Changes

| honorific_prefix = His Grace the Duke of| honorific_suffix = KG, FRS

| birth_date = 18331808| death_date = 19081891| address = Devonshire House, Piccadilly[1862]| occupation = aristocracy<br />political| elected_ESL = 1862.02.18

| elected_AI = 1892.04.261862

| membership = ordinary fellowESL, AI Ordinary Fellow - life compounder| left = 1895.10.09 resigned1891 deceased

| societies = Royal Agricultural Society

death noted in report of council for 1891<br />1892.01.12 death announced<br />1892E.03B.22 proposed Tylor's presidential address: The late Duke of Devonshire was for election at many years a member of the next meetingAnthropological Institute, He was a man of the highest intellectual culture, and even in branches of science which he, had no leisure to contribute personally to he thought it well to give support and approval.

Spencer Compton William Cavendish, 8th 7th Duke of Devonshire, KG, GCVO, PC, PC (Ire), FRS (23 July 1833 27 April 1808 – 24 March 190821 December 1891), styled as Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1831 and 1834 and 1858 and Marquess known as The Earl of Hartington Burlington between 1834 and 1858 and 1891, was a British statesman. He has the distinction of having served as leader of three political parties: as Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons (1875–1880) and as of the Liberal Unionist Party (1886–1903) and of the Unionists in the House of Lords (1902–1903) (though the Conservatives landowner, benefactor, nobleman, and Liberal Unionists operated in close alliance from 1892–1903 and would eventually merge in 1912). He also declined to become Prime Minister on three occasions, not because he was not a serious politician but because the circumstances were never right.<br />Devonshire Cavendish was the son of William Cavendish, eldest son of William George Cavendish, 2nd 1st Earl of Burlington, who succeeded his cousin as third son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire in 1858, and Lady Blanche Cavendish Charlotte Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. His mother was the Honourable Louisa O'Callaghan (née Howardd. 1863). Lord Frederick Cavendish and Lord Edward Cavendish were his younger brothers, daughter of Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Baron Lismore. He was educated at Eton and the University of Cambridge (Trinity College), Cambridge, where he graduated as MA in 1854, having taken a attaining the position of Second in Wrangler and the Mathematical TriposSmith's Prize for mathematics. [1] He later became known by the courtesy title Lord Cavendish of Keighley in 1831 when the earldom of Burlington was made honorary LLD revived in 1862, and as DCL at Oxford University in 1878favour of his grandfather.[1]<br /><br />In later life he continued his interests in education as Chancellor of his old university from 1892, and of Manchester University from 1907 until his death. He Cavendish was Lord Rector of Edinburgh University from 1877 returned to 1880.After joining parliament as the special mission to Russia MP for Alexander II's accessionCambridge University in 1829,[2] Cavendish entered Parliament in the 1857 general electiona seat he held until July 1831, when he was returned for North Lancashire as a Liberal (his title "Lord Hartington" was a courtesy title; as he was not a peer in his own right he was eligible to sit in the Commons Malton. He only sat for Malton until he succeeded his father as Duke of Devonshire in 1891). Between 1863 and 1874 Hartington held various Government posts, including Civil Lord September of the Admiralty same year and Under-Secretary was out of State for War under Palmerston and Earl Russell. In the 1868 general election he lost his seat; having refused the Lord Lieutenancy House of IrelandCommons until 1832, when he was made Postmaster-General, without a seat in the Cabinet. The next year he re-entered the Commons, having been returned for RadnorNorth Derbyshire. In 1870 Hartington reluctantly accepted He succeeded his grandfather in the post earldom of Chief Secretary for Ireland Burlington in Gladstone's first government1834 and entered the House of Lords.<br /><br />In 1875 — the year following the Liberal defeat at the General Election — 1858 he also succeeded William Ewart Gladstone his cousin as Leader Duke of the Liberal opposition in the House of Commons after the other serious contender, WDevonshire. E. Forster, had indicated that he He was not interested in the post. The following year, however, Gladstone returned Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire from 1857 to active political life in the campaign against Turkey's Bulgarian Atrocities. The relative political fortunes of Gladstone 1891 and Hartington fluctuated — Gladstone was not popular at the time Lord-Lieutenant of Benjamin Disraeli's triumph at the Congress of Berlin, but the Midlothian Campaigns of 1879–80 marked him out as the Liberals' foremost public campaignerDerbyshire from 1858 to 1891.