Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel

Peel was the fifth and youngest son of the Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel by his wife, Julia, the daughter of General Sir John Floyd, 1st Baronet. Peel was named after Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]

Peel was elected Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwick in the 1865 general election and held the seat until 1885, when it was replaced under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.[2] From 1868 to 1871, he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Poor Law Board and then became Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade. In 1873 to 1874, he was patronage secretary to the Treasury, and in 1880, he became Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs in William Ewart Gladstone's second government.[3] On the retirement of Sir Henry Brand, Peel was elected Speaker of the House of Commons on 26 February 1884.[4]

In the 1885 general election, Peel was elected for Warwick and Leamington. Throughout his career as Speaker, as the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition noted, "he exhibited conspicuous impartiality, combined with a perfect knowledge of the traditions, usages and forms of the House, soundness of judgment, and readiness of decision upon all occasions".[5] Though officially impartial, Peel left the Liberal Party over the issue of Home Rule and became a Liberal Unionist. Peel was also an important ally of Charles Bradlaugh, whose campaigns to have the oath of allegiance changed eventally permitted non-Christians, such as agnostics and atheists, to serve in the House of Commons.

Speaker Peel, c. 1888

Mr. Speaker's Retirement Act 1895
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act for settling and securing an Annuity upon the Right Honourable Arthur Wellesley Pool in consideration of his eminent Services.
Citation	58 & 59 Vict. c. 10
Dates
Royal assent	14 May 1895

Peel retired for health reasons[3] prior to the 1895 general election and was created Viscount Peel, of Sandy in the County of Bedford, with a pension of £4,000 for life.[3] He was presented with the Freedom of the City of London in July of that year.[5] In 1896, he was chairman of a royal commission into the licensing laws. Other members of the commission disagreed with part of his report, and he resigned the chair, which left Sir Algernon West to complete a majority report. However, the report was published in Peel's name and recommended that the number of licensed houses should be greatly reduced. The report was a valuable weapon in the hands of reformers.[3]

A street in Warwick, Peel Road, was named in his honour.[6]

Peel married Adelaide Dugdale (14 November 1839 – 5 December 1890[7]), daughter of William Stratford Dugdale, in 1862. She died in December 1890 and Lord Peel remained a widower until his death in October 1912, aged 83. They had seven children:[7]

• Julia Beatrice Peel (1864–1949) married the Irish Parliamentary Party MP James Rochfort Maguire
• William [Wellesley] Peel (1867–1937) succeeded as 2nd Viscount; created Earl Peel in 1929
• [Arthur] George [Villiers] Peel (1868–1956) politician and author
• Sidney [Cornwallis] Peel (1870–1938) a colonel and for four years an MP, created a baronet in 1936
• Agnes [Mary] Peel (1869x71–1959) married the Conservative MP Sydney Goldman.
• Ella [Frances] Peel (1872–1900)
• Maurice Berkeley Peel (1873–1917) Church of England vicar, later a military chaplain killed in action in the First World War.[8]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Peel, 1st Viscount Peel.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Peel
• Inspector Denning & Arthur Peel - Victorian Parliament - UK Parliament Living Heritage
• The Rowers of Vanity Fair - Peel, Arthur Wellesley (Viscount Peel) - "The Speaker"
• Portraits of Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel at the National Portrait Gallery, London