Algernon Edward West | |
|---|---|
 The Rt. Hon. Sir Algernon West, from a drawing by The Marchioness of Granby | |
| Born | April 4, 1832 5 New Street, London |
| Education | Eton, Christ Church, Oxford |
| Known for | Private Secretary to William Gladstone, 1861-1894 |
| Spouse | Mary Elizabeth Caroline West (1833-1894) |
| Children | Horace Charles George West (b. 1859), Reginald Jervoise West (1861-1921), Constance Mary West (b. 1862)[1], Gilbert Richard West (1863-1892), Augustus William West (b. 1866) |
| Parent(s) | Martin John West (d. 1870) and Maria Walpole (d. 1870) |
The Rt. Hon. Sir Algernon Edward West, GCB (1832–1921)[2] was twice Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Gladstone. A life-long civil servant, he rose from junior clerk in the Income Tax Office to eventually become Chairman of the Inland Revenue Board and a member of the Privy Council.
Early Life edit
Algernon West was born April 4, 1832 to a family of distinguished legal, naval and clerical background. His father, Martin John West,a lawyer in Norfolk and Commissioner of Bankruptcy, was grandson of Vice-Admiral Temple West and great-grandson of Rev. Dr. Richard West, archdeacon of Berkshire. His mother, Lady Maria Walpole, was a daughter of Lord Orford and great-grandaughter of Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford. Her grandparents were the famous 18th c. actress Anne Oldfield and Lieutenant-General Charles Churchill, nephew of the Duke of Marlborough. Although Algernon rose the highest, his siblings included an MP and Attorney-General, the founder of St. Mary Magdalene's parish, London, and the wife of an Admiral of the Fleet.
His early childhood was divided between winters in Spring Garden, a district of London that was home to many important figures in the navy, judiciary and civil service, and a summer house at Walmer, a sea-side town where neighbours and summer visitors included the Duke of Wellington, the Governor-General of India, various Admirals, Ambassadors, peers and occasionally even the Queen and Prince Albert. In 1839 Martin West was named Judge in Bankruptcy at Leeds, and the family temporarily abandoned these illustrious circles for a more rural life at Preston Hall in Yorkshire.
In 1843, eleven year-old Algernon followed his two older brothers to Eton, where among his classmates were many others destined for public life. These included Lord Salisbury, Lord Carnarvon, Arthur Peel, Lord Roberts, Admiral Sir George Tryon, Sir John Lubbock and Algernon Swinburne. His own family circle offering so many examples to emulate, young Algernon was uncertain what path to follow when he graduated from Eton in 1948. After spending some time abroad with his family, he opted to follow his brother Richard into the Church.
But only a few months with his brother at King's College convinced him that religion was not his vocation, and he soon followed most of his Eton classmates to Oxford. Once again, however, after only two terms at Christ Church, it became apparent that West minimus was unlikely to follow his father to a career at the Bar, and he dropped out.
Civil Service edit
Though only nineteen, unemployed and lacking a university education, Algernon West still had his formidable family and social connections to fall back on, and it wasn't long before he was offered an appointment in the Income Tax Office. His benefactor was Alfred Montgomery, a Commissioner of Inland Revenue who had been a friend of his sister. Though only a temporary clerkship at 6s a day salary, West was glad to have it. As he hoped, his talents did not go unrecognized, and after only a year of filling out dreary forms, he was summoned by Sir James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty and offered a junior clerkship. This was very fortunate timing indeed, as new requirements for Her Majesty's Civil Service were being enacted, and West was the last clerk to be appointed without a formal examination.
The duties of his new appointment were not very onerous and left sufficient time for participation in London society, a world of dandies, country house parties, ladies' salons and gentlemen's clubs to which, though he was only a junior clerk, he was given entrance by his Mayfair address, the influence of his brothers and the force of his own personality. Young, handsome and eligible, West dined at the all the best houses and was a popular guest at fashionable salons, where he was introduced to the most socially and politically important people of the day. The principal gentlemen's clubs were White's and the Carlton, both Tory in affiliation, and Brooks's, whose members were staunch Whigs. West was elected a member of Brooks's in 1854, one of the youngest members at that time, and he remained a significant figure in the club for many years. Later in life he also joined Pratt's.
Crimea edit
With the outbreak of war with Russia in 1854, British patriotism was running high, and West envied his friends in the military. Determined to at least view the fighting if not participate in it, he didn't hesitate when his friend Frederick Cadogan offered to take him to the front. Cadogan was being sent to prepare for the establishment of a submarine telegraph cable to provide direct communication from the theatre of war. Coincidentally, Lord Ebury, Treasurer of the Household, asked West at the same time to go to the Crimea to report on the use of funds being raised for support of the troops. This gave legitimacy to what would otherwise have been only youthful curiosity, and he departed immediately.
Travelling by rail across Europe, he met up with Cadogan in Budapest and they sailed up the Danube to Bucharest. To this point the journey had been quite uneventful, even pleasant, with fine meals, opera performances, beautiful scenery and most of the pleasures of a European vacation. But as soon as they landed in the mud-flats of Giurgiu, the two friends embarked on a journey which, as he described in his published memoirs, "beggars all description".[3] They struggled south through knee-deep mud, impassable roads and corpse-strewn battlefields to the Bulgarian port of Varna, from which the they sailed up the Black Sea to Balaclava and the front.
After a week deep inside the English lines, West and Cadogan turned and headed for home, thoroughly disillusioned by what they had seen of the war. In his report to the government, West emphasized the contrast between the cleanliness, good order and organization of the French army at Sebastopol and the misery, squalor and disarray of the English camp at Balaclava. The French had beautiful roads, good medical care and sufficient food, while the English, officers and troops alike, were barely surviving in a filthy quagmire of mud, bad roads, dead and dying horses and general confusion. Profiteering sutlers were selling provisions at 400 percent profit while the army starved, and morale was dangerously low.[4] But when he tried to present his findings to Lord Panmure, Secretary for War in the new Palmerston government, he was rebuffed, and it was reported instead that the army was found to be in "magnificent condition". Nonetheless, West dined out for weeks on his vivid stories of life at the Crimean front, and the grim reality of the campaign could not be supressed.
Wanborough edit
From 1880, he lived at the manor at Wanborough, Surrey. West entertained many political figures at the manor, .
West was also a director of the South Eastern Railway and he caused a new station, named Wanborough but actually at Normandy, to be opened in 1891. In 1900, Wanborough Manor was passed onto Asquith until he became Prime Minister. In 1908, West returned to stay in the manor until his death in 1921.
References edit
- ^ thePeerage.com - Person Page 5181
- ^ Oxford biography
- ^ (West, Recollections, Vol 1. p.149)
- ^ West. Recollections Vol. 1. chapter IV.
West, Sir Algernon (1899). Recollections 1832 to 1886 (2 vols.). Smith, Elder & Co.
The Dictionary of National Biography 1912-1921. Oxford University Press. 1927.
 | This history article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |