George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston

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George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925) was a British Conservative statesman who served as Viceroy of India.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Life and career 2.1 First marriage (1895 - 1906) 2.2 Viceroy of India (1899–1905) 2.3 Representative peer for Ireland (1908) 2.4 Second marriage (1917) 2.5 Foreign Secretary (1919–24) 3 Assessment 4 Notes 5 Bibliography 5.1 Curzon's works 6 References

[edit] Early life

Eldest son of the 4th Baron Scarsdale, rector of Kedleston in Derbyshire, Curzon was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. At Eton he was a favorite of Oscar Browning, leading to his tutor's eventual dismissal.^[1][2] At Oxford he was President of the Canning Club, the Union and the Presidents' Council, and after a brilliant university career - although he failed to achieve a first class degree in Greats, he won the Lothian and Arnold Prizes, the latter for an essay on Sir Thomas More, about whom he confessed to having known almost nothing before commencing study, literally delivered as the clocks were chiming midnight on the day of the deadline - was elected a fellow of All Souls College in 1883.

A teenage spinal injury, incurred while horseback riding, left Curzon in lifelong pain, often resulting in insomnia, and required him to wear a metal corset under his clothes, contributing to an unfortunate impression of stiffness and arrogance. While at Oxford, Curzon was the inspiration for a piece of doggerel which stuck with him in later life:

My name is George Nathaniel Curzon,
I am a most superior person.
My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek,
I dine at Blenheim twice a week.

[edit] Life and career

He became Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Salisbury in 1885, and in 1886 entered Parliament as Member for the Southport division of south-west Lancashire. He served as Under-Secretary of State for India in 1891-1892 and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1895–1898.

In the meantime he had travelled in Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan, the Pamirs, Siam, French Indochina and Korea, and published several books describing central and eastern Asia and related policy issues.

[edit] First marriage (1895 - 1906)

In 1895 he married Mary Victoria Leiter, the beautiful daughter of Levi Ziegler Leiter, a Chicago millionaire of German Lutheran origin and a cofounder of the department store Field & Leiter (now known as Marshall Field). She died July 18, 1906, 36 years old.^[3]

They had three daughters: Mary Irene (who inherited her father's Barony of Ravensdale and was created a life peer in her own right), Cynthia (first wife of Sir Oswald Mosley), and Alexandra Naldera (wife of Edward "Fruity" Metcalfe, the best friend, best man and equerry of Edward VIII; best known as Baba Metcalfe, she later became a mistress of her brother-in-law Oswald Mosley, as did her stepmother, Grace Curzon. Mary Irene had a short affair with Mosley before either were married.

[edit] Viceroy of India (1899–1905)

In January 1899 he was appointed Viceroy of India. He was created a Peer of Ireland as Baron Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, on his appointment. This was the last peerage to be created in the Peerage of Ireland, the appointment taking this form, it was understood, in order that he might remain free during his father's lifetime to re-enter the House of Commons.

Reaching India shortly after the suppression of the frontier risings of 1897–1898, he paid special attention to the independent tribes of the north-west frontier, inaugurated a new province called the North West Frontier Province, and pursued a policy of forceful control mingled with conciliation. The only major armed outbreak on this frontier during the period of his administration was the Mahsud Waziri campaign of 1901.

His deep mistrust of Russian intentions led him to encourage British trade in Persia, paying a visit to the Persian Gulf in 1903. At the end of that year, he sent a military expedition into Tibet led by Francis Younghusband, ostensibly to forestall a Russian advance. After bloody conflicts with Tibet's poorly-armed defenders, the mission penetrated to Lhasa, where a treaty was signed in September 1904. No Russian presence was found in Lhasa.

Within India, Lord Curzon of Kedleston appointed a number of commissions to inquire into Indian education, irrigation, police and other branches of administration, on whose reports legislation was based during his second term of office as viceroy. Reappointed Governor-General in August 1904, he presided over the partition of Bengal (July 1905), which roused such bitter opposition among the people of the province that it was later revoked (1912).

Also, a major famine coincided with Curzon's time as viceroy. Large parts of India were affected and millions died, but Curzon is nowadays criticised for having done little to fight the famine.^[4]

A difference of opinion with the British military Commander-in-Chief in India, Lord Kitchener, regarding the position of the military member of council in India, led to a controversy in which Lord Curzon of Kedleston failed to obtain support from the home government. He resigned in August 1905 and returned to England.

During his tenure, Curzon undertook the restoration of the Taj Mahal, and expressed satisfaction that he had done so.

