William Harcourt (politician) Attribution 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
William Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt was a grandson of Sir William Harcourt (1827–1904), the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was christened 9 November at St Mary Undercroft at the House of Commons. He was named after King Edward VII, his godfather, who stood sponsor by proxy. The noble titles Earl Harcourt, Viscount Harcourt and Baron Harcourt had previously been in the family until the male line of that branch failed in 1830. In 1917, the title of Viscount Harcourt was revived in favour of his father, along with the subsidiary title of Baron Nuneham. He was educated at Eton College and was still a schoolboy