Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Yorke, Charles Philip (1799-1873)
YORKE, CHARLES PHILIP, fourth Earl of Hardwicke (1799–1873), admiral, eldest son, by his first wife, of Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke [q. v.], was born at Sydney Lodge, Southampton, on 2 April 1799. After three years at Harrow, he entered the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth in February 1813, and, having passed with credit through the course, was in May 1815 appointed as a midshipman to the Prince flagship at Spithead. From her he was shortly moved to the Leviathan, and thence to the Queen Charlotte, in which he was present at the bombardment of Algiers [see Pellew, Edward, Viscount Exmouth]. He was then sent to the Leander, flagship of Sir David Milne [q. v.], on the North American station, and on 14 Aug. 1819 was promoted to be lieutenant of the Phaëton. On 18 May 1822 he was made commander, and in August 1823 was appointed to the Alacrity, which he took out to the Mediterranean, where he was actively engaged in the suppression of piracy. On 6 June 1825 he was promoted to the rank of captain, and from 1828 to 1831 commanded the Alligator in the Mediterranean, for the most part in Greek waters. He was M.P. for Reigate 1831–2, and for Cambridgeshire 1832–4. On the death of his uncle, Philip Yorke, third earl of Hardwicke [q. v.], on 18 Nov. 1834, without male issue, Yorke succeeded to the title. In the Peel administration of 1841 he was one of the lords in waiting, and was appointed in 1842 to attend on the king of Prussia during his visit to England. In 1844–5 he commanded the Black Eagle yacht, and carried back to the continent the emperor of Russia, who presented him with a valuable diamond snuff-box. He had no further service in the navy, and on 12 Jan. 1854 was put on the retired list with the rank of rear-admiral, rising by seniority to be vice-admiral on 24 Nov. 1858, and admiral on 3 Dec. 1863. In Lord Derby's ministry of 1852 he was postmaster-general, with a seat in the cabinet, but had no later office except that of lord lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, which he held continuously from his accession to the peerage till his death at Sydney Lodge on 17 Sept. 1873. He was buried at Wimpole on 24 Sept. In October 1833 he married Susan (1810–1886), sixth daughter of Thomas Henry Liddell, first lord Ravensworth, and left, with other issue, Charles Philip (1836–1897), father of Albert Edward Yorke, sixth and present earl of Hardwicke.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict.; Navy Lists; Harrow School Regist. 1894, p. 28; Times, 18, 25, 29 Sept. 1873; Foster's Peerage.]