Dalhousie, Fox Maule Ramsay
DALHOUSIE, FOX MAULE RAMSAY, nth EARL OF (1801- 1874), was the eldest son of William Ramsay Maule, 1st Baron Panmure (1771-1852), and a grandson of George, 8th earl of Dalhousie. Born on the 22nd of April 1801 and christened Fox as a compliment to the great Whig, he served for a term in the army, and then in 1835 entered the House of Commons as member for Perthshire. In Lord Melbourne's ministry (1835-1841) Maule was under-secretary for home affairs, and under Lord John Russell he was secretary-at-war from July 1846 to January 1852, when for two or three weeks he was president of the board of control. In April 1852 he became the 2nd Baron Panmure, and early in 1855 he joined Lord Palmerston's cabinet, filling the new office of" secretary of state for war. Panmure held this office until February 1858, being at the war office during the concluding period of the Crimean War and having to meet a good deal of criticism, some of which was justified and some of which was not. In December 1860 he succeeded his kinsman, the marquess of Dalhousie, as nth earl of Dalhousie, and he died childless on the 6th of July 1874. Always interested in church matters, Dalhousie was a prominent supporter of the Free Church of Scotland after the disruption of 1843. On his death the barony became extinct, but his earldom passed to his cousin, George Ramsay (1806-1880), an admiral who, in 1875, was created a peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Ramsay. George's grandson, Arthur George Maule Ramsay (b. 1878), became the 14th earl in 1887.
See the Panmure Papers, a selection from Panmure's correspondence, edited in two volumes (1908), by Sir G. Douglas, Bart., and Sir G. D. Ramsay. These numerous letters throw much light on the concluding stage of the Crimean War.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
