William George Frederick Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (27 February 1802 – 21 September 1848) was an English Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament for King's Lynn from 1828 to 1848, together with Benjamin Disraeli unseating Robert Peel over the Corn Laws.
Biography[]
William George Frederick Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck was born in Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire, England on 27 February 1802, the third son of William Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland. He was raised in Nottinghamshire and Troon, Scotland, and he joined the British Army in 1818 and served as aide-de-camp to his uncle George Canning, who expected to serve as Governor-General of British India before Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh's suicide led to Canning becoming Foreign Secretary. In 1828, Bentinck was elected to Parliament as the Whig MP for King's Lynn, but he defected to the Conservative Party in 1836 as a member of the liberal-conservative "Derby Dilly" faction. Bentinck mostly concerned himself with gambling and wearing a new silk scarf every day, and he was known for his volatile temper. In 1846, he and Benjamin Disraeli led the protectionist opposition to Prime Minister Robert Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws, voicing his opposition in his first speech in 18 years of serving in Parliament. The two allies forced Peel's resignation a week after the Corn Laws were repealed, and Bentinck became leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons. He failed to convince the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, to invest in a substantial railway construction program in Ireland to alleviate the suffering arising from the Great Famine, and he resigned from Parliament in 1848 due to the unpopularity of his support for Jewish emancipation. He died of a heart attack on 21 September 1848 while walking from Welbeck Abbey to join a friend for lunch at Thoresby Hall.