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
George Harcourt 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 for Oxfordshire in 1831. By 1850 he had become the longest-serving member, and so became the Father of the House of Commons for the last 11 years of his life. On 27 March 1815, he married Lady Elizabeth Bingham (the eldest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Lucan) and