Colonial Despatches

Educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, Buckingham first entered the House of Commons in 1846 and a Conservative ministry in 1852.1 Though a defender of the landed interests, he served as chairman of the London and North-Western Railway Company from 1853 to 1861, which caused Newcastle to offer him the position of governor-general of the Province of Canada.2 Raised to the peerage in 1861, he became secretary of state for the colonies in 1867 and shepherded the British North America Bill through the House of Lords.3 However, he refused to grant members of the Canadian Privy Council the address of “Right Honourable,” declaring that it would be inconvenient if Canadian politicians gradually gained a social rank equivalent to that of English statesmen.4 With the return of Conservative government in 1874, Buckingham served as governor of Madras from 1875-1880, organizing relief for a large famine in 1876-78.5

• 1. E. J. Feuchtwanger, Grenville, Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-, third duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1823–1889), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Ged Martin, Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67, (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1995), 227.
• 3. E. J. Feuchtwanger, Grenville, Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-, third duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1823–1889), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 4. Martin, Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 141.
• 5. E. J. Feuchtwanger, Grenville, Richard Plantagenet Campbell Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-, third duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1823–1889), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.