Henry Primrose

Sir Henry William Primrose (22 August 1846 – 17 June 1923) was a Scottish civil servant. He joined the Treasury in 1869, served as private secretary to the Viceroy of India from 1880 to 1884 and to Gladstone in 1886. He was secretary of the Office of Works from 1887 to 1895. He became chairman of the Board of the Inland Revenue from 1899 to 1907.

In his youth, he made one appearance for the Scottish football XI against England in the representative match played in November 1870.

Family and education Primrose was born at Dalmeny, near Edinburgh,

Wife and children On 2 November 1888, he married Mrs. Helen Mary Walker, the daughter of Gilbert McMicking of Wigtownshire. the grandson of Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, who was Lord Chief Justice from 1832 to 1850 and spent a month in 1834 as interim Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The marriage to Denman lasted from 1871 to 1878, and ended in divorce. There were three children of the marriage: Hon. Anna Maria Heywood Denman (c. 1874–1965) who married Sir John Emmott Barlow, 1st Baronet (1857–1932), M.P. for Frome from 1892 to 1895, and from 1896 to 1918. Thomas Denman, 3rd Baron Denman of Dovedale (1874–1954), who became Governor-General of Australia from 1911 to 1914. Sir Richard Douglas Denman, 1st Baronet (1876–1957), who became M.P. for Carlisle from 1910 to 1918 and for Leeds Central from 1929 to 1945.

Her second marriage, to James Montgomery Walker lasted from 1879 to 1888 but was dissolved on the grounds of desertion. Primrose played as one of the forwards with the match ending in a victory for the English by a single goal.

He was selected for further matches but was unavailable; for the February 1872 match, the match report says that "the only change in the list of players previously published was the substitution . . . for Scotland, C. Thompson for Primrose".

Civil service On leaving Oxford, he joined the civil service, entering the Treasury in 1869.

At the end of Ripon's term in office in India in 1884, Primrose returned to work with Gladstone until the fall of the Government in June 1885. He again rejoined Gladstone following his return to office in February 1886, becoming head of the Downing Street secretariat. In January 1895, he was appointed a Companion of the "Most Honourable Order of the Bath".

Treasury In May 1895, Primrose returned to the Treasury when he was appointed a Commissioner of Her Majesty's Customs, becoming chairman.

In January 1899, he was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of The Bath; shortly afterwards, he was also promoted to become chairman of the board of the Inland Revenue, a position he held until he retired from the civil service in 1907, aged sixty-one.

His evidence to the select committee on Income Tax in 1906 vigorously defended Victorian precepts. He disliked the proposal to introduce a higher rate of tax on unearned ("precarious") income than on earned ("permanent") income.I have indicated that my opinion is against charging a higher rate upon the income that is derived from savings as long as those savings are in the hands of those persons which have made the savings.

Later career After his retirement, he remained active in public life, serving on several public bodies and commissions. Primrose was described as "a distinguished and valuable public servant, especially known for the clarity of his minutes and reports".

Shortly after his retirement, he was appointed chairman of a royal commission to enquire into the financial relationship between the Supreme Government in India and the various provincial governments, although he resigned the appointment after a month, to be replaced by Sir Charles Hobhouse.

In 1911 he chaired a committee on the financial clauses of the Irish Home Rule Bill, a subject with which he had had experience since 1886. He proposed that an Irish government should have full control over its revenue, with the British government providing some additional funds to meet the deficit. His plan was rejected by Herbert Samuel, who drew up the financial clauses of the Home Rule Bill of 1912, as it was thought to offer excessive financial autonomy to the Irish.

In 1912, he was a member of the MacDonnell royal commission on the civil service and in 1913 of the Loreburn royal commission on railways.

In September 1914, Primrose was appointed chairman of the Welsh church commission consequent on Welsh disestablishment and of the commission set up to enquire into the supply of sugar after the First World War. In 1918 he was a member of the Bradbury committee on staff retrenchment in government offices.

Death Like his cousin, Lord Rosebery, Primrose was a chronic insomniac which led to depression. On the morning of 17 June 1923, he was found in Kensington Gardens (near his home at Ennismore Gardens), having shot himself; he was taken to St George's Hospital, where he died almost immediately.