William Vernon Harcourt
British politician
Died when: 76 years 353 days (923 months)Star Sign: Libra
Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt KC (14 October 1827 – 1 October 1904) was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman.He served as Member of Parliament for Oxford, Derby then West Monmouthshire and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of the Opposition.
A talented speaker in parliament, he was sometimes regarded as aloof and possessing only an intellectual involvement in his causes.
He failed to engender much emotional response in the public and became only a reluctant and disillusioned leader of his party.
Historian Roy Jenkins says he was "too much of a party man.In manner and by origin he was a patrician figure, but he saw most issues exclusively in terms of parliamentary infighting… His views were usually much more of a reaction to what his political enemies, in the other party and in his own, were saying than the result of any objective thought.
He inspired considerable loyalty among his followers – the Great Gladiator he was sometimes enthusiastically called – but his colleagues, partly as a result of his execrable temperament and his bullying… found him a difficult man with whom to work."
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