(From a contemporary newspaper report)..
London: Jan 8 1914
Viscount Cross, who was one of the most prominent Conservative statesmen in England thirty years ago, died here to-day. He held at various times the Secretaryship of State for the Home Department, the Secretaryship of State for India, and the post of Lord Privy Seal.
He was a member of the House of Commons for twenty-four years and sat in the House, having been made a Peer in 1886. He was 91 years old.
The Right. Hon. Richard Assheton Cross was born at Red Scar, near Preston, England, on May 30, 1823, the third son of the late William Cross and Ellen, daughter of Edward Chaffers. He was educated at Rugby School under Dr. Arnold, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B. A. in 1846. In 1849 he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple.
He was elected M. P. for Preston in the Conservative interest in March, 1857and continued to represent that borough until March, 1862. At the general election of 1868 he was elected Conservative member for Southwest Lancashire, and at the general election of 1874 he was returned without opposition. On the formation of Disraeli’s administration he was appointed Home Secretary Feb, 21, 1874. He was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1876, received the degree of D. C. L. from the University of Oxford in 1877, and that of LL.D. from the University of Cambridge in 1878 and from St. Andrews. He was knighted in 1880.
In 1880 he was again appointed Home Secretary in Lord Salisbury’s short administration. In 1886 he was created a viscount and became Secretary of State for India.
Viscount Cross was a member of the Council on Education and an Ecclesiastical Commissioner for England.
He was the compiler of two extensive legal works.
Related:
He lived at Red Scar House, now an Industrial Estate!
A matted and mounted antique print from the 1890′s
