Harcourt

Harcourt, Sir William George Granvill Venables Vernon (b. 1827), second son of the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honours in 1851. He practised at the Parliamentary bar, and became Queen's Counsel in 1866. In 1868 he entered Parliament as Liberal member for the city of Oxford. From 1869 to 1887 he was professor of international law at Cambridge. In 1873 he was appointed Solicitor-General, but early in the following year the Liberal Ministry resigned. In 1880 he became Home Secretary under Mr. Gladstone, but, on seeking reelection at Oxford, he was unsuccessful. He obtained a seat at Derby, however, where Mr. Plimsoll retired in his favour, and has since continued to represent that town. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the short-lived Gladstonian Ministry of 1886, and again accepted the same post in 1892. On the retirement of Mr. Gladstone he became leader of the Liberal party in the Commons.