WHITE, Hon. Charles William (1838-1890), of Woodlands, co. Dublin

White’s paternal grandfather, Luke, realized a large fortune as a speculator and government contractor and was reputed, at his death, to have been ‘the richest man in Ireland’. He had sat as reformer for Leitrim (1812-24) and Charles’s father, Henry, who was created 1^st baron Annaly in 1863, served as Liberal MP for county Dublin, 1823-32 and Longford, 1837-47, 1857-61, and owned substantial estates in counties Longford, Dublin, and Clare.1J. Bateman, The Great Landowners of Great Britain (4th edn., 1883), 11. His uncles, Luke and Samuel, represented Longford, 1832, 1836-42 and Leitrim, 1824-47 respectively as reformers, the former being sympathetic to repeal. Another uncle, Thomas White, unsuccessfully contested county Dublin at the general elections of 1818 and 1820. (White’s elder brother, Luke, was also Liberal MP for Clare, 1859-60, Longford, 1861-2, and Kidderminster, 1862-5.) Like their father, who had distinguished himself in the Peninsula, Charles entered the army, joining the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1856, and rose (by purchase) to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.2HP Commons 1820-32, vii. 737-42; R.B. McDowell, Public Opinion and Government Policy in Ireland, 1801-1846 (1952), 138; B. Hourican, ‘White, Luke’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, ix. 891-3; Who’s Who of British MPs, i. 406-7.

After his brother was unseated on petition for Clare in March 1860, White offered in his place as the ministerial candidate, but was easily defeated by an independent Liberal who enjoyed the support of the local Catholic clergy. However, though of ‘very youthful’ appearance, White acquitted himself well, having been ‘perfectly cool and collected’ when confronted by ‘a perfect hurricane of … yells, groans, shouts, and hisses of the mob’.3Belfast News-letter, 16 Mar. 1860; Daily News, 10 Apr. 1860; Standard, 10 Apr. 1860. Four years later he was adopted as a candidate by the Liberal electors of county Dublin, following which he contributed generously to the local Liberal registry committee and made an ‘expensive and sustained effort’ to improve the registry, claiming to have ‘been instrumental in striking off over 2,000 fraudulent votes’. At the 1865 general election, he duly came forward on a platform of tenant-right, civil and religious equality, and improving the condition of the Irish working classes so as to ‘stop the tide of emigration’ to America. In spite of spending more than £3,000 in an ‘energetic canvass’, however, he came third in the ensuing poll behind two Conservatives.4Freeman’s Journal, 29 Mar. 1864, 17 Nov. 1864; Morning Post, 1 July 1865; Freeman’s Journal, 17 July 1865; Standard, 23 June 1866. The following year he was selected by the local Catholic clergy as the ‘popular candidate’ at the Tipperary by-election. Described in the Conservative press as ‘the candidate of the priests and the mob’, despite the fact that he a ‘conscientious Protestant’ well connected ‘the landocracy’, he was returned in his absence (being ill in Dublin) as an ‘independent Liberal’, having committed himself to the National Association’s platform of land reform, denominational education, and disestablishment.5J. O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society in Post-famine Ireland. A study of County Tipperary 1850-1891 (1983), 196; Belfast News-letter, 10 Oct. 1866; Freeman’s Journal, 11, 16, 23 Oct. 1866. He subsequently attended two meetings of Liberal MPs at Gladstone’s residence in Carlton Gardens to consider resolutions on parliamentary reform, 26 Feb. 1867, and the government’s reform bill, 21 Mar. 1867.6Daily News, 27 Feb. 1867; Standard, 22 Mar. 1867. Thereafter, he supported Gladstone’s amendment to enfranchise compound ratepayers, opposed the proposal to reduce the residency qualification from two to one year, and divided in favour of giving boroughs with populations over 250,000 a third member.

Having spoken ‘with an ease, finish, and humour’ at the hustings in 1865, White made his maiden speech in April 1867, opposing the government’s tenants’ improvements (Ireland) bill, which failed to guarantee the ‘reasonable security of tenure’ necessary to induce tenants to invest in their holdings.7Freeman’s Journal, 30 June 1865. He claimed that £17,000,000 of tenants’ savings thus lay idle in Irish banks: Hansard, 29 Apr. 1867, vol. 220, c. 1731. An advocate of the ballot, which he considered more wanting in Ireland than in any other part of the United Kingdom, he argued that secure leases would also protect rural voters who differed politically from their landlords.8Hansard, 29 Apr. 1867, vol. 220, cc. 1730-3; Freeman’s Journal, 27 Oct. 1868. White had been critical of Lord Palmerston’s neglect of Irish issues and was sceptical about the Conservative government’s proposals for Irish reform. He therefore seized upon the opportunity offered by Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish Church in March 1868, and advocated the ‘total and entire disestablishment’ of a body which he regarded as ‘the primary obstacle to the pacification of Ireland’.9Hansard, 31 Mar. 1868, vol. 191, cc. 637-40; Freeman’s Journal, 16, 27 Oct. 1868. His contribution to debate led Ralph Bernal Osborne to refer to him as a ‘rising talent’, remarking that ‘no one could have listened to the speech … without thinking that a very good and promising Member has been added to this House’.10Hansard, 2 Apr. 1868, vol. 191, cc. 771-2.

White was returned again for Tipperary at the 1868 general election as an enthusiastic supporter of Gladstonian reform, while his adherence to policies such as an amnesty for Irish political prisoners also guaranteed him the continued support of the National Association.11Freeman’s Journal, 21 Oct. 1867; O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society, 196-7; D. Thornley, Isaac Butt and Home Rule (1964), 54-5. Nevertheless, his deep commitment to securing fixity of tenure led him to second a motion to reject Gladstone’s Irish land bill, 7 Mar. 1870, and he was one of a handful of members to divide against its second reading.12Northern Echo, 8 Mar. 1870; Hansard, 7 Mar. 1870, vol. 199, cc. 1373-82; E.D. Steele, Irish Land and British Politics: Tenant-Right and Nationality 1865-1870 (1974), 300-2. Despite having no direct connection with the county, he was controversially appointed lord lieutenant of Clare in May 1872, a matter which provoked a parliamentary debate.13Freeman’s Journal, 6, 8 May 1872; Hansard, 7 May 1872, vol. 211, cc. 406-44. He was re-elected for Tipperary in 1874 as a home ruler, but avoided the founding conference of the Home Rule League, and never became a member of that party.14O’Shea, Priest, Politics and Society, 209; Thornley, Isaac Butt, 234; The Times, 3 July 1874. He stated that ‘he would rather cut off his hand than support’ the separation of Ireland from Great Britain: Hansard, 30 June 1874, vol. 220, cc. 757-61. White took the Chiltern Hundreds, 6 Feb. 1875, and left the army the following May.15Freeman’s Journal, 29 Jan. 1875; F. Boase, Modern English Biography, iii (1901), 1309. He subsequently acquired residences at Cahiracon, co. Clare, and Gort House, Petersham, and died in London in October 1890, leaving his personal estate of £19,436 to his nephew, Luke White (1857-1922), 3^rd baron Annaly.16The Times, 26 Feb. 1891.