British Prime Minister. He served as Prime Minister of Great Britain on four separate occasions: From 1868 to 1874, from 1880 to 1885, a five-month term in 1886 and at age 83, from 1892 to 1894 for a total of twelve years. During his sixty-year career as a politician, he was for many years the voice of the Liberal Party as an excellent orator, while serving as MP of various districts. He is considered by most historians as one of the greatest leaders of the 19th century. Born into a family of Scottish ancestry, his father, John Gladstone, was a wealthy member of Parliament as well as an owner of a British West Indies sugar plantation, which was worked by 2,508 enslaved. There were plans for him to enter the clergy but this was eventually abandoned for politics. After visiting Rome, he was a member of the High Anglican Church. Although not a great scholar, he attended Eton before Christ Church at Oxford, majoring in the classics and mathematics in 1831. In May of the same year as the president of the Oxford Union, he made a political speech that paved his way to a career in politics. In December of 1832, he began his parliamentary career as a Troy member yet became the "Grand Old Man" of Liberalism. In 1833, he accepted emancipation of the enslaved, with a period of apprenticeship for the ex-slaves and with financial compensation for the planters, which his father received. Known as a workhorse, he held minor offices in Sir Robert Peel's short government of 1834 to 1835, first as Junior Lord of the Treasury, then as undersecretary for the colonies and later as vice president of the Board of Trade. In July of 1839 he married Catherine Glynne, the orphan daughter of Sir Stephen Glynne of Hawarden Castle. The couple had eight children. This marriage was an excellent political choice. In 1840 he began, using his own money, his plan to reform of London's prostitutes. His Railway Act of 1844 required minimum regulations for railroad companies and provided for governmental purchase of railway lines. In 1845, he resigned his seat in Parliament for a few months in a protest, returning to Peel's Cabinet of a short-lived post of Colonial Secretary. He voted to admit Jews to Parliament. His conservative political adversaries included Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston; Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby; and Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield. In 1858 he published "Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age". Between 1859 and 1865, he proved himself to be an outstanding as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the government's chief finance minister. During his first term as Prime Minister, wars throughout Europe often impacted his plans financially. His government brought in the first national system of elementary education in England, Wales and Scotland in 1872 and the same year, started the practice of the secret ballot for elections After his first term as prime minister, he continued to be MP but resigned from the Liberal Party leadership in 1874. During his second term, he combined the office of Prime Minister with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which proved to be a mistake. With raging violence in Ireland, Gladstone's Irish Land Act of 1881 promoted the prosperity of the Irish peasants. In 1882 his Cabinet was compelled to authorize the occupation of Egypt, and he lost popularity following the death of General Charles George Gordon in the loss of control of the Sudan. He supported the People Act of 1884, which gave more men the right to vote. He resigned from his second term as a defeated man. Although he and Queen Victoria were not always on the best of terms, Gladstone declined an earldom offered by Queen Victoria, preferring to remain in office. During his short third term, he supported Irish Home Rule, which was also defeated. His fourth term began in August of 1892 and the House of Lords highly rejected his purposed Irish Home Rule act. The first Irish Home Rule act was rejected by the Commons in 1886, the second was vetoed by the Lords in 1893. With a decline in his health with failing eyesight and hearing, he resigned once more on March 3, 1894. Four years later, he died of cancer that started behind his cheek bone before spreading. His funeral was grand with the Prince of Wales and his son George, the future George V, as pallbearers. There several monuments dedicated to him: He has a full statue at Albert Square in Manchester and a huge monument at Coates Crescent Gardens in Edinburgh. In Liverpool, a statue in the Great Hall of Saint George, two sculptured pieces at the Liverpool Museum, and another statue of him at St. Johns Garden giving a speech. He has a statue in Westminster Abbey in London. In 1925, his residence at Carlton House Terrace in London was marked with an English Blue Plaque. In the 21st century, his descendants made a public apology to the descendants of the enslaved on the Gladstone sugar plantation in the West Indies.