Ralph Anstruther Earle

Ralph Anstruther Earle (1835 – 10 June 1879) was a British Conservative Party politician.

He was elected at the 1859 general election as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed, but resigned from the House of Commons the same year through appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 12 August 1859.

He returned to Parliament at the 1865 general election, when he was elected as one of the two MPs for Maldon in Essex, but did not stand again when Maldon's representation was reduced to one seat at the 1868 general election. Earle, whose brother was General Earle of the General Stff during the Crimean War campaign, was a Whig by inclination. However he was soon talent spotted by Benjamin Disraeli who was looking around the House for new allies. The Chancellor of Exchequer cast his net wide among conservative Whigs, Radicals, all those who wished to oppose Gladstone, and his proposal in 1866 for an extension to the franchise. Earle was in 1867, briefly appointed a minister but soon becoming very disillusioned with political intrigue, which he did not understand, he resigned to become a financier in the middle-east, near the Suez Canal zone.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Ralph Anstruther Earle

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Stapleton and Charles William Gordon	Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed 1859 With: Charles William Gordon	Succeeded by Charles William Gordon and Dudley Marjoribanks
Preceded by Thomas Sutton Western George Peacocke	Member of Parliament for Maldon 1865 – 1868 With: George Peacocke	Succeeded by Edward Hammond Bentall