Francis Charles Lawley (24 May 1825 – 18 September 1901) was a British journalist and Liberal Party politician.
[1] In 1852 he was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley,[2] and also became private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone during his time as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the same year.
[3] In June 1854 he was considered for the position of Governor of South Australia, but was swiftly discounted after a political scandal forced him to resign from office.
Ironically despite the information involved he failed to gain any amount of money; Lord Henry Lennox remarked that "Lawley's greatest sin was to lose on the funds, knowing what he did".
[3] With his career in ruins he moved to the United States in 1856, becoming a correspondent for The Times covering the American Civil War with the Confederate Army, and authored several books including The Bench and the Jockey Club and The Life and Times of the Druid, as well as contributing to magazines such as St Paul's Magazine.