CHILDERS, HUGH CULLING EARDLEY (1827 1896), British statesman, was born on June 25, 1827. On leaving Cambridge he went out to Australia in 185o. In 1852 he was appointed auditor-general in Melbourne, and in 1853 collector of the customs; he carried through a bill for the establishment of the University of Melbourne, and was its first vice-chancellor. In 1856 he represented Portland in the new parliament of Victoria, and was commissioner of trades and customs in its first cabinet. In 1857 Childers returned to England as agent-general of the colony, and in 186o entered parliament as liberal member for Pontefract. In 1865 he became financial secretary to the Treasury. He occupied various posts in the Gladstone ministries. As secretary for war from 188o to 5882 he was responsible for the administration of the Transvaal War in 1881 and the Egyptian War in 1882. Dur ing his term of office the territorial system was introduced, with other administrative reforms of the army. From 1882 to 1885 he was chancellor of the Exchequer, and the beer and spirit duty in his budget of 1885 was the occasion of the Government's fall. In 1886 he was returned as a Home Ruler (one of the few Liberals who adopted this policy before Gladstone's conversion) for South Edinburgh, and was home secretary in Gladstone's ministry of 1886. The withdrawal of the financial clauses of the first Home Rule bill was largely due to his threat of resignation. He retired from parliament in 1892, and died on Jan. 29, 1896.