Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Wodehouse, John
WODEHOUSE, JOHN, first Earl of Kimberley (1826–1902), secretary of state for foreign affairs, born at Wymondham, Norfolk, on 29 May 1826, was eldest son of the Hon. Henry Wodehouse (1799–1834) by his wife Anne, only daughter of Theophilus Thornhagh Gurdon of Letton, Norfolk. The father, eldest surviving son of John Wodehouse, second Baron Wodehouse, died in his own father's lifetime. Educated at Eton, where he was ‘one of the cleverest boys’ (Sir A. Lyall's Dufferin, i. 22), and at Christ Church, Oxford, John Wodehouse took a first class in the final classical school and graduated B.A. in 1847. Meanwhile he succeeded to the barony on the death of his grandfather on 29 May 1846. Showing political aptitude and adopting the whig politics of his family, Lord Wodehouse served as under-secretary of state for foreign affairs in the coalition government of Lord Aberdeen and afterwards in Lord Palmerston's first government (1852–1856). On 4 May 1856 he was appointed British minister at St. Petersburg, shortly after the close of the war with Russia. He accepted the post with some hesitation, telling Lord Clarendon that the foreign office was his object in life (Fitzmaurice's Granville i. 180), but he ‘held his own with them all, including the Emperor.’ He resisted attempts to play him off against Lord Granville, who had been sent over as ambassador extraordinary to the Tsar Alexander II on his coronation (ibid. 186–216). Gortschakoff complained however of his want of experience (Letters of Sir Robert Morier, i. 399). Wodehouse left St. Petersburg on 31 March 1858, and in the following year returned to the foreign office as under-secretary (June 1859 to Aug. 1861) in Lord Palmerston's second administration. On 9 Dec. 1863 he was sent on a special mission, nominally to congratulate King Christian IX of Denmark on his accession to the throne, but really to settle the Schleswig-Holstein dispute in concert with the representatives of Russia and France. He failed where success was probably impossible, but his knowledge of the questions at issue seems to have been limited (Spencer Walpole's Lord John Russell, ii. 386–387; Letters of Sir Robert Morier, i. 399).
After serving as under-secretary for India for a few months in 1864, while Palmerston was still prime minister, Wodehouse, on 1 Nov. became lord lieutenant of Ireland in succession to Lord Carlisle [see Howard, George William Frederick]; he held the appointment until the fall of the liberal government in June 1866. He found the Fenian movement, an agitation partly agrarian and partly revolutionary, in full activity. Wodehouse displayed resolution in dealing with his difficulties. On 14 Sept. 1865 the office of the ‘Irish People’ was raided and the paper suppressed; and though James Stephens [q. v. Suppl. II], the ‘head centre,’ escaped from Rutland prison, the other leaders were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment (John O'Leary's Recollections of Fenians and Fenianism, esp. vol. ii. chs. 28 and 29). Wodehouse, however, was under no illusions, and on 27 Nov. wrote to Lord Clarendon: ‘The heart of the people is against us, and I see no prospect of any improvement within any time that can be calculated’ (Fitzmaurice's Granville, ii. 515). Still the country became quieter, and before his retirement from office, Wodehouse was created Earl of Kimberley, Norfolk, by letters patent (1 June 1866).
In Dec. 1868 Kimberley became lord privy seal in Gladstone's first administration and entered the cabinet for the first time, but in July 1870, when Granville became foreign secretary, Kimberley succeeded Granville at the colonial office. His administration witnessed the annexation of Griqualand West (27 Oct. 1871), after the energy of the high commissioner, Sir Henry Barkly [q. v. Suppl. I] had thwarted the Free State Boers. On 17 Nov. the British flag was hoisted in the diamond fields, and the township was called Kimberley, after the colonial secretary. In the following year, full responsible government was granted to Cape Colony. On 8 March, on a motion for the production of papers, Kimberley made an explanatory statement in which he declared that the colony could not advance unless it had free institutions, and hinted that ultimately ‘he would not be astonished if the Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic found it more to their advantage to unite with those already under the British crown’ (Hansard, vol. ccix., cols. 1626–1631; see also vol. ccxiii., cols. 29–33). Trouble having arisen on the Gold Coast owing to the bellicose temper of the Ashantis, Kimberley authorised an expedition which, commanded by Sir Garnet (afterwards Viscount) Wolseley, captured Kumassi (4 Feb. 1874) and imposed peace (Sir R. Biddulph's Lord Cardwell at the War Office, 221–225). In Canada Rupert's Land was formed into a province named Manitoba (August 1870), after an amnesty had been granted at the instigation of the Canadian government for all offences committed during the Riel rebellion, excepting the murder of Thomas Scott; and British Columbia after some demur joined the dominion (June 1872). During the session of 1872 Kimberley introduced into the House of Lords and carried the government's much controverted licensing bill. Of his introductory speech, Henry Bruce (afterwards Lord Aberdare), the home secretary and author of the measure, wrote that it was ‘a good and clear statement’ prepared at brief notice, ‘but,’ Bruce added, ‘Kimberley is not impressive, although extremely able and efficient.’ On the defeat of his party at the polls in Feb. 1874 Kimberley resigned office.
Kimberley, in whom the Palmerstonian tradition was strong, dissented from the anti-Turkish attitude assumed by Gladstone and the duke of Argyll on the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1877, but he remained loyal to his party. When Gladstone formed his second administration, Kimberley again became colonial secretary on 28 April 1880. His tenure of the office proved in many ways unfortunate. Contrary to expectation, Sir Bartle Frere [q. v.] was at first retained at the Cape as High Commissioner, but, in obedience to liberal remonstrances, Kimberley abruptly recalled him by telegram (1 Aug.) on the plea that South African federation was no longer possible (John Martineau's Frere, ii. 390–395). Irresolution also marked his treatment of the Transvaal Boers, who, encouraged by liberal election declarations, were chafing against annexation. The Queen's speech pronounced that British supremacy must be maintained in the Transvaal, and Kimberley defended that resolve on the ground that ‘it was impossible to say what calamities our receding might not cause to the native population.’ In his subsequent attitude to the crisis, Kimberley was freely credited with want of resolution and of clear purpose. The Boers took up arms; on 16 Dec. the South African Republic was proclaimed, and on 27 Feb. 1881 Sir George Colley [q. v.] was defeated and slain on Majuba Hill. Kimberley, meanwhile, had opposed in the cabinet on 30 Dec. the suggestion made by members of the Cape legislature that a special commissioner should be sent out (Morley's Gladstone, iii. 33). But, early in January, on the prompting of President Brand of the Orange Free State, he set on foot three different sets of negotiations, while stipulating that armed resistance must cease before terms of peace could be discussed. Through the Free State agent in London he placed himself in communication with President Brand, who handed on his views to the Boer leaders, President Kruger and General Joubert; he also communicated with President Brand through Sir Hercules Robinson [q. v. Suppl. I]], the new governor of Cape Colony, and with President Kruger through Sir George Colley (Sir William Butler's Colley, 322–352) and, after Colley's death, through Sir Evelyn Wood. Despite Colley's fatal reverse (27 Feb.), an eight days' armistice was arranged on 16 March; it was extended, and on the 22nd Gladstone announced the terms of peace, viz. the grant of complete self-government to the Boers on the acceptance of British suzerainty, native interests and questions of frontier to be settled by a royal commission. Kimberley had written to Colley on 24 Feb.: ‘My great fear has been lest the Free State should take part against us, or even some movement take place in the Cape Colony’ (Morley's Gladstone, iii. 40). On 31 March Kimberley in the House of Lords defended the ministerial policy against the trenchant attacks of Lords Cairns and Salisbury. He maintained that if we conquered the Transvaal we could not hold it, and—taking up a phrase of Cairns's—that the real humiliation would have been if, ‘for a mere point of honour,’ we had stood in the way of practical terms (Hansard, vol. cclx. cols. 278 to 292). Kimberley tried to get the district of Zoutpansberg set aside as a native reserve, but the commissioners were unable to accept the suggestion, and the plan formed no part of the convention of Pretoria (8 Aug. 1881). [For Kimberley's despatches see Parl. Papers, vols. l. and li., and 1881, vols. lxvi. and lxvii.; for an apology for the government, Morley's Gladstone, iii. 27–46.] In May 1881 Kimberley directed Sir Robert Morier, British minister at Lisbon, to drop the treaty he was negotiating with the Portuguese government, by which a passage was to be granted both to the Boers and to the British troops through Lourenço Marques; such an arrangement might have prevented the South African war of 1899–1902 (Letters of Sir Robert Morier, i. 400).
On 16 Dec. 1882 Kimberley was transferred to the India office in place of Lord Hartington, and held the appointment until the fall of the liberal government in June 1885. He cordially supported the viceroy, Lord Dufferin, in coming to an understanding with Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan, at the Rawal Pindi durbar (Lyall's Dufferin, ii. 96); and on 21 May 1885 made a declaration in the House of Lords to the effect that Afghanistan must be regarded as outside the Russian sphere of influence, and inside the British (Hansard, vol. ccxcviii. cols. 1009–1011). During those years he was generally active in debate; he took charge of the franchise bill of 1884 and the redistribution bill of 1885 in the House of Lords, and spoke frequently on Egyptian and Soudanese affairs. He believed that if he had been in London he could have stopped the mission of Gordon to Khartoum, as he could have shown him to be unfit for the work (Fitzmaurice's Granville, ii. 401). On 27 Feb. 1885 he defended the government against the vote of censure moved by Lord Salisbury, but was defeated by 159 votes to 68. He was made K.G. and retired with the fall of the administration in June.
Kimberley found no difficulty in supporting Gladstone's policy of home rule, which was announced in the winter of 1885–6, and returned to the India office during Gladstone's short-lived home rule administration of 1886 (February to August). In April 1891 he succeeded Granville as leader of the liberal party in the House of Lords, after he had lamented his old associate in feeling terms (Hansard, vol. cclii. cols. 464–5). He became secretary for India once more in Gladstone's fourth administration, formed in 1892, serving at the same time as lord president of the council. Kimberley reluctantly accepted the policy of the Indian government in closing the mints and restricting the sale of council bills with the object of checking the depreciation of silver. At the last cabinet council which Gladstone attended (1 March 1894), Kimberley and Harcourt spoke on the ministers' behalf words ‘of acknowledgment and farewell.’ In Lord Rosebery's ministry (3 March 1894) he realised his early ambition, and became foreign secretary, while surrendering the leadership in the House of Lords to the new prime minister. Kimberley's tenure of the foreign office was undistinguished. He was unable to prevent the revision of the treaty of peace between China and Japan under pressure of Russia, Germany, and France, by which the Japanese, in consideration of an addition to their indemnity, evacuated the Liaotung peninsula. On 3 May 1894 he concluded an unhappy agreement with the Congo Free State, which met with strong opposition from Germany; and on 22 June the third article, which granted to Great Britain on lease a strip of Congolese territory along the frontier of German East Africa, had to be withdrawn (Parl. Papers, 1894, vols. lxii. and xcvi.). But he refused to be hurried into diplomatic crusades by emotional outbursts against the iniquities of Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey.
Relegated to opposition by the general election, Kimberley resumed the leadership of the liberals in the upper house, after Lord Rosebery's abandonment of party politics in October 1896. Though his following was small, he led it with spirit, and was a sober and effective critic of unionist measures. On 8 June 1899 he seconded the resolution for making a provision for Lord Kitchener after the overthrow of the Khalifa at Omdurman. During the South African war, unlike some of his party, he never swerved from support of the military operations; he declined to take any advantage of the ignorance of ministers as to the Boer preparations; and while justly dwelling on the miscalculations involved in the recrudescence of the war after it had been declared to be at an end, he urged that no means or money should be spared in sending out adequate reinforcements. His last appearance was on 14 Feb. 1901, when, though ill and distressed, he spoke on the address to King Edward VII, after the death of Queen Victoria. During the rest of his life Lord Spencer acted as deputy-leader of the liberals in the lords.
Kimberley died at his London residence, 35 Lowndes Square, on 8 April 1902, and was buried at Wymondham, Norfolk. When the lords reassembled, effective tributes were paid to his memory (Hansard, vol. cvi. cols. 259–266), Lord Salisbury eulogising his freedom from party bias, Lord Spencer his grasp of detail, and Lord Ripon his private worth. He earned the reputation of thoroughness in administration if he sometimes showed lack of foresight and resolve in dealing with large questions of policy. The House of Lords generally held him in high esteem, but he was little known to the general public and was unrecognised by popular opinion. ‘He is,’ wrote Lord Dufferin, ‘one of the ablest of our public men, but being utterly destitute of vanity, he has never cared to captivate public attention, and consequently has been never duly appreciated’ (Lyall's Dufferin, i. 22). He spoke fluently but not eloquently, and never used notes. Though he generally kept his temper under strict control, he was naturally impulsive, and to that failing, apart from the vacillation of his colleagues, may possibly be traced his nervous handling of affairs during the first Boer war. He took much interest in local business; was a deputy-lieutenant, county councillor and J.P. of Norfolk, and high steward of Norwich cathedral in succession to his father. He was a generous but critical landlord; and while in his youth a vigorous rider to hounds, he remained until late in life a capital shot. Kimberley was made hon. D.C.L., Oxford, in 1894, and chancellor of the University of London in 1899.
He married, on 16 Aug. 1847, Lady Florence (d. 4 May 1895), eldest daughter of Richard Fitzgibbon, third and last earl of Clare, and had three sons and two daughters. His successor, John, Baron Wodehouse, was born on 10 Dec. 1848; the third son, Armine (1860–1901), married in 1889 Eleanor Mary Caroline, daughter of Matthew Arnold; she re-married in 1909 the second Baron Sandhurst.
An excellent drawing by George Richmond was executed for Grillion's Club, and an oil painting (1866) by S. Catterson Smith is at Dublin Castle; replicas of both are at Kimberley. A cartoon portrait by ‘Ape’ appeared in ‘Vanity Fair’ in 1869. [The Times, 9 April 1902; authorities cited; Paul's History of Modern England, 5 vols. 1904–6; J. Martineau, Life of Sir Bartle Frere, 2 vols. 1895; Lucy's Balfourian Parliament, 1906; Grant Duff, Notes from a Diary, 1888–91.]