Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff (13 January 1826 – 3 April 1913) was a British Conservative politician who served as Home Secretary from 3 August 1886 to 15 August 1892, succeeding Hugh Childers and preceding H.H. Asquith.
Biography[]
Henry Matthews was born in Ceylon in 1826, the son of a British judge from Herefordshire. He was called to the bar in 1850 and served as secretary to the Earl Marshal from 1864 to 1869 before becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1868. In 1885, he famously cross-examined Charles Dilke in a sensational divorce case that essentially destroyed Dilke's political career and launched his own. Matthews was elected MP for Dungarvan in 1868 as an "Independent Liberal and Conservative" who supported the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the Home Rule movement in Ireland due to his Catholic faith. After he lost re-election to a Home Rule League candidate in 1884, he became a staunch Conservaitve, serving as MP for Birmingham East from 1886. He was named Home Secretary in 1886 after Queen Victoria demanded his appointment in recognition of his work on the Dilke trial, and the Whitechapel murders occurred during his tenure. He remained in office until the Liberal Party won power in 1892, and he was ennobled in 1895. He campaigned for the building of Westminster Cathedral before dying unmarried at his London home in 1913.