Leonard Henry Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith
(1832-1918), Politician, Chairman of Ways and Means, professor and man of lettersSitter in 14 portraits
Leonard Courtney was a radical politician who gained fame as an advocate of proportional representation in Parliament and as an opponent of imperialism and militarism. A lawyer, journalist and teacher of political economy, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1876. Appointed financial secretary to the Treasury by Gladstone in 1882, he resigned in 1884 when the Cabinet refused to include proportional representation in a reform bill. From 1877, when the Transvaal was annexed, Courtney was a constant critic of British imperial expansion in Africa, and in 1900, he lost his seat in the Commons because of his condemnation of the 1899-1902 Boer War.
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