Colonial Despatches

Born in Ireland, educated at Winchester College, Monsell entered the House of Commons in 1847 as a moderate Liberal for county Limerick.1 After joining the Roman Catholic Church in 1850, he frequently spoke as a representative of the hierarchy.2 Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone appointed him parliamentary undersecretary of state for the colonies in December 1868, a position he held for two years.3 After serving the following two and a half years as postmaster general, Monsell was raised to the peerage by Gladstone as 1st Baron Emly.4

• 1. H. C. G. Matthew, Monsell, William, first Baron Emly, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Edward Fairfield, The Colonial Office List for 1877, (London: Harrison and Sons, 1877), 329.
• 4. H. C. G. Matthew, Monsell, William, first Baron Emly, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.