William Edward Forster, PC, FRS was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman. As a minister in Gladstone's government, he steered through the Elementary Education Act 1870 which was the foundation of compulsory national free education for children in the UK. However his reputation was later greatly tarnished by his coercive policies as Chief Secretary for Ireland during the Land War. His purported advocacy of the Irish Constabulary's use of lethal force against the National Land League earned him the nickname Buckshot Forster from Irish nationalists.