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
William Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt William Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt William Edward Harcourt, 2nd Viscount Harcourt (5 October 1908 – 3 January 1979) was an English aristocrat and businessman. Harcourt was a member of the distinguished Harcourt family, who descended from the ancient House of Harcourt in Normandy. Harcourt was born in London, the fourth and final child but only son born to Lewis Harcourt (1863–1922) and Mary Ethel Burns (1874–1961), an American heiress who in 1918 was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Doris Harcourt, a socialite and member of the Bright Young Things, was his eldest sister. He