[edit] Representative peer for Ireland (1908)

In 1908, Curzon was elected a representative peer for Ireland, and thus relinquished any idea of returning to the House of Commons. In 1909-1910 he took an active part in opposing the Liberal government's proposal to abolish the legislative veto of the House of Lords, and in 1911 was created Baron Ravensdale, of Ravensdale in the County of Derby, with remainder (in default of heirs male) to his daughters, Viscount Scarsdale, of Scarsdale in the County of Derby, with remainder (in default of heirs male) to the heirs male of his father, and Earl Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, with the normal remainder, all in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. He served in Lloyd George's War Cabinet as Leader of the House of Lords from December 1916. Despite his continued opposition to votes for women (he had earlier headed the Anti-Suffrage League), the House of Lords voted conclusively in its favour.

[edit] Second marriage (1917)

After a long affair with the romance novelist Elinor Glyn, Curzon married, in 1917, the former Grace Elvina Hinds, the wealthy Alabama-born widow of Alfred Hubert Duggan; in later years wags joked that despite his political disappointments Curzon still enjoyed "the means of Grace". Elinor Glyn, who was staying with Curzon at the time, read of his engagement in the morning newspapers.

His wife had three children from her first marriage. Despite fertility-related operations and several miscarriages, she was never able to give Curzon the son and heir he desperately desired, a fact that eroded their marriage, which ended in separation, though not divorce.

[edit] Foreign Secretary (1919–24)

Appointed Foreign Secretary from January 1919, Curzon gave his name to his line which became the British government's proposed Soviet-Polish boundary, the Curzon Line of December 1919. Although during the subsequent Russo-Polish War Poland conquered ground in the east, Poland was shifted westwards after the Second World War, leaving the Curzon Line approximately the border between Poland and its eastern neighbors today.

Curzon did not have Lloyd George's support. The Prime Minister thought him overly pompous and self-important, and it was said that he used him as if he were using a Rolls-Royce to deliver a parcel to the station; Lloyd George said much later that Churchill treated his Ministers in a way that Lloyd George would never have treated his; "They were all men of substance — well, except Curzon." ^[5] Curzon nevertheless helped in several Middle Eastern problems: He negotiated Eygptian independence (granted in 1922); resolved an insurrection in the mandated territory of Iraq (by sending T. E. Lawrence to report and adopting his recommendations which were to grant internal self government under the rule of King Faisal) and divided the British Mandate of Palestine, creating the Kingdom of Jordan for Faisal's brother, which may also have delayed the problems there.

Curzon was largely responsible for the first Armistice Day ceremonies on 11 November 1919. These included the plaster Cenotaph, designed by the noted British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, for the Allied Victory parade in London, and it was so successful that it was reproduced in stone, and still stands. In 1921 he was created Earl of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, and Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.

Unlike many leading Conservative members of Lloyd George's Coalition Cabinet, Curzon ceased to support Lloyd George over the Chanak Crisis and had just resigned when the Conservative backbenchers voted at the Carlton Club Meeting to end the Coalition in October 1922. Curzon thus able to remain Foreign Secretary when Andrew Bonar Law formed a purely Conservative ministry. In 1922-3 Curzon had to negotiate with France after French troops occupied the Ruhr to enforce the payment of German reparations; he described the French Prime Minister (and former President) Raymond Poincaré as a "horrid little man".

On Andrew Bonar Law's retirement as Prime Minister in May 1923, Curzon was passed over for the job in favour of Stanley Baldwin, despite having written Bonar Law a lengthy letter earlier in the year complaining of rumours that he was to retire in Baldwin's favour, and listing the reasons why he should have the top job. Many reasons are often cited for this decision - taken on the private advice of leading members of the party including former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour - but amongst the most prominent are that Curzon's character was objectionable, that it was felt to be inappropriate for the Prime Minister to be a member of the House of Lords when Labour, who had few peers, had by then become the main opposition party in the Commons (though this did not prevent Lord Halifax being considered for the premiership in 1940, possibly with a special Act to allow him to sit in the House of Commons; in 1963 Lords Home and Hailsham were only able to be candidates owing to recent legislation permitting them to disclaim their peerages) and that in a democratic age it would be dangerous for a party to be led by a rich aristocrat. A letter purporting to detail the opinions of Bonar Law but in actuality written by Baldwin sympathisers was delivered to the King's Private Secretary Lord Stamfordham, though it is unclear how much impact this had in the final outcome. Summoned to London to see Stamfordham, Curzon travelled by train assuming he was to be appointed Prime Minister, and is said to have burst into tears when told the truth. He later described Baldwin as "a man of the utmost insignificance", although he served under Baldwin and proposed him for leadership of the Conservative Party.

