Colonial Despatches

Spencer Horatio Walpole was born on 11 September 1806. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1831, becoming queen's council in 1846. On 30 January 1846, he entered the House of Commons as conservative member for Midhurst, which he represented until 1856, when he became the member for the university of Cambridge, which he represented until 1882.1

In 1852, in Lord Derby's government, Walpole accepted the post of secretary of state for the Home Office, serving from 27 February to 28 December 1852. He resumed the position when Lord Derby's government returned to power in 1858, serving from 26 February 1858 to 3 March 1859. Walpole resigned his position in 1859 but resumed it under Lord Derby's third administration from 6 July 1866 to 17 May 1867.2

He finally withdrew from the government in February 1868, after much conflict over his views on parliamentary reform. Walpole died at his home at Ealing on 22 May 1898.3

• 1. Derek Beales, Walpole, Spencer Horatio, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.