On This Day

16 December 1882

Hugh Childers takes over from William Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer

Gladstone had taken the unusual step when forming his second administration in 1880 of taking the post in addition to that of Prime Minister, the last time a Prime Minister has been his own Chancellor except as a temporary fix as a result of death. The strain of holding two demanding posts began to tell on Gladstone but he was reluctant to give up the Exchequer for the slightly worrying reason that, as he told the Dean of Windsor, “I have not sufficient confidence in the financial judgement of my colleagues.” Eventually Gladstone was persuaded to hand over the Exchequer to Childers, Liberal MP for Pontefract, who turned out to be a success. Gladstone later said that Childers had proved to be a better Chancellor than himself.