CARSON, EDWARD HENRY CARSON, (_ FLBritish politician and r. cf Ede ar = -;e- C_= : -.. a civil engineer of fn, was t - --= Feb. 9. I S =4 Porz.arlin.gzon _ He _ e = _--e Irish barrister _ - ? _. _ _, his _ - the di .c: It years • = en A. T. B=f: _:. as Chief ===:a . f:: Lnd.
During '''._ _ prob-31se e•: en :___ -e - __ -_ . er sea ' H_ _e came a Q.C. a- he _ - ). was ca—e_ :,: and tc:k silk h_ ham= seer re::.__ed to :_e British Pa:Ziar ent in :57_ for his own University of and was for a few : n : _ _ _ _ _ _ :: or-general : = r Ire .an =. I-I; _ _ . Gladstone was =:a :c take z=effort to .____ Home Rule bill, and he =_ e- to '":==t :he meas _:e. D'.:r = :_= next 2t years he was _i:t _ ra • =-=e to _ :ea-:-; _lace a: -a: in Ire:.._. a__ even m=:e =trite= __-== a_ _h.= : bar i- e zs _ to a stns = = : a:el - k= _ a Dec. - - - - --_- -_ ----- --- --- -=- It was not : -: artot_er I that Car==-. • _:a.. _: v= _— 1-^=h ` mil =-_ -_ -_ = __ : _ _ e=:, _ _ _ of w= to _c ail tie :tee_ cf _ T _ ::=_ e-__-e .: re=_=e = Home Rule to _e 72.21_= at __ '__._=eat; of _ ` c - _-slat = a = = s: Ha a R e • _ _ a -: _ _ had r:ade. tee-=_=:. =e sail. • a= :cc __ l i t=r would na . =r a P be p e area. if ova: dis ri o: s which :_, \' were e... :i : _ e were fare i_ate_v taken :___ erg icy al :L ,___..t_.r :t ea.stac: were of .L week. '4 ? c c tz _ L _ . _. _- - _ ? __r. to ._-__ lie _ -_ •= .AV e ti, -e .ter in a-_y circ c ta-oes. : _ --_: : Ru e. He rejection of ..:tea :cat -:- -_.
opposition d:: its s : act::= _ _ =.s. But was nairly outside r a:__a____e-:. he sacr- Icei a v'e= y lucrative the anti-Home Rule Fatty s:rc- His principal work was it • the o-__ni_t:cn of resistance in Li ner itself. ; ate _ - __ • _ __ . = _=n.e`r force. which peei:v ___ _ _arse At :er=as: on Sept. :5, 1912, Ile took "'-e a so:e^L- cc'. e---= to by their lasing ail neces&a : -'-___.= o ce:ea: :r.e to Rule. and Iur;be: - _e c=, t_.=___se:vc :c re:,se to Irsh Home Rule F. • _ (unsuccessfully) in Parliament on New Year's Day 1913 the ex clusion of Ulster from the bill.
In the autumn of 1913 the Ulster Unionist Council organised itself, under his supervision, into a provisional government, of which he was the leading member, and a guarantee fund of f i,000,000 was started to which he himself contributed £Io,000. He reviewed the Volunteers, who were rapidly becoming a f or midable military force, approaching in number ioo,000 men. But when ministers, who had refused to prosecute him or to interfere with his activities, began to realise the determination of his fol lowers in six northeastern counties, he did not repulse their overtures for a settlement but said that it must not establish a basis for separation. His advice during the following winter to his Ulster friends was "peace but preparation." He entirely de clined to accept Asquith's offer, in the early spring of 1914, of a county option of exclusion for six years. That was "sentence of death with a stay of execution." There was only one policy pos sible, he told the House of Commons : "Leave Ulster out until you have won her consent to come in." He became a member of the abortive Buckingham Palace Conference convened by the King, and when that broke down, at the end of July, it looked as if he and his Ulster friends would have to make good in action their policy of force.
The World War intervened and switched off his activity into another direction. He went to Belfast in order to stimulate Ulster men to join the British Army, and had considerable success. He joined Asquith's coalition ministry of 1915 as attorney-general, resigning however in October because he thought that the policy of the Cabinet, after the defection of Greece, involved the desertion of Serbia, in whose fate he took a profound interest. He accepted office as First Lord of the Admiralty under the coalition Govern ment formed in Dec. 1916. Outside his departmental duties he warmly promoted the Irish Convention which the Government assembled in 1917. In July he quitted the Admiralty to become a member of the War Cabinet without portfolio, a position which he resigned at the begining of 1918 because the Irish question arose again. But, in or out of office, his activity was directed whole heartedly to the vigorous prosecution of hostilities.
After the War was over Ulster and Ireland regained the first place in his thoughts. At the General Election of 1918 he left Dublin University in order to represent one of the divisions of Ulster's capital, Belfast. On the anniversary, in July 1919, of the battle of the Boyne, he restated, speaking near Belfast, Ulster's position and claims, and threatened to call out the Volunteers if any attempt were made to change her status. When, however, Mr. Lloyd George proposed in the winter his bill for the reform of the government of Ireland, establishing parliaments and executives both in Dublin and in Belfast, and a Federal council for all Ire land, he modified his attitude. Though he would have preferred no change, yet, as this bill gave the six Protestant counties of Ulster a Parliament of their own, besides representation in the Imperial Parliament, he would not oppose it.
After it had passed, he exerted himself with success to secure a strong Unionist majority in the elections in May 1921 for the first Parliament of Northern Ireland. He had thus achieved his main political object of saving Protestant Ulster from domination by the Roman Catholic majority of the south and west.
In 1921 he accepted a life peerage as Baron Carson of Dun cairn, and from that year until 1929 was a lord of appeal in ordi nary. He denounced the treaty which constituted the Free State, both at its conclusion and when the bill to carry it into effect was before his House. He also protested in 1924 against the bill which empowered the British Government to appoint, owing to Ulster's default, a third commissioner on the Irish Boundary Commission. But he welcomed the agreement, in 1925, between the British Government, the Government of the Irish Free State, and that of Northern Ireland, which finally settled this question. He was twice married—in 1879 to Sarah A. F. Kirwan (died in 1913), and in 1914 to Ruby Frewen. He died Oct. 22,