THE 200th anniversary of the birth in Liverpool of political giant William Gladstone was celebrated with the laying of a wreath in his memory and the opening of an exhibition dedicated to his life and work.

Four-times Prime Minister Gladstone, born in Rodney Street on December 29, 1809, was known as the “Grand Old Man” of politics, and lived on Merseyside for most of his early life until attending Oxford University.

Yesterday, a crowd of close to 100 gathered in St John’s Gardens to lay a wreath at the Gladstone memorial.

Among those present was blind Liverpool historian Steve Binns, who said he was embarking on the Herculean task of transcribing all of Gladstone’s 70 years’ worth of diaries into Braille.

Speaking at the event, Mr Binns said Gladstone had come from a privileged upbringing as the son of a corn merchant and slave trader to become one of the biggest champions of civil liberties and democracy British – if not world – politics has ever known.

But, as Mr Binns explained, Gladstone did not always hold the views that one day led him to declare – in what is considered to be one of the greatest political doctrines of all time – that he would always “back the masses against the classes”.

Mr Binns said: “In his early days, he was to the right of Genghis Khan and was declared ‘The rising hope of those stern and unbending Tories’ by Thomas Babington Macaulay.