William Harcourt (politician) William Harcourt (politician) Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt, KC (14 October 1827 – 1 October 1904) was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of the Opposition. A talented speaker in parliament, he was sometimes regarded as aloof and possessing only an intellectual involvement in his causes. He failed to engender much emotional response in the public and became only a reluctant and disillusioned leader of his party. Harcourt was
George Harcourt they had one child, Elizabeth Lavinia (d. 1858, married Montagu Bertie, 6th Earl of Abingdon). Harcourt's wife died in 1838 and he then married Frances Waldegrave (the widow of the 7th Earl Waldegrave and future wife of the 1st Baron Carlingford), a daughter of the noted tenor, John Braham. George Harcourt George Granville Harcourt ("né" Venables-Harcourt and Vernon-Harcourt, 6 August 1785 – 19 December 1861) was a British Whig and then Conservative Party politician. Harcourt was the eldest son of clergyman Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt. Harcourt was elected as MP for Lichfield in 1806 and which he represented until he was elected