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Walter Hume Long, 1st Viscount Long (13 July 1854 - 26 September 1924) was a British Unionist politician. Origins Long on his father's side was descended from an old family of Wiltshire gentry, and on his mother's side from Anglo-Irish gentry in County Wicklow. Long was educated at Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford. Upon his father's death in 1875, he took over management of the family properties. MP At the 1880 general election, Long was elected to parliament as a Conservative, serving in the Commons with a few breaks until he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Long in 1921. In that time represented no less than seven constitiuencies: North Wiltshire 1880-1885, Devizes 1885-1892, Liverpool West Derby 1893-1900, Bristol South 1900-1906, Dublin South 1906-1910, Strand 1910-1918, and St George's 1918-1921. Minister Long entered government for the first time in the second Salisbury administration as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, serving under Charles Thomson Ritchie, and became one of the architects of the Local Government Act 1888, which established elected county councils. After the Conservative defeat in 1892, Ritchie's defeat made Long the chief opposition spokesman on local government, and when the Tories returned to power in 1895, he entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture. In this role he was notable for his efforts to prevent the spread of rabies. With the ministerial shuffle in 1900, Long became President of the Local Government Board. In this role, Long was criticized as too radical for his support of the Unemployed Workmen's Act 1905, which created an unemployment board to give work and training to the unemployed. Links with Irish Unionism Long was best known, however, for his involvement with Irish Unionism. In March 1905, Long became Chief Secretary for Ireland. Due to his Irish connections (both his wife and his mother were Irish ), it was hoped that Long might be more acceptable to Irish Unionists than his predecessor, George Wyndham, who had become increasingly unpopular. Following the Unionist fall from power in December 1905, Long became one of the leading opposition voices against the Liberals' plans for home rule in Ireland, helping to found the Ulster Defence League in 1907. He also served as leader of the Irish Unionist Parliamentary Party before being succeeded by his archrival Edward Carson. Possible links with Larne gunrunning Although he never openly supported the most militant Unionists, who were prepared to fight the British army to prevent home rule for Ireland, contemporary accounts indicate that he probably had prior knowledge of the illegal Larne gunrunning. At the same time, Long was one of the more free trade oriented Unionists, and opposed last ditch resistance to the Parliament Act 1911. He sat as an MP for an Dublin constituency between 1905 and 1910. Beaten for Tory leadership When Balfour resigned as party leader in November 1911, Long was the leading candidate to succeed him. However, he was opposed by Austen Chamberlain, who was supported by the protectionists and Liberal Unionists. A divisive contest was avoided by the withdrawal of both candidates in favor of Andrew Bonar Law, a relatively unknown figure. Plotted against Carson With the formation of the wartime coalition government in May 1915, Long returned to office at the Local Government Board, and there dealt with the plight of thousands of Belgian refugees. He was actively involved in undermining attempts by Lloyd George to negotiate a deal between Irish Nationalists and Unionists in July 1916 over introducing the suspended Home Rule Act 1914, publicly clashing with his archrival Edward Carson. He was accused of plotting to bring down Carson by jeopardising his agreement that partition would be temporary, with the nationalist leader John Redmond , Long altering the clause to permanent, Redmond then abandoning further negotiations. Carson, in a bitter reposte, said of Long "The worst of Walter Long is that he never knows what he wants, but is always intriguing to get it. Austin Chamberlain, in 1911, was similarly critical of Long, saying he was "at the centre of every coterie of grumblers." First Lord of the Admiralty With the fall of Asquith and the accession of the Lloyd George government in December 1916, Long was promoted to the Colonial Office, serving until January 1919, when he became First Lord of the Admiralty, a position in which he served until his retirement in 1921. Key role in Government of Ireland Act, 1920 However, from October 1919 on, he was, once again, largely concerned with Irish affairs, serving as the chair of the cabinet's Long Committee on Ireland. In this capacity, he was largely responsible for the Government of Ireland Act, which created separate home rule governments for Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, the latter he endowed with wider powers than its southern counterpart. Although in southern and western Ireland, this was soon superseded by the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which gave the new Irish Free State a much greater share of independence, the measure survived as the basis for the government of Northern Ireland until 1972. Created a viscount Long retired in 1921 and was created Viscount Long, dying at his home in Wiltshire three years later. Footnotes Sources | |||||||
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