George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen

Who was George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen?

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG KT FRSE FRS PC FSA, styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a British politician, diplomat and landowner, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 until 1855 in a coalition between the Whigs and Peelites, with Radical and Irish support. The Aberdeen ministry was filled with powerful and talented politicians, who Aberdeen was largely unable to control and direct. Despite trying to avoid this happening, it took Britain into the Crimean War, and fell when its conduct became unpopular, after which Aberdeen retired from politics.

Aberdeen's career was dominated by foreign policy, but his experience did not prevent the slide towards the Crimean War. His personal life was marked by the loss of both parents by the time he was eleven, and of his first wife after only seven years of a happy marriage. His daughters died young, and his relations with his sons were difficult. Before his marriage he travelled extensively in Europe, including Greece, and he had a serious interest in the classical civilisations and their archaeology.