President of the Board of Trade Secretary of State for India
Which position did Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh hold from Jul 1866 to Mar 1867?
Stafford Northcote , 1st Earl of Iddesleigh Stafford Henry Northcote , 1st Earl of Iddesleigh ( 27 October 1818 – 12 January 1887 ) , known as Sir Stafford Northcote , Bt from 1851 to 1885 , was a British Conservative politician . He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 1880 and as Foreign Secretary between 1885 and 1886 , and was one of only two people to hold the office of First Lord of the Treasury without ever being Prime Minister ( the other being William Henry Smith , his successor-but-two , who , like Iddesleigh , also served in post in one of the Salisbury ministries ) . Background and education . Northcote ( pronounced Northcut ) was born at Portland Place , London , on 27 October 1818 . He was the eldest son of Henry Stafford Northcote ( 1792–1850 ) , eldest son of Sir Stafford Henry Northcote , 7th Baronet . His mother was Agnes Mary ( died 1840 ) , daughter of Thomas Cockburn . His paternal ancestors had long been settled in Devon , tracing their descent from Galfridas de Nordcote who settled there in 1103 . The family home was situated at Pynes House northwest of Exeter . Northcote was educated at Eton and Balliol College , Oxford and was called to the bar , Inner Temple , in 1847 . Early political career . In 1843 Northcote became private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone at the Board of Trade . He was afterwards legal secretary to the board ; and after acting as one of the secretaries to the Great Exhibition of 1851 , co-operated with Sir Charles Trevelyan in framing the Northcote–Trevelyan Report which revolutionized the conditions of appointment to the Civil Service . He succeeded his grandfather , Sir Stafford Henry Northcote ( 1762–1851 ) , as 8th baronet in 1851 . He entered Parliament in 1855 as Conservative Member of Parliament for Dudley with the support of the influential local landowner Lord Ward . However , tensions between Northcote and Lord Ward soon arose , in particular over a vote over conflict with China , where the two men supported opposite sides in the vote . Northcote subsequently decided not to contest Dudley again and stood unsuccessfully for North Devon in 1857 . He returned to parliament in the following year , when he was elected for Stamford in 1858 , a seat which he exchanged in 1866 for North Devon . He was briefly Financial Secretary to the Treasury under the Earl of Derby from January to July 1859 . Later political career . Steadily supporting his party , he became President of the Board of Trade in 1866 , Secretary of State for India in 1867 , and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1874 . In 1870 , during the interval between these last two appointments , he was the Governor of the Hudsons Bay Company , North Americas oldest company ( established by English royal charter in 1670 ) , when they sold the Northwest Territories to Canada . Northcote was one of the commissioners for the settlement of the Alabama Claims with the United States , culminating with the Treaty of Washington in 1871 . On Disraelis elevation to the House of Lords as Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876 , Northcote became Leader of the Conservative party in the Commons . As a finance minister he was largely dominated by the lines of policy laid down by Gladstone ; but he distinguished himself by his dealings with the debt , especially his introduction of the new sinking fund in 1876 , by which he fixed the annual charge for the debt in such a way as to provide for a regular series of payments off the capital . His temper as leader was , however , too gentle to satisfy the more ardent spirits among his own followers , and party cabals ( in which Lord Randolph Churchill , who had made a dead set at the old gang , took a leading part ) led to Northcotes elevation to the Lords in 1885 , when Lord Salisbury became prime minister . Taking the titles of Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St Cyres , he was included in the cabinet as First Lord of the Treasury . In Lord Salisburys 1886 ministry he became Foreign Secretary , but the arrangement was not a comfortable one , and his resignation had just been decided upon when on 12 January 1887 he died very suddenly at the First Lord of the Treasurys official residence , 10 Downing Street . Other public positions . Northcote was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1875 and Lord Rector of Edinburgh University in 1883 , in which capacity he addressed the students on the subject of Desultory Reading . From 1886 to 1887 he was also Lord Lieutenant of Devon . He was not a prolific or notable writer , but amongst his works were Twenty Years of Financial Policy ( 1862 ) , a valuable study of Gladstonian finance , and Lectures and Essays ( 1887 ) . His Life by Andrew Lang appeared in 1890 . Northcote was appointed a CB in 1851 and a GCB in 1880 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1866 . Family and personal life . Northcote married Cecilia Frances Farrer ( died 1910 ) , daughter of Thomas Farrer and sister of Thomas Farrer , 1st Baron Farrer , in 1843 . They had seven sons and three daughters . His second son , Henry , 1st Baron Northcote , was Governor-General of Australia . Another son , Amyas , later became known as a writer of ghost stories . In the aftermath of the British Expedition to Abyssinia , Northcote built up a small but prestigious collection of Ethiopian artefacts that is now in the British Museum . The 1881 Census shows him living next door to Lord Randolph Churchill MP and family , at 30 St James Place , Westminster . Further reading . - Lang , Andrew . Life , Letters , and Diaries of Sir Stafford Northcote , First Earl of Iddesleigh ( 1891 ) online