Rt. Honourable Lord Hawkesbury

Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl Liverpool, Lord Hawkesbury (1770–1828), statesman, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. The son of a close adviser to King George III, he was earmarked for a political career at a young age and was 21 when he took his seat in the House of Commons. He assumed the title Lord Hawkesbury in 1796. In 1801, he entered cabinet as foreign secretary under Henry Addington and was involved in negotiating the Peace of Amiens with France in 1802. In 1803, having become Baron Hawkesbury, he was elevated to the House of Lords, serving as home secretary and later as secretary of state for war and the colonies. Having assumed the title Earl of Liverpool on the death of his father, he became prime minister in 1812. Events during his leadership include the overthrow of Napoleon, the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the war of 1812 and the implementation of the Corn Laws in 1815. Hawkesbury was forced to leave office after suffering a stroke in February 1827. The Sydney suburb of Liverpool is named after him, as is the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales.