Archibald
Philip Primrose was born in London in 1847.
Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford,
he became the 5th Earl of Rosebery after the death of his grandfather
in 1868. Rosebery was a supporter of the Liberal
Party in the House of Lords and supported
social reform.
After the 1880 General Election, the Prime
Minister, William Gladstone, appointed
Rosebery as his under-secretary for the home department and in 1884
he became commissioner of works in his government. Further promotion
was achieved in 1886 when Gladstone gave him the important job of
Foreign Secretary.
The 1885 General Election returned a Conservative
government and Rosebery was now on the opposition benches. Rosebery
turned his attention to local government and in 1889 became chairman
of the recently established London County Council.
After the 1892 General Election, the Liberal
Prime Minister, William Gladstone, appointed
Rosebery as his Foreign Secretary. When Gladstone resigned two years
later he suggested to Queen Victoria
that she appointed the Earl of Rosebery as Prime Minister. His period
in power was only short as the Liberal Party
was defeated in the 1895 General Election.
Rosebery led the Liberal Party until he
resigned in 1896. He was an imperialist during the Boer War and gradually
moved away from his earlier progressive views. In debates in the House
of Lords he tended to support and vote with the Conservatives.
The Earl of Rosebery died in 1929.
(1)
In his book, Memories
and Reflections, Ben Tillett described
his relationship with Lord Rosebery, chairman of the London
County Council.
My experience on the London
County Council brought me into contact with its distinguished chairman,
Lord Rosebery. He was one of our great men, in spite of being an aristocrat.
What gifts of oratory, of tongue and pen alike, he possessed! A man
of outstanding culture, he was the embodiment of a tradition that
made him distinguished even when physical proportions lent no imposing
presence. One may talk of breeding, culture, and patter the language
of the obsequious, but one can scarcely say too much of Lord Rosebery.
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