Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea

This portraitback to top

The son of the 11th Earl of Pembroke, Sidney Herbert became a Conservative MP in 1832 and was rapidly promoted under Peel's successive administrations. War secretary at the opening of hostilities in the Crimea, he was largely responsible for Florence Nightingale, a personal friend, going to Scutari. Although forced to resign in February, 1855, Herbert remained an active promoter of military reform until his early death. This portrait was painted just after his first term of office as war secretary in 1845-6. He is depicted in private dress standing before a landscape which is likely to represent Pembrokeshire. Given by the sitter's son, the Earl of Pembroke, 1912.

Events of 1847back to top

Current affairs

The 10 Hours Factory Act passed, regulating working hours for women and children under the age of eighteen to a maximum of ten hours a day.
The Communist League is founded in London, and drew up a set of rules and aims, including overthrowing the bourgeoisie and empowering the Proleteriat, and ending class division, forming the basis of Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto (1848).}
Death and emigration resulting from starvation, plague and disease during worst year of the Great Famine in Ireland, known as Black 47.

Art and science

A good year for novels: Emily Bronte's passionate, rebellious and gothic Wuthering Heightsis published, followed shortly by her sister Charlotte's 'Jane Eyre, a story of a governess's struggle for liberty from social and gender constrictions. Drawing on a similar vein of revolution and rebellious women, William Thackeray's satirical novel Vanity Fair is serialised.

International

The Don Pacifico affair sparks an international incident, when the Jewish trader's business was burned in an anti-semitic attack in Athens. When the Greek government refused to compensate him, Gibraltar-born Pacifico appealed to the British government. Foreign Minister Palmerston sent a squadron into the Aegean in 1850 to seize goods of the equivalent value, leading to strained relations with Turkey and Russia, and heated debates in Parliament.

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