William Henry Gladstone
Encyclopedia
William Henry Gladstone (3 June 1840 – 4 July 1891) was a British
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...

 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,...

, and the eldest son of Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 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...

 and his wife Catherine
Catherine Gladstone
Catherine Glynne Gladstone was the wife of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone for 59 years, until his death in 1898.-Family:...

 née Glynne.

Gladstone was born in Hawarden
Hawarden
Hawarden is a village in Flintshire, North Wales. Hawarden forms part of the Deeside conurbation on the Welsh/English border. At the 2001 Census, the population of Hawarden Ward was 1,858...

, Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...

. He attended Eton College
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"....

 and read Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

 University. He was a 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 a total of 20 years, representing Chester for three, Whitby
Whitby (UK Parliament constituency)
Whitby was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Whitby in North Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, MP elected by the first past the post system.-History:...

 for 12 and East Worcestershire
East Worcestershire (UK Parliament constituency)
East Worcestershire was a county constituency in the county of Worcestershire, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

 for five.

A singer and organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

, he was well versed in musical history, especially the development of Anglican church music. He wrote on musical topics, and one of the views he expressed was that choral church services were to be deplored because “the choirs often discourage the congregations from singing.” He wrote the anthems “Gracious and Righteous” and “Withdraw Not Thou,” and chants, anthems, introits and organ voluntaries. He composed the hymn tune
Hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....

 Hammersmith which can be used for the hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" is a hymn with words taken from a longer poem, The Brewing of Soma by American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier. The adaptation was made by Garrett Horder in his 1884 Congregational Hymns....

.

William played for Scotland in the first unofficial England v Scotland Soccer International in 1870. He was one of two sitting Members of Parliament to play for Scotland in this match, the other being John Wingfield Malcolm, MP for Boston..

When his mother's brother Sir Stephen Glynne
Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet
Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, 9th Baronet was a Welsh landowner and Conservative Party politician. He is principally remembered as an assiduous antiquary and student of British church architecture...

 died without heirs in 1874, the Glynne baronetcy
Glynne Baronets
The Glynne Baronetcy, of Bisseter in the County of Oxford, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 20 May 1661 for William Glynne, the former Member of Parliament for Carnarvon. He was the son of Sir John Glynne, Lord Chief Justice during the Commonwealth. The second Baronet sat...

 became extinct, but William inherited the Glynne estates, including Hawarden Castle
Hawarden Castle (18th century)
New Hawarden Castle, in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales was the estate of former British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, which previously belonged to the family of his wife, Catherine Glynne. It was built in 1752...

, which had in any case been the Gladstone's family home since his grandfather Sir John Gladstone had used some of his substantial fortune to rescue the Glynne family from bankruptcy in the 1840s..

He died in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 4 July 1891; his son William Glynne Charles Gladstone
William Glynne Charles Gladstone
William Glynne Charles Gladstone was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom, and the last of four generations of Gladstones to serve in the House of Commons, the first being his great-grandfather Sir John Gladstone .He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock Burghs at a...

inherited Hawarden.

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