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
Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt Colonel Francis Venables-Vernon-Harcourt (6 January 1801 – 23 April 1880) was a British Conservative Party politician. Venables-Vernon-Harcourt was the ninth son of the Most Reverend Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, Archbishop of York, who in turn was the third son of George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon. His mother was Lady Anne, daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. William Vernon Harcourt, Granville Harcourt-Vernon and Octavius Vernon Harcourt were his brothers. Venables-Vernon-Harcourt was elected at the 1852 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Isle of Wight, but did not stand again at the 1857 general election. Venables-Vernon-Harcourt