Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare

Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare GCB, PC, FRS (* April 16, 1815 in Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, † February 25, 1895 in London) was a British statesman who held various positions in the late 19th century the Government was involved. Among the most important offices which he held, were among the Office of the Home Secretary and the Lord President of the Council.

Background and education

Henry Bruce was the son of John Bruce, a landowner in Glamorganshire, and his wife Sarah, daughter of the Reverend Hugh Williams Austin. John Bruce's original family name was Knight, but in 1805 he took the name of his grandfather on his mother, who had been High Sheriff in Glamorganshire. Henry attended Swansea Grammar School and in 1837 Barrister. Shortly after the beginning of its activity, the discovery of coal beneath Duffryns and other property of the Aberdare Valley brought the family to great prosperity.

Political career

From 1847 to 1854 was Stipendiary Magistrate Bruce for Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare, this position was but in 1854, when he entered as a member of the Liberal Party for Merthyr Tydfil to the House of Commons. During the same period he began his career in the management of Dowland Iron Company. In 1862 he became Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior; 1868, after he had lost his seat for Merthyr Tydfil, but was elected for Renfrewshire, he was appointed by William Ewart Gladstone of the Interior. During the period of his administration was a reform of the licensing law, he was responsible for the licensing law of 1872, which zusprach the magistrate sovereignty over the license being. In 1873 he was at the request of Gladstone on the Home Office to take over the duties of the Lord President of the Council, about the same time he became a Baron Aberdare, of Duffryn in the County of Glamorgan, raised to the peer.

Public career after 1874

The defeat of the Liberal government in the following year ended Lord Aberdares public political life, as a result, he devoted himself mainly tasks in the social sector, the educational system as well as economic issues. In 1876 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, from 1878 to 1891 he was president of the Royal Historical Society. In 1881 he took over the presidency of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Girls' Day School Trust. In 1888, he stood before the Commission, the Official Table of Drops introduced for public executions to ensure a quick and painless death of the condemned.

In 1882 he began to build links to West Africa, he should maintain for the rest of his life. He took over the post of Chairman of Sir George Taubman Goldie founded by National African Company, in 1886, the Royal Niger Company was given its own charter, and was taken over in 1899 by the British government, which areas Protectorate Nigeria were. In addition to his West African activities he ran in 1894, the constitution of a charter for the University of Wales in Cardiff. Lord Aberdare, who was admitted in 1885 as a Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath, was president of various Royal Commissions.

Family

In his first marriage married Henry Bruce 1846 Annabella, daughter of Richard Beadon. They had in common a son and three daughters. After her death in July 1852 he married his second wife Norah Creina Blanche, the daughter of the historian William Francis Patrick Napier, whose biography he herausgegab. They had two sons and seven daughters, the youngest son was the mountaineer Charles Granville Bruce. The title of Baron Aberdare inherited after his death, his only son from his first marriage, Henry. His wife Norah Creina Blanche died in April 1897.

Henry Bruce's tomb lies on the Aberffrwd Cemetery in Mountain Ash in Wales. His large family grave is surrounded by a chain, his grave stone consists of a simple Celtic cross. It bears the inscription " To God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men more perfect. ".