Lord Herbert of Lea
(1810-1861)

Sydney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea, was the 2nd son of the 11th Earl of Pembroke, and heir-presumptive of his half-brother. A Conservative politician, he was several times Secretary of War: under Peel 1845-47, in Lord Aberdeen’s Liberal-Peelite coalition of 1852-1855, and under Palmerston 1859-60.

During the Crimean War, he was responsible for sending Florence Nightingale to the front to work in the British hospital at Scutari, strongly supporting her subsequent recommendations. He was attacked for his part in the mismanagement of the war, but was exonerated by the Roebuck committee of enquiry. After 1856 he led the movement for medical reform in the army. He returned as Secretary of War in Palmerston’s ministry of 1859.

On 15 January 1861 he was created Lord Herbert of Lea, but died a few months later at Wilton House, Salisbury. There is a bronze statue of him by Foley in Waterloo Place in front of the Crimean War Memorial.