LORD ROSEBERY DEAD

Northern Advocate, 22 May 1929, Page 5

LORD ROSEBERY DEAD

STARTLING SUDDENNESS CONSPICUOUS CAREER CLOSED. STATESMAN AND ORATOR. (United Service.) (Received 9 a.m.) LONDON, May 21. Lord Rosebery died today at “Durdans, ” Epsom, where he lived in retiremenjt for many years and from which he rarely stirred except for his daily drive. His illness developed with startling suddenness. He was in normal health on the 16th, when he drove out twice, but on the 17th he developed a fev-' erish cold.

ArehibaM Philip Primrose Rosebery, fifth Earl of that name,belongs to an old Scottish family. He was born on May 7, 1847, and had thus entered his 83rd year. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he. succeeded his grandfather in the title in 1808, and made his first speech in the House of Lords some years later, thus inaugurating his political career in the service of the Liberal Party. In 1880 he first came to the front by organising William Ewart Gladstone’s famous “Midlothian Campaign,’’ which brought the party victory over Disraeli. His reward, the Un’der-Seere-taryship of the Home Office, pleased neither himself nor the party, who objected to a peer holdiing the post. Later, however, Gladstone gave him Ministerial rank, and in 1880 he was made Foreign '.Secretary, which post ho held till the fall of the Liberals in 1895. After Gladstone’s retirement Rosebery succeeded him as leader of the party, but his Cabinet lasted only a year. His views gradually developed in a. direction which led him to the Conservative camp, although nominally he was no longer a member of any party. After 1909 the cleavage could nojt bo brildgecl, and Rosebery did not again appear in the role of a political leader. He was at. one time regarded as Britain’s greatest orator, and bo occasion of any kind passed without one of his speeches.

A devotee of local government, Lord Rosebery was.first. Chairman of the London County Council in 1889, Lord-Lieutonanjt of Linlithgow since 1873, and of Midlothian since 1884. He was keenly interested in university. worlc, and; was elected Rector of Aberdeen University in 1878, Edinburgh in 1880, Glasgow in 1899 and St Andrews in 1911. He was also a Chancellor of London University. An ardent, sportsman, he was successful in winning the Derby in 1894, 1895 and 1905.. He succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Rosebery in 1868 and was created Earl 'of Midlothian (United Kingdom) in 1911. Among other literary works ho wrote “Napoleon, the Last Phase/ ’ (1900), monographs on Pitt, Peel, Cromwell, Randolph Churchill and Chatham.

Lord Rosebery owned extensive areas of laud, including 18,500 acres Midlothian, 7000 in Linlithgowshire, 5500 in Buckinghamshire, 2000 in Norfolk and 500 in Hertfordshire. The heir to the title is his son, Lord Dalmenv.