5th Duke of Newcastle (1851-1864)
Born 1811 Died 1864

Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, the eldest son of Henry, the 4th duke, was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1832. He was member of parliament for South Nottinghamshire from 1832 to 1846, when he became member or the Falkirk Burghs, retaining this seat until he became Duke of Newcastle in January 1851.

As Earl of Lincoln he was first commissioner of woods and forests from 1841 to February 1846, then he was appointed chief secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, but the ministry fell in June of the same year. In 1852 Newcastle became Secretary for War and the Colonies under the Earl of Aberdeen, and when, after the outbreak of the Crimean War, a separate War Department was constituted, he was placed in charge of it. As Secretary for War he was regarded as being largely responsible for the terrible hardships which befell the British troops in the Crimea in the winter of 1854, and as the result of a vote of censure he left office with his colleagues in January 1855. He was Secretary for the Colonies from 1859 to 1864, and died on the 18th of October 1864, being succeeded as 6th duke by his eldest son, Henry Pelham Alexander.

See J. Martineau, The Life of Henry Pelham, 5th Duke of Newcastle (1908).

Extracted from the entry for NEWCASTLE, DUKES OF in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.

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