t Glasgow
University and at Trinity College, Cambridge (senior optime, and
classical honours); was returned to parliament for Stirling as a Liberal
in 1868 (after an unsuccessful attempt at a by-election); and became
financial secretary at the war office (1871-1874; 1880-1882), secretary
to the admiralty (1882-1884), and chief secretary for Ireland
(1884-1885). When Mr Gladstone suddenly adopted the cause of Home Rule
for Ireland, he "found salvation", to use his own phrase, and followed
his leader. In Mr Gladstone's 1886 ministry he was secretary for war,
and filled the same office in the Liberal ministry of 1892-1895. In the
latter year he was knighted (G.C.B.). It fell to his lot as war minister
to obtain the duke of Cambridge's resignation of the office of
commander-in-chief; but his intended appointment of a chief of the staff
in substitution for that office was frustrated by the resignation of the
ministry. It was an imputed omission on the part of the war office, and
therefore of the war minister, to provide a sufficient supply of
small-arms ammunition for the army which on the 21st of June 1895 led to
the defeat of the Rosebery government. Wealthy, popular and possessed of
a vein of oratorical humour (Mr T. Healy had said that he tried to
govern Ireland with Scottish jokes), Sir Henry had already earned the
general respect of all parties, and in April 1895, when Mr Speaker Peel
retired, his claims for the vacant post were prominently canvassed; but
his colleagues were averse from his retirement from active politics and
Mr Gully was selected. Though a prominent member of the inner Liberal
circle and a stanch party man, it was not supposed by the public at this
time that any ambition for the highest place could be associated with
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman; but the divisions among the Liberals, and
the rivalry between Lord Rosebery and Sir William Harcourt, made the
political situation an anomalous one. The very fact that he was
apparently unambitious of personal supremacy combined with his
honourable record and experience to make him a safe man; and in December
1898, on Sir W. Harcourt's formal resignation of the leadership of the
Opposition, he was elected to fill the position in the House of Commons
with the general assent of the party. In view of its parliamentary
impotence, and its legacy of an unpopular Home Rule programme, Sir Henry
had a difficult task to perform, but he prudently interpreted his duty
as