George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen

The Right Honourable The Earl of Aberdeen KG KT PC FRS FRSE FSA Scot
Lord Aberdeen in July 1860
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 19 December 1852 – 30 January 1855
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Derby
Succeeded by	The Viscount Palmerston
Foreign Secretary
In office 2 September 1841 – 6 July 1846
Prime Minister	Sir Robert Peel
Preceded by	The Viscount Palmerston
Succeeded by	The Viscount Palmerston
In office 2 June 1828 – 22 November 1830
Prime Minister	The Duke of Wellington
Preceded by	The Earl of Dudley
Succeeded by	The Viscount Palmerston
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
In office 20 December 1834 – 8 April 1835
Prime Minister	Sir Robert Peel
Preceded by	Thomas Spring Rice
Succeeded by	The Lord Glenelg
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 26 January 1828 – 2 June 1828
Prime Minister	The Duke of Wellington
Preceded by	The Lord Bexley
Succeeded by	Charles Arbuthnot
Personal details
Born	George Gordon (1784-01-28)28 January 1784[1] Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, Great Britain
Died	14 December 1860(1860-12-14) (aged 76)[1] St James's, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom
Resting place	St John the Evangelist, Great Stanmore
Political party	Peelite (1846–1859)
Other political affiliations	Liberal (1859–1860) Conservative (1834–1846) Tory (before 1834)
Spouses	Lady Catherine Hamilton ​ ​ (m. 1805; died 1812)​ Harriet Douglas ​ ​ (m. 1815; died 1833)​
Children	9, including George
Parent(s)	George Gordon, Lord Haddo Charlotte Baird
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge
Signature

George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, KG, KT, PC, FRS, FRSE, FSA Scot (28 January 1784 – 14 December 1860^[1]), styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a British statesman, diplomat and landowner, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite politician and specialist in foreign affairs. He served as Prime Minister 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, whom Aberdeen was largely unable to control and direct. Despite his 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.

Born into a wealthy family with the largest estates in Scotland, 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.^[2] He travelled extensively in Europe, including Greece, and he had a serious interest in the classical civilisations and their archaeology. His Scottish estates having been neglected by his father, he devoted himself (when he came of age) to modernising them according to the latest standards.

After 1812 he became a diplomat, and in 1813, at age 29, was given the critically important embassy to Vienna, where he organised and financed the sixth coalition that defeated Napoleon. His rise in politics was equally rapid and lucky, and "two accidents — Canning's death and Wellington's impulsive acceptance of the Canningite resignations" led to his becoming Foreign Secretary for Prime Minister Wellington in 1828 despite "an almost ludicrous lack of official experience"; he had been a minister for less than six months. After holding the position for two years, followed by another cabinet role, by 1841 his experience led to his appointment as Foreign Secretary again under Robert Peel for a longer term.^[3] His diplomatic successes include organizing the coalition against Napoleon in 1812–1814, normalizing relations with post-Napoleonic France, settling the old border dispute between Canada and the United States, and ending the First Opium War with China in 1842, whereby Hong Kong was obtained. Aberdeen was a poor speaker, but this scarcely mattered in the House of Lords. He exhibited a "dour, awkward, occasionally sarcastic exterior".^[4] His friend William Ewart Gladstone, said of him that he was "the man in public life of all others whom I have loved. I say emphatically loved. I have loved others, but never like him".^[5]