Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax

Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax ( * December 20, 1800; † August 8, 1885 ) was a British politician.

Wood was the eldest son of Sir Francis Lindley Wood, 2, Baronet, of Barnsley. He studied at Oxford and was elected at the age of 26 years in the House of Commons. There he was introduced as a private secretary to his father Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who had become prime minister in 1830, in the business of government. 1832, after the adoption of the Reform Bill, Wood was secretary of the Treasury.

After some time held the office of Secretary of the Admiralty, Wood received in 1846 in Russell's first cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer a seat in the Cabinet. This office he held until 1852. His handling of the public finances, however, was heavily criticized and not did little to discredit the Whig government.

He was then President of the Board of Control for the British East India Company in the Cabinet Aberdeen ( 1852). During this time he led a significant increase in the education in India including the establishment of the first universities on the British model. In the aftermath Wood took over in succession the offices of First Lord of the Admiralty in the coalition cabinet Palmerston (1854 ), the Minister of India in the second government of Palmerston (1859 ) and the Lord Privy Seal in the government Gladstone from July 1870 until its dissolution in 1874.

In 1866 Wood was levied as Viscount Halifax in the hereditary nobility. He died on 8 August 1885.