On This Day

20 December 1800

Birth of Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax

Wood served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord John Russell’s First Administration, where he liberalised trade, reducing import duties and encouraging the growth of the consumer market. However his opposition to help for Ireland during the Great Famine has earned him some notoriety. He later served as President of the Board of Control under Lord Aberdeen where he oversaw an expansion of education provision across India and First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for India under Palmerston. A serious hunting accident curtailed his political career but he returned to cabinet as Lord Privy Seal in Gladstone’s First Administration (1870-74). He died in August 1885, aged 84.