R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross

The Right Honourable The Viscount Cross GCB GCSI PC FRS DL
Home Secretary
In office 21 February 1874 – 23 April 1880
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Benjamin Disraeli
Preceded by	Robert Lowe
Succeeded by	Sir William Vernon Harcourt
In office 24 June 1885 – 1 February 1886
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	Sir William Vernon Harcourt
Succeeded by	Hugh Childers
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 29 June – 4 July 1895
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	The Lord Tweedmouth
Succeeded by	The Lord James of Hereford
Personal details
Born	30 May 1823 (2024-12-11UTC11:29:11) Red Scar, Lancashire
Died
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Georgiana Lyon (d. 1907)
Alma mater	University of Cambridge

Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount Cross, GCB GCSI PC FRS DL (30 May 1823 – 8 January 1914), known before his elevation to the peerage as R. A. Cross, was a British statesman and Conservative politician. He notably served as Home Secretary between 1874 and 1880 and 1885 and 1886.

Background and education

Cross was born in Red Scar, near Preston, Lancashire, the son of William Cross (1771–1827) and his wife Ellen, daughter of Edward Chaffers. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, in 1849.

Political career

R. A. Cross caricatured by Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) in 1874.

Cross entered Parliament as one of two representatives for Preston in 1857, a seat he held until 1862. He was out of Parliament for the next year, but in 1868 he was elected for South West Lancashire, and continued to represent this constituency until his elevation to the peerage in 1886. Cross first came to prominence as Home Secretary in Disraeli's second government (1874–1880), and retained this office in Lord Salisbury's first government (1885–1886). The latter year he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Cross, of Broughton-in-Furness in the County of Lancaster. He then moved over to the India Office (1886–1892). Lord Cross was very briefly Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Salisbury's third government (1895–1902) before being elevated to the sinecure post Lord Privy Seal. In 1898 he chaired the Joint Select Committee on Electrical Energy (Generating Stations and Supply), which recommended granting compulsory purchase powers for the building of power stations. He retired in 1900.

In 1884, Cross was elected to the Board of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, and he remained a Director of that company, and of its successor the Great Central Railway (GCR), until his death. During Board meetings, he would occasionally murmur "Where is the money to come from?" In June 1909, when he was senior Director of the GCR, that railway named one of its class 8D express passenger locomotives The Rt. Hon. Viscount Cross G.C.B., G.C.S.I. in his honour.

Family

Lord Cross married Georgiana, daughter of Thomas Lyon, in 1852. His eldest son, the Hon. William Cross, represented Liverpool West Derby in Parliament. Lady Cross died in January 1907. Lord Cross survived her by seven years and died in January 1914, aged 90. He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his grandson, Richard Assheton Cross, the only son of the Honourable William Cross.

References

• BOPCRIS database entry on Cross Committee
• Archival material relating to R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross listed at the UK National Archives
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Cross

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Robert Townley Parker Sir George Strickland, Bt	Member of Parliament for Preston 1857–1862 With: Charles Pascoe Grenfell	Succeeded by Charles Pascoe Grenfell Thomas Fermor-Hesketh
New constituency	Member of Parliament for South West Lancashire 1868–1885 With: Charles Turner 1868 –1875 John Ireland Blackburne 1875–1885	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Newton 1885–1886	Succeeded by Thomas Wodehouse Legh
Political offices
Preceded by Robert Lowe	Home Secretary 1874–1880	Succeeded by Sir William Vernon Harcourt
Preceded by Sir William Vernon Harcourt	Home Secretary 1885–1886	Succeeded by Hugh Childers
Preceded by The Earl of Kimberley	Secretary of State for India 1886–1892	Succeeded by The Earl of Kimberley
Preceded by The Lord Tweedmouth	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1895	Succeeded by Sir Henry James
Preceded by The Lord Tweedmouth	Lord Privy Seal 1895–1900	Succeeded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Cross 1886–1914	Succeeded by Richard Assheton Cross