Stock Photo - The Political Mrs Gummidge', 1885. The Liberal Prime Minister appears here in the guise of Mrs Gummidge. A portrait of the former Conservative Prime Minister, Disraeli, is hanging on the wall. This relates to both the troubles in Afghanistan which was now in conflict with Russia, as well as the British troubles in Egypt. Gladstone was known to dislike war, seeing it only as a very last resort. This was a characteristic which, ironically, he had always denounced in his great rival, and predecessor in office, Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, who had died a few years earlier. From Punch, or the London Charivari, May 2, 1885.