SPENCER, JOHN POYNTZ, fifth Earl Spencer (1835–1910), statesman and viceroy of Ireland, was only son, in a family of three children by his first wife, of Frederick, the fourth earl (1798-1857). His mother was Elizabeth Georgiana (d. 1851), second daughter of William Stephen Poyntz of Cowdray, Sussex. His father, who as a naval officer had commanded the Talbot at the battle of Navarino, was the third son of George John Spencer [q. v.], second earl, at one time first lord of the admiralty. John Charles [q. v.], third earl, best known in political history as Viscount Althorp, was the latter's eldest son and uncle of the fifth earl.
The fifth earl, born on 27 Oct. 1835, at Spencer House, St. James's, the town 'mansion of the family, was known in youth as Viscount Althorp. In June 1848 he entered Harrow school, and stayed there six years. He was in later life an active and influential governor of the school. In Michaelmas term 1854 he matriculated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated M.A. (as a nobleman's son) in 1857. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1864. He achieved no academical distinction. On 6 April 1857 he was elected to the House of Commons, in the liberal interest, as one of the two members for South Northamptonshire — a family seat. But the death of his father on 27 December following called him to the House of Lords.
A wealthy nobleman of manly character, commanding presence, and engaging manners, Spencer was soon a prominent and popular figure in society. At Spencer House in London and at Althorp Park, his Northamptonshire seat, he soon exercised magnificent hospitality. Devoted to sport, he was an admirable horseman. Through life he rode about London on business or social errands, and he was thrice master of the Pytchley hounds. In shooting, too, he always took a lively interest, largely with an eye to national needs. In 1860 he was chairman of the committee which met at Spencer House to form the National Rifle Association, and with that body he was closely connected till death. For nearly fifty years he was a member of the council, of which he was chairman in 1867-8. He gave the Spencer cup to be competed for at the annual meetings by boys at the public schools, and frequently shot in the Lords' team in the Lords and Commons match. A large canvas by H. T. Wells, R.A., depicting Spencer and others at the camp at Wimbledon in 1868, belongs to the present Earl Spencer, and Spencer presented in 1909 a portrait of himself by the same artist to the council of the Rifle Association.
Spencer's first public employment was at court. He was appointed groom of the stole to the Prince Consort in 1859, and held that office until the prince's death on 14 Dec. 1861. In the following year he was appointed to the same position in the newly constituted household of the Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII. He retained the office until 1867. But Spencer was ambitious of political service. On 14 Jan. 1865 Lord Palmerston had nominated him K.G., and the liberal party welcomed his co-operation. On 11 Dec. 1868, when Gladstone formed his first administration, Spencer became lord-lieutenant of Ireland, but without a seat in the cabinet. Chichester Fortescue, afterwards Lord Carlingford [q. v. Suppl. I], was made chief secretary for Ireland with a seat in the cabinet.
With the measures of conciliation for Ireland — the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the reform of the land laws — to which the government was pledged, Spencer was in full sympathy, but he had no direct responsibility for them. In regard to the third remedial measure of the government — the Irish University education bill of 1873, which the House of Commons ultimately rejected — Spencer sought in vain to win the support of Cardinal Cullen (25 Feb. 1873). His duties were executive and administrative rather than legislative. While he preferred keeping order by ordinary methods of peaceful suasion, he had no compunction in meeting persistent defiance of the law by 'coercion.' On his entry into office 'Fenianism' proper had been crushed, and he found himself justified