<br /><br />In 1880, after Disraeli's government lost the general election, Hartington Devonshire was invited by Chancellor of the Queen University of London from 1836 to form a government1856, but declined — as did Chancellor of the Earl Granville, Liberal Leader in the House University of Lords — after William Ewart Gladstone made it clear that he would not serve under anybody else. Hartington chose instead Cambridge from 1861 to serve in Gladstone's Second government as Secretary of State for India (1880–1882) 1891, and Secretary Chancellor of State for War (1882–1885).<br /><br />In 1884 he was instrumental in persuading Gladstone to send a mission to Khartoum for the relief of General Gordon, which arrived two days too late Victoria University from 1880 to save him1891.[32] A considerable number of At Cambridge he endowed the Conservative party long held him chiefly responsible for the "betrayal Cavendish Professorship of Gordon." His lethargic manner, apart from his position as war ministerPhysics, helped to associate him in their minds with a disaster which emphasized the fact that the government acted "too late"; but Gladstone and Lord Granville were no less responsible than he.<br />Hartington became increasingly uneasy with Gladstone's Irish policies, especially after the murder building of his younger brother Lord Frederick the Cavendish in Phoenix Park. After being elected in December 1885 for the newly created Rossendale Division of Lancashire, he broke with Gladstone altogetherLaboratory. He declined to serve made vast (and ultimately unsuccessful) investments in Gladstone's third government, formed after Gladstone came out heavy industry at Barrow-in favour of Irish Home Rule (unlike Joseph Chamberlain, who accepted the Local Government Board but then resigned)-Furness, and had his nearby country house Holker Hall rebuilt in its present form after opposing the First Home Rule Bill became the leader of the Liberal Unionistsit was gutted by a fire in 1871. After the general election of 1886 Hartington declined to become Prime Minister, preferring instead to hold the balance He was one of power in the House of Commons and give support from the back benches to the second Conservative government original founders of the Lord Salisbury. Early Royal Agricultural Society in 1887, after the resignation of Lord Randolph Churchill1839, Salisbury offered to step down and serve was president in 1870. On 26 July 1871, he was nominated a government under Hartington, who now declined trustee of the premiership for the third time. Instead the Liberal Unionist George Goschen accepted the Exchequer in Churchill's placeBritish Museum.[3]<br /><br />Having succeeded as The 7th Duke inherited a considerable amount of Devonshire property in 1891 Eastbourne from his grandfather, and entered the House from his wife Elizabeth Compton of Lords where, in 1893, he formally moved for the rejection of the Second Home Rule BillCompton Place. Devonshire eventually joined Salisbury's third government in 1895 as Lord President of He saw through the Council. Devonshire was not asked to become Prime Minister when Lord Salisbury retired in favour development of his nephew Arthur Balfour Eastbourne in 1902. He resigned from the government in 190319th century with its parks, baths and squares and from is commemorated by a statue at the Liberal Unionist Association the following spring, in protest at Joseph Chamberlain's Tariff Reform schemetop of Devonshire Place. Devonshire said of Chamberlain's proposals:<br /><br />I venture to express the opinion that [Chamberlain4] will find among the projects and plans which he will be called upon to discuss none containing The Duke also played a more Socialistic principle than that which is embodied part in his own schemethe foundation of Eastbourne College, whichthe local independent school, whether it can properly be described as a scheme by selling some of protection or not, is certainly his land at a scheme under which the State is modest price to undertake to regulate build the course of commerce school on and of industry, and tell us where we are commissioning respected architect Henry Currey to buy, where we are to sell, what commodities we are to manufacture at home, design the school chapel and what we may continueCollege House (now the School House, if we think right, to import from other countriesa boarding facility).