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Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish, by John D. Miller, published 1883 (after Sir William Blake Richmond, exh. RA 1874)

Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish (November 30, 1836 – May 6, 1882) was an English Liberal politician and protégé of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, who was appointed to the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland in May 1882.

Born on 30 Nov. 1836 at Compton Place, Eastbourne, Sussex, he was the second son of William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, by his marriage, 6 Aug. 1829, with Blanche Georgiana Howard, fourth daughter of George, 6th Earl of Carlisle, and the brother of Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire, who had also been Chief Secretary 1870-71. He married, on 7 June 1864, Lucy Caroline Lyttelton, second daughter of George William Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, granddaughter of Sir Stephen Glynne and niece of William Gladstone's wife Catherine. She was maid of honour to the queen.

Cavendish, and after being educated at home, matriculated in 1855 from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1858, and then served as a cornet in the Duke of Lancaster's own yeomanry cavalry. From 1859 to 1864 he was private secretary to Lord Granville. He travelled in the United States in 1859–60, and in Spain in 1860. He entered parliament as a liberal for the northern division of the West Riding of Yorkshire North, 15 July 1865, and retained that seat until his death.

After serving as private secretary to the prime minister, Mr. Gladstone, from July 1872 to August 1873 he became a junior Lord of the Treasury, and held office until the resignation of the ministry. He performed the duties of Financial Secretary to the Treasury from April 1880 to May 1882, when on the resignation of Mr. William Edward Forster, Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, he was appointed to succeed him.

In company with Earl Spencer, Lord-Lieutenant, he proceeded to Dublin, and took the oath as chief secretary at the Castle, Dublin, on 6 May 1882; but on the afternoon of the same day, while walking in the Phoenix Park in company with Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Under Secretary, he was attacked from behind by several men from an extreme Irish nationalist group known as the Irish National Invincibles), who with knives murdered Mr. Burke and himself. The event was infamously known as the Phoenix Park Murders.

His body being brought to England, was buried in Edensor churchyard, near Chatsworth, on 11 May, when three hundred members of the House of Commons and thirty thousand other persons followed the remains to the grave.

The trial of the murderers in 1883 (see James Carey] made it evident that the death of Cavendish was not premeditated, and that he was not recognised by the assassins; the plot was laid against Mr. Burke, and the former was murdered because he happened to be in the company of a person who had been marked out for destruction.

A window to Cavendish's memory was placed in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, at the cost of the members of the House of Commons. His imposing white Carrara marble tomb can be seen in Cartmel Priory, Cumbria. There is a memorial to him at Bolton Abbey.

Cavendish was known as an industrious administrator, who seldom spoke in the house except upon subjects of which he had official cognisance or special experience, but he took an interest in educational questions, and on every side was highly esteemed for his urbanity and devotion to business.

• His portrait at the National Portrait Gallery

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
• www.thepeerage.com

This article incorporates text from the Dictionary of National Biography (1885–1900), a publication now in the public domain.