Herbert Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone

Herbert John Gladstone, 1st Viscount Gladstone, was born on 7 January 1854 in Downing Street, London, where his father, William Ewart Gladstone, was serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was the youngest son of William Ewart Gladstone and his wife, Catherine Glynne, daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne, 8th Baronet. Herbert Gladstone had two elder brothers: William Henry Gladstone and Lord Gladstone of Hawarden.

He received his early education at Eton College and later attended University College, Oxford. Subsequently, he lectured in history at Keble College, Oxford, for three years. In 1880, he became private secretary to his father and was elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Leeds that same year, following an unsuccessful contest in Middlesex.

Gladstone's political career included serving as a junior Lord of the Treasury from 1881 to 1885, Deputy Commissioner of the Office of Works in 1885, and briefly as Financial Secretary to the War Office during his father's third administration. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1892, and in 1894, he became First Commissioner of Works under Lord Rosebery, at which point he was sworn into the Privy Council.

In 1899, Gladstone was appointed as the Liberal Party's Chief Whip. He played a significant role in party organization and electoral strategy, notably negotiating a pact with Labour leaders in 1903, known as the Gladstone–MacDonald pact, which aimed to prevent vote splitting in two-member constituencies. He was president of the Darlington Liberal and Radical Association from early 1900.

Gladstone returned to government when Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman appointed him Home Secretary in 1905. During his tenure, he was responsible for several significant legislative acts, including the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906, the Children Act 1908, and the Trade Boards Act 1909. He also sponsored the creation of the first typing facilities in the Houses of Parliament in 1895.

His relations with King Edward VII were complex; while the Prince of Wales maintained warm relations with W. E. Gladstone, tensions arose during Herbert Gladstone’s tenure as Home Secretary. Notably, in 1908, he permitted Roman Catholic priests, led by Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, to carry the Host in a procession through London, which led to protests and demands for cancellation of the event. The following year, he was rebuked by the King for appointing women to a Royal divorce law reform commission.

In 1910, Herbert Gladstone was dismissed from his role as Home Secretary amid changing political circumstances. He was subsequently appointed as the first Governor-General of the Union of South Africa and High Commissioner for Southern Africa, a position he held until 1914. His peerage was elevated when he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Gladstone, of the County of Lanark, and he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the same year.

After returning from South Africa in 1914, Gladstone concentrated on charitable activities, notably during the First World War, involving organizations such as the War Refugees Committee and the South African Ambulance in France. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1914 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1917.

In his personal life, Herbert Gladstone married Dorothy Mary Paget in 1901. She was the daughter of Sir Richard Paget, 1st Baronet. The marriage produced no children. Herbert Gladstone died on 6 March 1930 in his residence at Dane End, Hertfordshire, aged 76. His funeral was held at Little Munden Church, and he was buried in the family plot at St Deiniol's Church, Hawarden. His peerage became extinct upon his death. His widow, Viscountess Gladstone, died in June 1953.