High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! (Anthony) Evelyn Melbourne Ashley PC (24 July 1836 – 16 November 1907), was British barrister and Liberal politician. He was private secretary to Lord Palmerston and later published a biography of him. After entering Parliament in 1874, Ashley served under William Ewart Gladstone as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1880 to 1882 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1882 to 1885.