Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie

Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie, KT, GCB, PC (22 April 1801 – 6 July 1874), known as Fox Maule before 1852, as The Lord Panmure between 1852 and 1860, was a British politician.

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Dalhousie
KT GCB PC
Secretary of State for War
In office
8 February 1855 – 21 February 1858
MonarchQueen Victoria
Prime MinisterThe Viscount Palmerston
Preceded byThe Duke of Newcastle
Succeeded byJonathan Peel
Personal details
Born22 April 1801 (1801-04-22)
Died6 July 1874 (1874-07-07) (aged 73)
NationalityBritish
Political partyWhig
Liberal
Spouse(s)
Hon. Montague Abercromby
​
​
(m. 1807; died 1853)​

Background

Dalhousie was the eldest son of William Maule, 1st Baron Panmure, and a grandson of George Ramsay, 8th Earl of Dalhousie. Christened Fox as a compliment to Charles James Fox, the great Whig, he served for a term in the Army.[1]

Political career
The arms of Lord Panmure (albeit incorrectly tinctured) at Woolwich Arsenal

In 1835 he entered the House of Commons as member for Perthshire. In the ministry of Lord Melbourne (1835–1841), Maule was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, and under Lord John Russell, he was Secretary at War from July 1846 to January 1852, when for two or three weeks he was President of the Board of Control.[1]

In April 1852, he succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Panmure. In February 1855, he joined Lord Palmerston's cabinet, filling the new office of Secretary of State for War. Lord Panmure held this office until February 1858. He was at the War Office during the concluding period of the Crimean War, and met a good deal of criticism.[1] He was Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland from 1853 until his death.

Always interested in church matters, Dalhousie was a prominent supporter of the Free Church of Scotland after it split from the Church of Scotland in the disruption of 1843. In December 1860, he succeeded his kinsman, the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, as 11th Earl of Dalhousie.[1] He shortly afterwards changed his surname to "Maule-Ramsay" (his father had changed his surname to "Maule" from the family's patronymic "Ramsay" before being created Baron Panmure).[2]

Freemasonry

Maule was appointed Senior Grand Warden of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1832, and later (as Lord Panmure) Deputy Grand Master in 1857.[3] He was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1867.[3] In 1860, Panmure Lodge (now No. 723) was warranted, being named after the then Deputy Grand Master.[3]

Marriage

Lord Dalhousie married the Hon. Montague, daughter of George Abercromby, 2nd Baron Abercromby, in 1831. They had no children. She died in November 1853, aged 46. Lord Dalhousie died July 1874, aged 73. On his death, the barony of Panmure became extinct, but the earldom of Dalhousie (and its subsidiary titles) passed to his cousin, George Ramsay.[1]

References
  1. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dalhousie, Fox Maule Ramsay, 11th Earl of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 767. This cites G. Douglas and G. D. Ramsay (editors), Panmure Papers, 1908. These numerous letters from Panmure's correspondence throw much light on the concluding stage of the Crimean War.
  2. Sweetman, John. "Maule, Fox [afterwards Fox Maule-Ramsay], second Baron Panmure and eleventh earl of Dalhousie (1801-1874), army officer and politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18365. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. "About Us". Panmure Lodge No. 723. n.d. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
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