2004 marks the centenary of the death of Sir William Vernon Harcourt, on 30 September 1904, and this provides an opportunity to consider the extent to which Harcourt's beliefs and political attitudes are still relevant today. Although he is now almost forgotten Harcourt was regarded as a major figure in 1904, even though he had not held ministerial office since the fall of the Rosebery government in 1895, and had told his South Wales constituents, at the age of nearly seventy seven, that he would not contest the next parliamentary election, when the Liberals went on to secure a landslide victory. Some of the comments in obituaries and public tributes are revealing. For Campbell-Bannerman, who had succeeded Harcourt as Liberal leader at the end of 1898 and was about to become Prime Minister, three men had 'stood on a plane...distinctly above all their contemporaries' during his public life-Gladstone, Disraeli, and Harcourt. The Conservative leader Arthur Balfour rated his old adversary equally highly: