Sir Henry William Primrose KCB CSI ISO PC (22 August 1846 – 17 June 1923)[1] was a Scottish civil servant.
In his youth, he made one appearance for the Scottish football XI against England in the representative match played in November 1870.
[citation needed] His brothers included Francis Archibald, (born 1843), Gilbert Edward (1848–1935), who also made one international football appearance for Scotland, and George Anson Primrose (1849–1930), who became a vice-admiral.
[citation needed] Primrose was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, between 1855 and 1864, where he was captain of both the school's football and cricket XIs.
[1] In 1864, he went up to Balliol College, Oxford where he obtained second class degrees in classical moderations (1867) and in the final honour school of law and modern history (1869).
[2] On 2 November 1888,[3] he married Mrs. Helen Mary Walker, the daughter of Gilbert McMicking of Wigtownshire.
[5] Primrose played as one of the forwards with the match ending in a victory for the English by a single goal.
[9][10] 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.
[2] In 1895, he commented that:responsible politicians on the Liberal side would be glad to see the area of indirect taxation widened, and would not undo what had been done in that way.
[21] 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.