Roman Catholic Cardinal. The third and youngest son of a West India merchant who served as director and governor of the Bank of England and sat in parliament for some thirty years, Henry Edward Manning attended Harrow School but obtained no distinction beyond playing cricket. Matriculating at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1827, he soon made his mark as a debater at the Oxford Union. Ambitioning for a political career, due to his father's severe losses in his business at the period, he found himself working as a clerk in the colonial office. Resigning from the post in 1832, he pursued clerical life, being soon ordained as an Anglican priest. Appointed rector of Lavington-with-Graffham parish in Sussex, Manning married Caroline Sargent on November 7, 1833. The marriage however did not last long for his young and beautiful wife came of a consumptive family, and died childless on July 24, 1837. When Manning died so many years later, a locket containing his wife's picture was found on a chain around his neck. Appointed archdeacon of Chichester, he soon earned a reputation as an eloquent and earnest preacher, such that his University appointed him as a select preacher, succeeding John Henry Newman. Embracing Catholic faith on April 6, 1851, on the following June 14, he was ordained priest by Cardinal Wiseman. Due his great abilities and fame, he quickly rose to a position of influence, and on April 30, 1865, was chosen as archbishop of Westminster at the age of fifty six, receiving his episcopal consecration on June 8 of that year. Pope Pius IX created him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 15, 1875, with the title of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio al Monte Celio. Playing a significant role in the conversion of notable figures, such as Elizabeth Belloc, the mother of the famous British author, Hilaire Belloc, upon whose thinking Manning had a profound influence, the Cardinal held a heroic status among London's dockers, and remains known to this day for his assurance in placing the Catholic Church in England and Wales in a prominent place in the political sphere of the time. Upon his death, hundreds paid their respects as his body was laid out in state in the chapel of the Brompton Oratory. Originally buried at Kensal Green following the celebration of an impressive funeral, in January 1907, his remains, along with those of his predecessor Cardinal Wiseman, were transferred to Westminster's cathedral.