Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet (September 4, 1843 - January 26, 1911) was an English Liberal and reformist politician, son of Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1st Baronet, and husband of the feminist art critic Emilia Dilke. Despite being an imperialist he was also a leading and determined radical within the party, helping to pass the 1884–85 parliamentary Reform Acts as well as supporting laws giving the municipal franchise to women, legalizing labour unions, improving working conditions and limiting working hours , as well as being one of the earliest campaigners for universal schooling . Touted as a future prime minister, his political career was effectively terminated in 1885, after a notorious and well-publicised divorce case.
Early life
He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society.
He became a Liberal Member of Parliament for Chelsea in 1868, serving that seat until 1885. He later became MP for Forest of Dean in 1892, serving until his death in 1911. He was elevated to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1882.
The Crawford scandal
Dilke had, both before and after his first marriage, been the lover of Ellen, wife of Eustace Smith and his brother's mother-in-law. That fact notwithstanding, in July 1885 he was the subject of accusations that he had seduced Ellen's daughter Victoria in the first year of her marriage to Donald Crawford MP. This was supposed to have occurred in 1882 when Victoria was 19 and she claimed that the affair had continued on an irregular basis for the next two and a half years. The accusations had a devastating effect on Dilke's political career, leading to his eventual loss of his parliamentary seat (Chelsea) in the 1886 UK general election.
Crawford's inevitable divorce was heard on 12 February, 1886 before The Hon. Mr Justice Butt in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Divisio. Victoria Crawford was not in court and the sole evidence was her husband's account of Victoria's confession and some fairly insubstantial circumstantial accounts of servants. Dilke, largely on the advice of his confidante Joseph Chamberlain and aware of his vulnerability over the affair with Victoria's mother, did not give evidence. Butt said "I cannot see any case whatsoever against Sir Charles Dilke" and found that Victoria had been guilty of adultery with Dilke, but that there was no admissible evidence to show that Dilke had been guilty of adultery with Victoria (sic). He therefore dismissed Dilke from the suit with costs, and pronounced a decree nisi dissolving the Crawfords' marriage.
Investigative journalist William Thomas Stead then launched a public campaign against Dilke. Such a paradoxical finding by the court left doubts hanging over Dilke's respectability and in April 1886, he sought to clear his name and re-open the case through the device of the Queen's Proctor being made a party to the case and opposing the decree absolute[1]. Unfortunately, Dilke and his legal team had badly miscalculated. Though they had planned to subject Victoria to a searching cross-examination, Dilke having been dismissed from the case, had no locus standi. The consequence was that it was Dilke who was subjected to severe scrutiny in the witness box and he proved to be an unconvincing witness. The jury[2] found that the decree absolute should be granted and that Victoria had presented the true version of the facts. Dilke was ruined and for a time seemed likely to be tried for perjury.
Dilke spent much of the remainder of his life and much of his fortune in trying to exonerate himself and it does appear likely that Victoria lied. It further seems probable that someone other than Dilke was her lover and a number of conspiracy theories have been put forward over the years including Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and Chamberlain himself.
Offices held
Bibliography
- Jenkins, Roy (1996). Dilke: A Victorian tragedy. London: Papermac. ISBN 0333620208
- Gwynn, Stephen & Tuckwell, Gertrude (1917). The life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke. London : John Murray.
External links
- Online copy of 1917 biography
- Jenkins, Roy "Dilke, Sir Charles Wentworth, second baronet (1843–1911)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [3], accessed 24 Nov 2005 (subscription required)