He rose above his aristocratic pedigree to become the ultimate servant of his Queen and Country, and ensured that the Conservative Party had a strong foundation upon which to build in the Twentieth Century.
With this year’s Party Conference in Birmingham, I recommend visiting a couple of sites of political heritage in the city where one can learn about the father of two future Tory leaders.
The Conservative Party has long been the natural home of libertarians and classical liberals. That relationship might be about to get less comfortable.
The Union rests on a bedrock of overwhelming economic logic, but it should be so much more. Let the Prime Minister channel Joe Chamberlain.
In her belief in “the good that government can do”, she is quite unique in terms of UK political post-war history.
He represents a proudly provincial conservatism, in which the condition of the striving classes, and of the industries on which they depend, matter a hundred times more than the City of London.
Rediscovering the strong, municipal politics of the Nineteenth Century is the key to making Britain thrive in the Twenty First.
It may be that the tight timetable of the devo-deals process has left the public feeling shut out of the discussion.
We cannot know yet whether 2015 was the start of a new ascendancy or whether, like 1900, it is an anomaly that posterity hardly notices.
The campaign is impoverished and the electorate insulted by the refusal of the main party leaders to talk about a new settlement for the United Kingdom.
This one-time “British Robespierre”, who then dedicated himself to preserving the United Kingdom, died a century ago today.
She has expressed admiration for Joe, the ambitious social reformer and staunch unionist, but his sons have their own lessons to teach.