Charles Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge

{{Short description|British politician (1822–1894)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

File:Francis Grant - Portrait of Charles Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge KT TLC K2197-001.jpg]]

Charles Stewart Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge (2 September 1822 – 28 July 1894), was a British Conservative politician.

Hardinge was the son of Field Marshal Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge, and Lady Emily Jane Stewart, daughter of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry. Hardinge was elected Member of Parliament for Downpatrick in 1851, a seat he held until 1856, when he succeeded his father in the viscountcy and entered the House of Lords. He held office as Under-Secretary of State for War from March 1858 to March 1859 in the Second Derby-Disraeli ministry.

He was aged 21, when he went to India as private secretary to his father, the then, governor general, from July 1844 to January 1848.{{cite book |last1=Hardinge |first1=Charles Stewart |editor1-last=Singh |editor1-first=Bawa Satinder |title=My Indian Peregrinations: the Private Letters of Charles Stewart Hardinge, 1844-1847 |date=2009 |publisher=Texas Tech University Press |isbn=978-0896724440}}

He was appointed major of the Kent Militia Artillery when it was formed in 1853, and the unit was embodied for home defence during the Crimean War.Hart's Army List, 1855

Lord Hardinge married Lady Lavinia, daughter of George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, in 1856. They had five sons and three daughters. Their second son the Hon. Charles was raised to the peerage in his own right as Baron Hardinge of Penshurst in 1910. Lady Hardinge died in September 1864, shortly after the birth of her youngest child. Lord Hardinge remained a widower until his death in July 1894, aged 71. He was succeeded in the viscountcy by his eldest son, Henry.

Hardinge authored the biography of his father, Sir Henry Hardinge in 1891 for the Rulers of India series.{{Cite ODNB|id=12268|title=Hardinge, Charles Stewart}}

File:Thomas Lawrence - Walter Charles James and Charles Stewart Hardinge - 1958.301 - Fogg Museum.jpg age 13 in 1829]]