Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, lived from 1788 to 1850 and was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1834 to 1835 and again from 1841 to 1846, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and as Home Secretary. He is regarded as the father of modern British policing for founding the Metropolitan Police while Home Secretary, and was one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party. As Home Secretary from 1822 to 1827 he reformed and liberalized the criminal law and created the modern police force, whose officers became known in tribute to him as bobbies and peelers, and although initially a supporter of legal discrimination against Catholics he reversed his stance to support the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. As prime minister from 1841 he cut tariffs to stimulate trade, replacing lost revenue with an income tax, and his governments major legislation included the Mines and Collieries Act 1842, the Income Tax Act 1842, the Factories Act 1844 and the Railway Regulation Act 1844; his decision to repeal the Corn Laws during the Great Irish Famine led to his resignation as prime minister in 1846.