Curzon remained Foreign Secretary under Baldwin until the government fell in January 1924. When Baldwin formed a new government in November 1924, he did not reappoint Curzon as Foreign Secretary but instead as Lord President of the Council. Curzon held this post until the following March when he died in office. Upon his death the Barony, Earldom and Marquessate of Curzon of Kedleston and the Earldom of Kedleston became extinct, whilst the Viscountcy and Barony of Scarsdale were inherited by a nephew and the Barony of Ravensdale by his eldest daughter.

[edit] Assessment

There was a feeling after his death that Curzon had failed to reach the heights that his youthful talents had seemed destined to reach. This sense of opportunities missed was summed up by Churchill in his book Great Contemporaries (1937):

The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were polished till it shone after its fashion.

It is believed that his name was given to a new school built in 1938 - Curzon Crescent Nursery School, Willesden, Middlesex, due to the area's links with All Souls.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ". . . Oscar Browning (1837-1923), who had been sacked from Eton in September 1875 under suspicion of paederasty, partly because of his involvement with young George Nathaniel Curzon" in Michael Kaylor, Secreted Desires 2006 p.98
2. ^ "His intimate, indiscreet friendship with a boy in another boarding-house, G. N. Curzon [...] provoked a crisis with [Headmaster] Hornby [….] Amid national controversy he was dismissed in 1875 on the pretext of administrative inefficiency but actually because his influence was thought to be sexually contagious" in Richard Davenport-Hines, Oscar Browning DNB)
3. ^ Maximilian Genealogy Master Database, Mary Victoria LEITER, 2000[1]
4. ^ Mike Davis (scholar): Late Victorian Holocausts
5. ^ Michael Foot: Aneurin Bevan

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Curzon's works

• Russia in Central Asia (1889)
• Persia and the Persian Question (1892)
• Problems of the Far East (1894; new ed., 1896).

For a number of interesting issues raised during Curzon's Viceroyalty see, Empire and authority: Curzon, collisions, character and the Raj, 1899–1905. a PhD written by Michael Carrington. (Available through British Library.

[edit] References

• Mosley, Leonard Oswald. The glorious fault: The life of Lord Curzon
• Nicolson, Harold. Curzon: the last phase
• Gilmour, David (2003). Curzon - Imperial Statesman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux / John Murray. ISBN 0-7195-5547-7. Retrieved on May 25, 2006. 
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Augustus Pilkington	Member of Parliament for Southport 1886–1898	Succeeded by Herbert Scarisbrick Naylor-Leyland
Political offices
Preceded by Sir John Eldon Gorst	Under-Secretary of State for India 1891–1892	Succeeded by George William Erskine Russell
Preceded by Sir Edward Grey	Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1895–1898	Succeeded by William St John Brodrick
Preceded by The Earl of Elgin	Viceroy of India 1899–1904	Succeeded by The Lord Ampthill
Preceded by The Lord Ampthill	Viceroy of India 1904–1905	Succeeded by The Earl of Minto
Preceded by The Marquess of Salisbury	Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1904–1905	Succeeded by HRH The Prince of Wales
Preceded by Francis William Browne, 4th Baron Kilmaine	Representative peer for Ireland 1908–1925	Succeeded by office lapsed
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Preceded by The Marquess of Crewe	Lord Privy Seal 1915–1916	Succeeded by The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres
	Leader of the House of Lords 1916-1924	Succeeded by The Viscount Haldane
	Lord President of the Council 1916–1919	Succeeded by Arthur James Balfour
Preceded by The Marquess of Lansdowne	Conservative Leader in the Lords 1916–1925	Succeeded by Stanley Baldwin (as overall leader)'''
Preceded by Andrew Bonar Law	Leader of the British Conservative Party with Austen Chamberlain 1921–1922	Succeeded by Andrew Bonar Law
Preceded by Arthur James Balfour	Foreign Secretary 1919–1924	Succeeded by Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by The Lord Parmoor	Lord President of the Council 1924–1925	Succeeded by Arthur James Balfour
Preceded by The Viscount Haldane	Leader of the House of Lords 1924–1925	Succeeded by The Marquess of Salisbury
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Marquess Curzon of Kedleston 1921–1925	Succeeded by Extinct
Preceded by New Creation	Earl Curzon of Kedleston 1911–1925	Succeeded by Extinct
Preceded by New Creation	Earl of Curzon 1921–1925	Succeeded by Extinct
Preceded by New Creation	Viscount Scarsdale 1911–1925	Succeeded by Richard Curzon
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Ravensdale 1911–1925	Succeeded by Mary Irene Curzon
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Alfred Curzon	Baron Scarsdale 1916–1925	Succeeded by Richard Curzon
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by New Creation	Baron Curzon of Kedleston 1898–1925	Succeeded by Extinct