George Canning PC, FRS (11 April 1770 – 8 August 1827) was a British statesman and politician who was Foreign Secretary and, briefly, Prime Minister.
Entry into politics
Stratford Canning was a Whig and would introduce his nephew in the 1780s to prominent Whigs such as Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. George Canning's friendship with Sheridan would last for the remainder of Sheridan's life.