[5]<br /><br />BalfourDevonshire married Blanche Georgiana Howard (11 January 1812 – 27 April 1840), trying to juggle different factionsdaughter of George Howard, had allowed both Chamberlain 6th Earl of Carlisle and Free Trade supporters to resign from Georgiana Cavendish, sister of the government6th Duke of Devonshire, hoping that Devonshire would remain for known as the sake of balance"Bachelor Duke", but in 1829. Blanche was the latter eventually resigned under pressure from Charles Thomson Ritchie Bachelor Duke's favourite niece, and from his wifefondness for the young couple who were his heirs may have contributed to his decision not to marry himself. He commemorated Blanche with an inscription in the Painted Hall at Chatsworth, who still hoped which states that he might lead a government including leading Liberals. But completed his reconstruction of the house in the autumn year of 1907 his health gave waybereavement, 1840, and grave symptoms by Blanche's Urn at the top of cardiac weakness necessitated his abstaining from public effort and spending the winter abroadLong Walk in the garden. He died, rather suddenly, at Cannes on 24 March 1908They had five children:<br /><br />He served partLord William Cavendish (8 October 1831-time as Captain in the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry from 1855 to 1873, and was Honorary Colonel of the 3rd (Militia15 May 1834) Battalion of died at the Derbyshire Regiment from 1871 and age of the 2nd Sussex Artillery Volunteers from 1887.two years old<br />Hartington took great pains to parade his interest in horseracingSpencer Cavendish, so as to cultivate an image 8th Duke of not being entirely obsessed by politics. For many years the courtesan Catherine Walters Devonshire ("Skittles"23 July 1833-24 March 1908) was his mistress. He was he married at Christ Church, Mayfair, Countess Luise von Alten on 16 August 1892, at the age of 59, to .<br />Lady Louisa Frederica Augusta von Alten, widow of the late William Drogo Montagu, 7th Duke of Manchester. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his nephew Victor Caroline Cavendish. He died of pneumonia at the Hotel Metropol in Cannes and was interred (16 March 1835-21 September 1907) she married Admiral The Honourable Francis Egerton on 28 March 1908 at St Peter's Churchyard, Edensor, Derbyshire26 September 1865. A statue of the Duke can be found at the junction of Whitehall and Horse Guards Avenue in London, and also in the Carpet Gardens at EastbourneThey had five children:<br />Upon receiving news William Francis Egerton (1 March 1868-21 March 1949) he married Lady Alice Osborne (daughter of the George Godolphin Osborne, 9th Duke's death, the House of Lords took the unprecedented step of adjourning in his honourLeeds) on 7 August 1894.[7] Margot Asquith said the Duke of Devonshire "was a man whose like we shall never see again; he stood by himself and could They have come from no country in the world but England. He had the figure and appearance of an artisan, with the brevity of a peasant, the courtesy of a king and the noisy sense of humour of a Falstaff. He gave a great, wheezy guffaw at all the right things and was possessed of endless wisdom. He was perfectly disengaged from himself, fearlessly truthful and without pettiness of any kind".[one son:<br />Captain Francis Egerton (17 January 1896 - 8]June 1935)<br />Commander Frederick Greville Egerton (15 April 1869-3 November 1899)<br />Blanche Harriet Egerton (27 June 1871-14 May 1943)<br />Historian Jonathan Parry claimed that "He inherited the whig belief in the duty of political leadership, afforced by the intellectual notions characteristic of wellDorothy Charlotte Egerton (6 Oct 1874-educated, propertied early to mid2 Aug 1959)<br />Christian Mary Egerton (17 June 1978)<br />The Right Honorable Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish (30 November 1836-Victorian Liberals: a confidence that the application of free trade, rational public administration, scientific enquiry, and a patriotic defence policy would promote Britain's international greatness—in which 6 May 1882) he strongly believed—and her economic and social progress..married The Honorable Lucy Lyttelton on 7 June 1864.<br />Lord Edward Cavendish (28 January 1838-18 May 1891) he became a model of the dutiful aristocrat"married The Honorable Emma Lascelles on 3 August 1865.[9] It has been said that he was "the best excuse that the last half-century has produced for the continuance of the peerages"They had three sons.<br /><br />With 24 years of government service, Devonshire's is the fourth longest ministerial career in modern British politics