Place name
Henry John Temple (October 20, 1784 – October 18 1865), 3rd Viscount Palmerston, was a towering figure in Victorian England, he dominated British foreign policy between 1830 until his death, a period when Britain was at the height of its imperial power. He served as Prime Minister twice, the first between 1855 – 1858 for the Whigs, and again between 1859 – 1865 for the Liberals. His handling of the end of Crimean War was generally greeted favourably, even though he was personally in favour of continuing it. His style has been described as one of “bluff and belligerency which was the despair or both Queen Victoria and his colleagues, but which endeared him to the British people.” Although opposed to electoral reform his governments introduced a swathe of liberal laws at home including the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, which for the first time made it possible for courts to grant a divorce and removed divorce from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. However, following his failure to get the Conspiracy to Murder bill, which would have made it a crime to plot murders of someone abroad in Britain, he was forced to resign. He returned to Number 10, as a Liberal prime minister, during which time he passed the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which codified and reformed the law, and was part of a wider process of consolidating criminal law. He also passed the Companies Act 1862 which is the basis of modern company law. He died in office, at the age of 80, and was succeeded by John Russell, also a member of the Liberal party. The connections with the local area came from his great-great-grandfather Sir John Temple, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons who bought a 17thCentury House as a retirement home, he lived there until his death in 1704, when it was inherited by Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston (c.1673 – June 10, 1757). The house, which at some stage was renamed Temple Grove, was in due course passed down to his grandson, who died in 1802 and then onto the 3rd Viscount, the Prime Minister, who sold the property soon after he came of age he sold the estate. The road was named sometime around 1910.
