3:William Ewart Gladstone
Term Start3:1 August 1873
Term End3:17 February 1874
Predecessor3:George Glyn
Successor3:William Hart Dyke
Office4:Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade
Primeminister4:William Ewart Gladstone
Term Start4:14 January 1871
Term End4:1 August 1873
Predecessor4:George Shaw-Lefevre
Successor4:George Cavendish-Bentinck
Office5:Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board
Primeminister5:William Ewart Gladstone
Term Start5:10 December 1868
Term End5:14 January 1871
Predecessor5:Michael Hicks Beach
Successor5:Office abolished
Office6:Member of the House of Lords
Status6:Lord Temporal
Term Label6:Hereditary peerage
Term Start6:9 May 1895
Term End6:24 October 1912
Successor6:The 2nd Viscount Peel
Office7:Member of Parliament
for Warwick and Leamington
Term Start7:18 December 1885
Term End7:7 August 1895
Predecessor7:Constituency established
Successor7:Alfred Lyttelton
Office8:Member of Parliament
for Warwick
Term Start8:24 July 1865
Term End8:18 December 1885
Predecessor8:Edward Greaves
Successor8:Constituency abolished
Nationality:British
Party:Liberal
Liberal Unionist
Alma Mater:Balliol College, Oxford
Spouse:Adelaide Dugdale (d. 1890)
Children:7, including William, George, and Sidney
Signature:Arthur Peel Signature.jpg

Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel, (3 August 182924 October 1912), was a British Liberal politician, who sat in the House of Commons from 1865 to 1895. He was Speaker of the House of Commons from 1884 until 1895, when he was raised to the peerage.

Early life

Peel was the fifth and youngest son of the Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel by his wife, Julia, the daughter of General Sir John Floyd, 1st Baronet. Peel was named after Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]

Political career

Peel was elected Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwick in the 1865 general election and held the seat until 1885, when it was replaced under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.[2] From 1868 to 1871, he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board and then became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1873 to 1874, he was patronage secretary to the Treasury, and in 1880, he became Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs in William Ewart Gladstone's second government. On the retirement of Sir Henry Brand, Peel was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on 26 February 1884.[3]

In the 1885 general election, Peel was elected for Warwick and Leamington. Throughout his career as Speaker, as the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition noted, "he exhibited conspicuous impartiality, combined with a perfect knowledge of the traditions, usages and forms of the House, soundness of judgment, and readiness of decision upon all occasions". Though officially impartial, Peel left the Liberal Party over the issue of Home Rule and became a Liberal Unionist. Peel was also an important ally of Charles Bradlaugh, whose campaigns to have the oath of allegiance changed eventually permitted non-Christians, such as agnostics and atheists, to serve in the House of Commons.

Short Title:Mr. Speaker's Retirement Act 1895
Type:Act
Parliament:Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long Title:An Act for settling and securing an Annuity upon the Right Honourable Arthur Wellesley Pool in consideration of his eminent Services.
Year:1895
Citation:58 & 59 Vict. c. 10
Royal Assent:14 May 1895
Repealing Legislation:Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971
Status:repealed
Collapsed:yes

Peel retired for health reasons prior to the 1895 general election and was created Viscount Peel, of Sandy in the County of Bedford, with a pension of £4,000 for life by (58 & 59 Vict. c. 10). He was presented with the Freedom of the City of London in July of that year. In 1896, he was chairman of a royal commission into the licensing laws. Other members of the commission disagreed with part of his report, and he resigned the chair, which left Sir Algernon West to complete a majority report. However, the report was published in Peel's name and recommended that the number of licensed houses should be greatly reduced. The report was a valuable weapon in the hands of reformers.

A street in Warwick, Peel Road, was named in his honour.[4]

Family

Peel married Adelaide Dugdale (14 November 1839 – 5 December 1890[5]), daughter of William Stratford Dugdale, in 1862. She died in December 1890 and Lord Peel remained a widower until his death in October 1912, aged 83. They had seven children:[5]

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://archive.org/stream/debrettshouseo1886londuoft Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886
  2. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-arthur-peel/index.html Hansard Millbank Systems - Arthur Peel
  3. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1884/feb/26/election-of-a-speaker#S3V0285P0_18840226_HOC_6 HC Deb 26 February 1884 vol 285 cc17-30
  4. Web site: Google Maps. 2021-12-27. www.google.com/maps.
  5. Web site: Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History Records. www.ancestry.com. 2019-10-17.
  6. Web site: Peel, Maurice Berkeley . Winchester College Great War . Winchester College . 13 April 2020.