Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt
Encyclopedia
Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt PC (31 January 1863 – 24 February 1922) was a British
Liberal Party
politician who held the Cabinet
office of Secretary of State for the Colonies
from 1910 to 1915. His nickname was "Loulou".
, Oxfordshire
, the only surviving son of politician Sir William Vernon Harcourt
and his first wife Maria Theresa Lister. He never knew his mother who died only a day after giving birth to him. His only sibling, Julian Harcourt, had died the previous year. He was educated at Eton
.
from 1880 to 1885. He was Liberal
Member of Parliament
for Rossendale
, Lancashire
, from 1904 to 1916 and served as First Commissioner of Works
in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
's 1905 ministry (included in the cabinet in 1907) and in H. H. Asquith
's cabinet between 1908 and 1910 and again between 1915 and 1916. In this role he authorised the placement in Kensington Gardens
of the Peter Pan
statue, sculpted by George Frampton
, erected on 1 May 1912. Between 1910 and 1915 he was Secretary of State for the Colonies
under Asquith. Harcourt received an honorary DCL degree from Oxford University, and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt
in the County of Oxford, in 1917.
, Wallace Collection
, the London Museum
, and the National Portrait Gallery, which now contains his portrait.
, is named after him. When the port was established in 1912, there was much controversy about the name it should receive. In August 1913, the Governor–General of Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lugard wrote to Harcourt, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, "in the absence of any convenient local name, I would respectfully ask your permission to call this Port Harcourt", to which the Secretary of State replied, "It gives me pleasure to accede to your suggestion that my name should be associated with the new Port."
served as Liberal
Prime Minister
from 1894-1895 (after William Ewart Gladstone
's fourth term and before Lord Salisbury
's third). His main rival was Harcourt's father William. Loulou's attempts to have his father appointed were so fervent that many Liberal politicians criticized him. He helped to wreck Rosebery's administration, wrongly believing that his father would then succeed to the premiership. However, the Liberal Party was instead thrown into opposition for 10 years, and Harcourt was despised by Rosebery for the remainder of his life.
's chaplains, Reverend Norman Macleod, made a deathbed confession repenting of his action in presiding over Queen Victoria's marriage to her servant, John Brown
. Little credence is given to this report, in view of the many years which would have passed from the time of the "marriage" until Harcourt recorded it.
Harcourt was known as a sexual predator attracted to both sexes. He attempted to rape Dorothy Brett, the daughter of Lord Esher
, and followed this by an attempt to seduce his son. Dorothy Brett wrote of him that "it is so tiresome that Loulou is such an old roué. He is as bad with boys as with girls ... he is simply a sex maniac. It isn't that he is in love. It is just ungovernable Sex desire for both sexes". His behaviour was known and tolerated in certain private quarters, however, after attempting to seduce a 12-year-old boy (Edward James, who grew up to become a great collector of surrealist and other contemporary art), the boy's mother began making the matter public. Harcourt committed suicide
at his London home in Brook Street on 24 February 1922, aged 59.
Lady Harcourt, Viscountess Harcourt was named a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
(GBE) in 1918. She died 7 January 1961.
The couple had four children:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician who held the Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
office of Secretary of State for the Colonies
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
from 1910 to 1915. His nickname was "Loulou".
Family
Harcourt was born in Nuneham CourtenayNuneham Courtenay
Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford.-Manor:The toponym evolved from Newenham. In the 14th century the village belonged to the Courtenay family and in 1764 "Newenham" was changed to "Nuneham"....
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, the only surviving son of politician Sir William Vernon Harcourt
William Vernon Harcourt (politician)
Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of...
and his first wife Maria Theresa Lister. He never knew his mother who died only a day after giving birth to him. His only sibling, Julian Harcourt, had died the previous year. He was educated at Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
.
Political career
Harcourt was private secretary to his father when the latter served as Home SecretaryHome Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
from 1880 to 1885. He was Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Rossendale
Rossendale
Rossendale is a local government district with borough status. It is made up of a number of small former mill towns in Lancashire, England centered around the valley of the River Irwell in the industrial North West...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, from 1904 to 1916 and served as First Commissioner of Works
First Commissioner of Works
The First Commissioner of Works and Public Buildings was a position within the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It took over some of the functions of the First Commissioner of Woods and Forests in 1851 when the portfolio of Crown holdings was divided into the public...
in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery...
's 1905 ministry (included in the cabinet in 1907) and in H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
's cabinet between 1908 and 1910 and again between 1915 and 1916. In this role he authorised the placement in Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The park covers an area of 111 hectares .The open spaces...
of the Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
statue, sculpted by George Frampton
George Frampton
Sir George James Frampton, RA was a notable British sculptor and leading member of the New Sculpture movement.-Early life and career:...
