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The Right Honourable
The Earl of Dalhousie
KT GCB PC
Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie
Daguerreotype of the 11th Earl of Dalhousie, c. 1858
Secretary of State for War

In office
8 February 1855 – 21 February 1858
Monarch Queen Victoria
Prime Minister The Viscount Palmerston
Preceded by The Duke of Newcastle
Succeeded by Jonathan Peel
Personal details
Born 22 April 1801 (1801-04-22)
Died 6 July 1874 (1874-07-07) (aged 73)
Nationality British
Political party Whig
Liberal
Spouse(s) Hon. Montague Abercromby (m. 1807–53)
Parents William Maule, 1st Baron Panmure
Patricia Heron Gordon
Monument to Fox Maule Ramsay in Brechin

Monument to Fox Maule Ramsay in Brechin

Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie, KT GCB PC (22 April 1801 – 6 July 1874), known as Fox Maule before 1852, as The Lord Panmure between 1852 and 1860, was a British politician.

Ancestry[]

Thomas duncan

Fox Maule by Thomas Duncan

Dalhousie was the eldest son of William Maule, 1st Baron Panmure, and a grandson of George Ramsay, 8th Earl of Dalhousie. Christened Fox as a compliment to Charles James Fox, the great Whig, he served for a term in the Army.[1]

Early life and career[]

Fox Maule was born in Brechin Castle, on 22 April 1801. He was educated at the Charter House, London. In 1819 he received his commission as ensign in the 79th Regiment of Cameron Highlanders.[2]

For some years he served in Canada on the staff of his uncle, the Earl of Dalhousie. In 1831, having attained to the rank of captain, he retired from the army, and having married the Hon. Montagu, daughter of the second Lord Abercrombie, he took up his residence at Dalguise House, on the banks of the Tay, near Dunkeld. This was his home for twenty years.[3]

Fox Maule campaigned during the first election for Perthshire, canvassing in favour of his friend, the Marquis of Breadalbane, then Lord Ormelie. As he afterwards said, "I was politically born then." At the next election, in 1834, he was returned as member for Perthshire. Having lost his seat at the next election, he was returned for the Elgin Burghs. Having resigned his seat for the Elgin Burghs, he was elected by the city of Perth, which he continued to represent for ten years, until he was called to the House of Lords after his father's death.[3]

Political career[]

In 1835 he entered the House of Commons as member for Perthshire. In the ministry of Lord Melbourne (1835–1841), Maule was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, and under Lord John Russell, he was Secretary at War from July 1846 to January 1852, when for two or three weeks he was President of the Board of Control.[1]

In April 1852, he succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Panmure. In February 1855, he joined Lord Palmerston's cabinet, filling the new office of Secretary of State for War. Lord Panmure held this office until February 1858. He was at the War Office during the concluding period of the Crimean War, and met a good deal of criticism.[1] He was Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland from 1853 until his death.[citation needed]

Always interested in church matters, Dalhousie was a prominent supporter of the Free Church of Scotland after it split from the Church of Scotland in the disruption of 1843. In December 1860, he succeeded his kinsman, the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, as 11th Earl of Dalhousie.[1] He shortly afterwards changed his surname to "Maule-Ramsay" (his father had changed his surname to "Maule" from the family's patronymic "Ramsay" before being created Baron Panmure).[4]

Death and legacy[]

Fox Maule from Royal Collection Trust

Fox Maule from Royal Collection Trust

London-Woolwich, Royal Arsenal, Shell Foundry Gate 04

The arms of Lord Panmure (albeit incorrectly tinctured) at Woolwich Arsenal

He died in Brechin Castle on 6 July 1874 in the same room in which he had been born.[3]

Free Church elder[]

For thirty years he was returned by the Free Presbytery of Dunkeld as their representative elder to the General Assembly, and took an active part in its proceedings. After the Disruption, when so many proprietors refused sites for the building of churches and manses, it was mainly through his speeches in Parliament that the difficulty was surmounted. He laid the foundation stone for the new Free Church at Dunkeld.[3]

Freemasonry[]

Maule was appointed Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1832, and later (as Lord Panmure) Deputy Grand Master in 1857.[5] He was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1867.[5] In 1860, Panmure Lodge (now No. 723) was warranted, being named after the then Deputy Grand Master.[5]

Marriage[]

Lord Dalhousie married the Hon. Montague, daughter of George Abercromby, 2nd Baron Abercromby, in 1831. They had no children. She died in November 1853, aged 46. Lord Dalhousie died July 1874, aged 73. On his death, the barony of Panmure became extinct, but the earldom of Dalhousie (and its subsidiary titles) passed to his cousin, George Ramsay.[1]

References[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir George Murray
Member of Parliament for Perthshire
1835–1837
Succeeded by
Viscount Stormont
Preceded by
Sir Andrew Leith Hay
Member of Parliament for Elgin Burghs
1838–1841
Succeeded by
Sir Andrew Leith Hay
Preceded by
David Greig
Member of Parliament for Perth
1841–1852
Succeeded by
Arthur Kinnaird
Political offices
Preceded by
William Gregson
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
1835–1841
Succeeded by
Lord Seymour
Preceded by
Richard Lalor Sheil
Vice-President of the Board of Trade
1841
Succeeded by
William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by
Sidney Herbert
Secretary at War
1846–1852
Succeeded by
Robert Vernon Smith
Preceded by
Sir John Hobhouse, Bt
President of the Board of Control
1852
Succeeded by
John Charles Herries
Preceded by
The Duke of Newcastle
Secretary of State for War
1855–1858
Succeeded by
Jonathan Peel
Secretary at War
1855–1858
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Earl of Airlie
Lord Lieutenant of Angus
1849–1874
Succeeded by
The Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
Preceded by
The Viscount Melville
Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland
1853–1874
Succeeded by
The Marquess of Lothian
Academic offices
Preceded by
The Marquess of Breadalbane
Rector of the University of Glasgow
1842–1844
Succeeded by
Andrew Rutherford
Masonic offices
Preceded by
John Whyte-Melville
Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Scotland

1867–1870
Succeeded by
The Earl of Rosslyn
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
James Broun-Ramsay
Earl of Dalhousie
1860–1874
Succeeded by
George Ramsay
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Maule
Baron Panmure
1852–1874
Extinct
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