Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel

The Right Honourable The Viscount Peel PC
Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
In office 26 February 1884 – 8 April 1895
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Preceded by	Sir Henry Brand
Succeeded by	Sir William Gully
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs
In office 28 April 1880 – 1 January 1881
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bt
Succeeded by	Leonard Courtney
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office 1 August 1873 – 17 February 1874
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	George Glyn
Succeeded by	Sir William Hart Dyke, 7th Baronet
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade
In office 14 January 1871 – 1 August 1873
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	George Shaw-Lefevre
Succeeded by	George Cavendish-Bentinck
Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board
In office 10 December 1868 – 14 January 1871
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 9 May 1895 – 24 October 1912 Hereditary peerage
Preceded by	Peerage created
Succeeded by	The 2nd Viscount Peel
Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington
In office 18 December 1885 – 7 August 1895
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Alfred Lyttelton
Member of Parliament for Warwick
In office 24 July 1865 – 18 December 1885
Preceded by	Edward Greaves
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	3 August 1829 (1829-08-03)
Died	24 October 1912(1912-10-24) (aged 83)
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Liberal Unionist
Spouse(s)	Adelaide Dugdale (d. 1890)
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel, PC (3 August 1829 – 24 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.

Background and education[]

Peel was the fifth and youngest son of the Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel by his wife Julia, daughter of General Sir John Floyd, 1st Baronet, and was named after Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. He 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 1873–1874 he was patronage secretary to the Treasury, and in 1880 he became Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs in the second Gladstone government.^[3] On the retirement of Sir Henry Brand, Peel was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on 26 February 1884.^[4]

In the 1885 general election, Peel was elected for Warwick and Leamington. Throughout his career as Speaker, as the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition said, "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."^[5] Though now 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 in Bradlaugh's campaigns to have the oath of allegiance changed to permit non-Christians, agnostics and atheists to serve in the House of Commons.

Peel retired for health reasons^[3] at the 1895 general election and was created Viscount Peel, of Sandy in the County of Bedford, with a pension of £4,000 for life.^[3] He was presented with the freedom of the City of London in July of that year.^[5] 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, leaving 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. This report was a valuable weapon in the hands of reformers.^[3]

Family[]

Peel married Adelaide Dugdale (14 November 1839 – 5 December 1890^[6]), 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:^[6]

• Julia Beatrice Peel (1864–1949) married the Irish Parliamentary Party MP James Rochfort Maguire
• William [Wellesley] Peel (1867–1937) succeeded as 2nd Viscount; created Earl Peel in 1929
• [Arthur] George [Villiers] Peel (1868–1956) politician and author
• Sidney [Cornwallis] Peel (1870–1938) a colonel and for four years an MP, created a baronet in 1936
• Agnes [Mary] Peel (1869x71–1959) married the Conservative MP Sydney Goldman.
• Ella [Frances] Peel (1872–1900)
• Maurice Berkeley Peel (1873–1917) Church of England vicar, later a military chaplain killed in action in the First World War.^[7]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Peel
• Inspector Denning & Arthur Peel - Victorian Parliament - UK Parliament Living Heritage
• The Rowers of Vanity Fair - Peel, Arthur Wellesley (Viscount Peel) - "The Speaker"
• Portraits of Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel at the National Portrait Gallery, London