Robert Peel was the first Prime Minister to come from an industrial background, son of a Lancashire textile manufacturer. He was born in 1788 and was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford where he received a double first in Classics and Mathematics. He studied law at Lincoln’s Inn in 1809. He was also an officer in the Manchester militia in 1808.

He became an MP for the rotten borough of Cashel in Tipperary in 1809, and would represent five seats over his career, most famously Tamworth from 1830 to 1850. His maiden speech was a great success, and he had the advantage of powerful patrons including the Duke of Wellington.

Peel was appointed to be Under Secretary for War and Colonies in 1810 and was then promoted to Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1812. He served in that position until 1818 when he resigned. In the Commons, he chaired a Select Committee looking at British finances after the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1822, Peel returned to government as the Home Secretary, first under Lord Liverpool between 1822 and 1827, and then returning under Wellington over 1828-30. He would leave a strong legacy. He acted to reduce the number of death penalty offences, reformed the prison system, and, most famously of all, established the Metropolitan Police, the first professional British police force. Police officers were known as ‘bobbies’, in reference to Peel (and ‘Peelers’ in Ireland, where their function was much more repressive).

During Wellington’s premiership, Peel was increasingly seen as his deputy. Both were drawn into the controversy of Catholic Emancipation (the repeal of repressive Stuart-era legislation), with Peel initially very sceptical. However, he changed his mind, and by 1828 was in favour. Peel wrote the Catholic Relief Bill, but also chose to submit himself to re-election for his (fiercely Anglican) Oxford University seat, which he lost in 1829. He would stand for Tamworth in 1830 and represented the seat for the rest of his life. Ultimately, Peel and Wellington were able to pass the legislation, but at great political cost, with Wellington resigning in 1830.

Worse followed when the Tories were heavily defeated in the 1832 election. But then, in 1834, William IV dismissed Lord Melbourne and appointed Peel (who had to rush back from a holiday in Italy). Peel became Prime Minister in June, formed a cabinet, and decided that the best course was to seek a general election at the first opportunity. Before the election, he issued the Tamworth Manifesto, a policy document accepting the changes of Catholic emancipation and the Great Reform Act, and which founded the modern Conservative Party.

To some extent, Peel’s hard work paid off, and he gained 100 seats in the election. But it was not enough to unseat the Whigs, who retained a large majority. After just 119 days in office, Peel returned to the opposition benches and was replaced by Lord Melbourne.  In 1837, the Conservatives gained more seats at the election, but still not enough to replace the Whigs.

Peel almost returned to the premiership in 1839, when Melbourne resigned, but the young Queen Victoria imposed certain conditions and reacted with outrage when Peel asked for the removal of some Whig members of her household. This event became known as the ‘Bedchamber Crisis’ and the result was that Melbourne returned to the premiership for another two years.

In 1841, the Conservatives finally won an election, gaining 367 seats, allowing them to form a majority government with Peel as Prime Minister. This was the first time that the government changed from one party in a majority to another in a majority due to a general election. This was a far more important ministry than his previous government.

Peel inherited a nation in distress. There was a sharp recession and a heavy spending deficit. There was Chartist and Anti-Corn Laws agitation across the country. At one point in 1842, the reports of disorder nearby and the fear of imminent attack caused Peel’s wife Julia to barricade herself with their staff in their Drayton Manor home. She was sufficiently armed, she reassured him, to resist the attack, which never came. In 1843, Peel’s private secretary Edward Drummond was shot in Whitehall by a madman who had mistook him for Peel, he died of the wounds a few days later.

Peel’s government re-introduced income tax, which had been abolished at the end of the Napoleonic conflicts. Additionally, he reduced or removed over a thousand import tariffs. These measures helped to boost the government’s revenue and created a surplus within a few years.

In foreign affairs, Peel clashed with the powerful and belligerent Governor-General of India Lord Ellenborough, eventually replacing him with Sir Henry Hardinge. On the other side of the world, Peel’s government settled the Oregon territory dispute with the United States.

Additionally, Peel’s government passed the Factory Act of 1844, improving factory conditions for women and children.

The great crisis of Peel’s government was to be over the Corn Laws. These were a system of tariffs on the foreign imports of cereal grains, making it prohibitively expensive to import wheat or maize from abroad. As such, they buttressed the power and income of the landed elite, who did not need to compete with foreign competitors. There had been a long running campaign to abolish the laws, but most of Peel’s Conservative colleagues were in favour of maintaining the status quo.

Peel had considered repealing the Corn Laws early in his premiership but held back. But in 1845, the potato harvest failed in Ireland and a terrible famine began. He decided that this was the moment to push for abolition. Immense controversy followed, and there was a storm of opposition from the Conservative benches, including brazen attacks from Benjamin Disraeli. Peel could not convince his Cabinet, and several members threatened to resign. Peel himself did attempt to resign, but Whig Lord John Russell could not form a government.

In June 1846, with Whig support, Parliament finally passed the repeal of the Corn Laws. That day, the government was defeated on another bill. Peel resigned on 29 June. The Conservative Party was split for a generation and would not win an election with a majority again until the 1870s. But, Peel had won the battle over the Corn Laws, and free trade would become one of the ruling doctrines of Victorian economics.

Peel married Julia Floyd, the daughter of an army general, in 1820. They had seven children.

Robert Peel remained active in politics, and though there were 100 ‘Peelite’ MPs, he did not nurture hopes of a return to office. He was thrown from his horse in 1850 and died soon after.