Sir William Brampton Gurdon KCMG CB JP (5 September 1840 – 31 May 1910) [1] [2] was a British civil servant who became a Liberal Party politician.
Gurdon was the youngest son of Brampton Gurdon (MP for West Norfolk) of Letton, Norfolk and his wife Henrietta Susanna, daughter of the 1st Baron Colborne. [3] He was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1863 with a BA degree. [4] His elder brother, Robert, would also enter politics and served as an MP 1880-1895. [2]
Gurdon entered the Treasury as a clerk in 1863, and became private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1865 to 1866 and when Prime Minister from 1868 to 1874. [3] In 1879 he served as a special commissioner in South Africa following the Anglo-Zulu War, and then in 1881 on the Royal Commission appointed to draw up the Pretoria Convention. [2]
At the 1885 general election Gurdon stood unsuccessfully in South West Norfolk. [5] He was unsuccessful again at Rotherhithe in 1886 [6] and in Colchester at a by-election in 1888. [7]
He finally entered Parliament on his fourth attempt, when he was elected at a by-election in March 1899 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Norfolk. [8] He held the seat for 11 years, until he stood down at the January 1910 general election. [8] His major achievement as an MP was successfully bringing the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 through Parliament; this had been a controversial proposal for over seventy years. [2]
He was also a Justice of the Peace (JP) for Suffolk, and a member of East Suffolk County Council. [3] He was sworn as a Privy Counsellor in July 1907, [9] and became Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk in October 1907. [10]
In 1888 he married Lady Eveline Camilla Wallop, daughter of the 5th Earl of Portsmouth. [11] She died in 1894. [11] There is a memorial to them both in the church of St Edmund in Assington, Suffolk.