Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach, ninth baronet and, later, Viscount St Aldwyn and...

The papers in this section have been arranged so that the records of Sir Michael's various roles in national government and affairs are listed first, and his local roles, including as MP for East Gloucestershire and Bristol West, are towards the end of the section

Sir Michael's papers were extensively organised and arranged by his widow, Lady Lucy Hicks Beach, first Countess St Aldwyn, and his daughter, Lady Victoria Hicks Beach, during Lady Victoria's research for her biography of her father [see D2455/F3/6/13 for papers relating to the biography]. The letters were organised by correspondent, and sometimes by subject, but several bundles appear to have been compiled arbitrarily where there were only a few letters to and from certain people; it has not been possible to determine any connection between the letters in these bundles, but they have been left intact

Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach was first elected as Conservative MP for East Gloucestershire in 1864, ten years after his father, Sir Michael Hicks Hicks Beach, had held the seat. He threw himself into his work after the death of his first wife in 1865, and his talent for administration was soon realised; he was appointed to a parliamentary secretaryship at the Poor Law Board in 1868, and soon afterwards to an undersecretaryship at the Home Office. He was made Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1874, and then Colonial Secretary in 1878, at a time when Sir Bartle Frere, the High Commissioner in South Africa, was attempting to expand British territory in South Africa, creating a situation which was both dangerous and, without a direct telegraphic link, very difficult for the government to control. In 1880 Disraeli's Conservative government was defeated and over the following five years Sir Michael made many speeches attacking Gladstone's government. When the Conservatives came back to power in 1885, Sir Michael was elected as MP for Bristol West for the first time. He was made Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, and then in 1886 he was appointed as Chief Secretary for Ireland for the second time. However, problems with his eyesight forced him to resign in 1887; once they had improved, he was appointed President of the Board of Trade in early 1888, a post he held until the Conservative government was defeated in 1892. On their return to power in 1895 he was again appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role he held until his retirement from the Cabinet in 1902. He retired from the House of Commons in 1904 and was created Viscount St Aldwyn in 1906. He served on several boards and committees, presiding over various arbitration cases, and played a prominent role in the financial arrangements at the outbreak of the First World War, and was made Earl St Aldwyn in 1915 in recognition of his work