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Portrait of Robert Peel

Prime Ministers · 19th century

Robert Peel

1788–1850 · British

Conservative (Tory)

In office: 1834–1835; 1841–1846

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, the son of a wealthy Lancashire cotton manufacturer, founded the Metropolitan Police as Home Secretary in 1829, so that police officers became known as "Bobbies" and "Peelers". His Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 is regarded as the founding statement of the modern Conservative Party. In his second ministry he reintroduced income tax and, in 1846, repealed the Corn Laws amid the Irish Famine, splitting his party and ending his premiership.

How to spot them

  • ▸'Bobbies' and 'Peelers': the Metropolitan Police Act 1829
  • ▸Tamworth Manifesto, 1834
  • ▸Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846, splitting the Conservatives (the Peelites)
  • ▸Reintroduction of income tax in peacetime, 1842
  • ▸His secretary Edward Drummond was shot by Daniel M'Naghten, 1843

In office

Repeal of the Corn Laws (1846)

Split the Conservatives into Peelites and protectionists led by Derby and Disraeli

The Tamworth Manifesto (1834)

Election address accepting the Reform Act; seen as the founding of modern Conservatism

Creation of the Metropolitan Police as Home Secretary (1829)

Hence 'Bobbies' and 'Peelers'

Reintroduction of income tax in peacetime (1842)

Allowed large cuts in tariffs

Bank Charter Act (1844)

Gave the Bank of England control of note issue

The Maynooth Grant (1845)

Increased grant to a Catholic seminary in Ireland; Gladstone resigned over it

Quick-fire facts

  • •Earlier nicknamed 'Orange Peel' for his anti-Catholic stance as Chief Secretary for Ireland
  • •Took a double first (classics and mathematics) at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1808
  • •Refused office in 1839 in the Bedchamber Crisis with Queen Victoria
  • •The M'Naghten Rules on the insanity defence arose from the killing of his secretary Edward Drummond in 1843
  • •Died in 1850 after falling from his horse on Constitution Hill, London
  • •MP for Tamworth; his family home was Drayton Manor

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources