Sir William Brampton Gurdon KCMG CB JP (5 September 1840 – 31 May 1910)[1][2] was a British civil servant who became a Liberal Party politician.

[2] Gurdon entered the Treasury as a clerk in 1863, and became private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1865 to 1866 and when Prime Minister from 1868 to 1874.

[3] In 1879 he served as a special commissioner in South Africa following the Anglo-Zulu War, and then in 1881 on the Royal Commission appointed to draw up the Pretoria Convention.

[8] His major achievement as an MP was successfully bringing the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act 1907 through Parliament; this had been a controversial proposal for over seventy years.

[10] In 1888 he married Lady Eveline Camilla Wallop, daughter of the 5th Earl of Portsmouth.