, erected on 1 May 1912. Between 1910 and 1915 he was Secretary of State for the Colonies
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
under Asquith. Harcourt received an honorary DCL degree from Oxford University, and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Harcourt, of Stanton Harcourt
Stanton Harcourt
Stanton Harcourt is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about southeast of Witney and west of Oxford.-Archaeology:Within the parish of Stanton Harcourt is a series of paleochannel deposits buried beneath the second gravel terrace of the river Thames...
in the County of Oxford, in 1917.
Other public appointments
Harcourt acted as a trustee for the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
, the London Museum
London Museum
The London Museum was inaugurated on 21 March 1912 by King George V with Queen Mary and Princess Mary and Prince George at Kensington Palace. It opened for public visitation on 8 April, admitting more than 13.000 visitors during the day. Two years later the collections were removed to Lancaster...
, and the National Portrait Gallery, which now contains his portrait.
Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers state in southern NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, is named after him. When the port was established in 1912, there was much controversy about the name it should receive. In August 1913, the Governor–General of Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lugard wrote to Harcourt, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, "in the absence of any convenient local name, I would respectfully ask your permission to call this Port Harcourt", to which the Secretary of State replied, "It gives me pleasure to accede to your suggestion that my name should be associated with the new Port."
Lord Rosebery
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of RoseberyArchibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...
served as Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
from 1894-1895 (after William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
's fourth term and before Lord Salisbury
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British Conservative statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
's third). His main rival was Harcourt's father William. Loulou's attempts to have his father appointed were so fervent that many Liberal politicians criticized him. He helped to wreck Rosebery's administration, wrongly believing that his father would then succeed to the premiership. However, the Liberal Party was instead thrown into opposition for 10 years, and Harcourt was despised by Rosebery for the remainder of his life.
Queen Victoria
Harcourt's diaries contain a report that one of Queen VictoriaVictoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's chaplains, Reverend Norman Macleod, made a deathbed confession repenting of his action in presiding over Queen Victoria's marriage to her servant, John Brown
John Brown (servant)
John Brown was a Scottish personal servant and favourite of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom for many years. He was appreciated by many for his competence and companionship, and resented by others for his influence and informal manner...
. Little credence is given to this report, in view of the many years which would have passed from the time of the "marriage" until Harcourt recorded it.
Private life
Harcourt was known as a sexual predator attracted to both sexes. He attempted to rape Dorothy Brett, the daughter of Lord Esher
Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher
Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, GCVO, KCB, PC, DL was a historian and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom.Brett was the son of William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher and Eugénie Mayer...
, and followed this by an attempt to seduce his son. Dorothy Brett wrote of him that "it is so tiresome that Loulou is such an old roué. He is as bad with boys as with girls ... he is simply a sex maniac. It isn't that he is in love. It is just ungovernable Sex desire for both sexes". His behaviour was known and tolerated in certain private quarters, however, after attempting to seduce a 12-year-old boy (Edward James, who grew up to become a great collector of surrealist and other contemporary art), the boy's mother began making the matter public. Harcourt committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
at his London home in Brook Street on 24 February 1922, aged 59.
Family
On 1 July 1899, Harcourt married Mary Ethel, daughter of Anglo-American banker Walter Hayes Burns and his wife Mary Lyman (née Morgan), a sister of J.P. Morgan.Lady Harcourt, Viscountess Harcourt was named a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(GBE) in 1918. She died 7 January 1961.
The couple had four children:
- Doris Mary Thérèse Harcourt (30 March 1900-1981); married Alexander Baring, 6th Baron AshburtonAlexander Baring, 6th Baron AshburtonAlexander Francis St Vincent Baring, 6th Baron Ashburton KG, KCVO, KStJ, DL was a British businessman and politician.-Sources:* http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/people/mr-alexander-baring...
; their elder son was John Baring, 7th Baron AshburtonJohn Baring, 7th Baron AshburtonJohn Francis Harcourt Baring, 7th Baron Ashburton, is a British merchant banker and former chairman of British Petroleum... - Olivia Vernon Harcourt (b. 5 April 1902-d. 19??); married Godfrey Mulholland
- William Edward Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt (1908-1979)
- Barbara Vernon Harcourt (1905-1961); married Robert Jenkinson (1900-1970; later divorced); 3 children; named OBEOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
on 19 May 1961
Writings
- An Eton Bibliography (London 1898, 2nd edition 1902)
Sources
- Dictionary of national biography 1971-1980, Oxford University Press, 1986
- Lewis Harcourt by Patrick Jackson: Journal of Liberal History, Issue 40, Autumn 2003