William and Georgina Cowper-Temple were significant figures in nineteenth-century Britain. William Cowper-Temple, later Lord Mount Temple, was private secretary to one Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, and minister in the government of Lord Palmerston. He sought to improve the nation's health and rebuild London, and famously amended the Education Act in 1870. His charismatic wife, Georgina, was also champion of diverse social and moral reforms, and friend to such worthies as John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Frances Power Cobbe and Mrs Oscar Wilde. In the first full-length biography of this distinguished couple, James Gregory explores the Cowper-Temples' roles within Whig-Liberalism, philanthropy and social reform, and provides a fascinating insight into the private lives of two aristocrats dedicated to using their powers of influence to alleviate problems in Victorian society.

James Gregory is Associate Professor of Modern British History at Plymouth University, UK. He is the author of Victorians and Vegetarians (2007), Reformers, Patrons and Philanthropists (2010), Victorians Against the Gallows (2011), The Poetry and the Politics (2014) and Libraries, Books and Collectors of Texts, 1600-1900 (2018).

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. The Childhood and Youth of Billy Cowper

2. The Political and Courtly Life of Fascinating Billy, 1834-1842

3. Husband and Wido, 1843-1848

4. The Childhood of Georgina and a New Life

5. Junior Minister

6. The Private Life of the Cowpers, 1860-1867

7. The Private Life of the Cowper-Temples, 1867-1877

8. Lord Mount Temple: The Liberal Statesman

9. The Final Decade of Marriage, 1878-1888

10. William and Georgina as Reformers

11. The Cowper-Temples and Religion

12. The Cultural Patronage of the Cowper-Temples

13. After William, 1888-1901

Conclusion