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George Nathaniel Curzon Curzon of Kedleston
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or "GEORGE NATHANIEL CURZON, CURZON OF KEDLESTON 1ST Marquess (18J9-), English statesman ( see 7.665), received an earldom (along with the viscountcy of Scarsdale and the barony of Ravensdale) as one of the coronation honours in 1911. He was conspicuous in that year first by his strong denunciation of the Parliament bill and the whole Liberal attack on the Lords, and then by the leading share which he took, in the final stage, in persuading the bulk of the Unionist peers to abstain from voting in the crucial division and so to permit the bill to pass rather than have their House swamped by hundreds of creations ad hoc. During the vehement party conflicts of the next two or three years before the World War he established his position as the chief lieutenant of Lord Lansdowne in the Lords. But much of his time and attention during the period of opposition were given to the affairs of Oxford University, of which he had become chancellor; and he promoted the cause of reform there by personal effort and by publishing a detailed memorandum on the subject. With other Unionist leaders he joined Mr. Asquith's Coalition Cabinet in the summer of 1915, as Lord Privy Seal; and in that capacity he introduced the bill constituting the new Ministry of Munitions under Mr. Lloyd George, and took charge in the Lords of the Munitions of War bill which was to furnish that Ministry with its weapons. In these and other ways he gave proof of a determination to prosecute the war with zeal and energy. He accepted the presidency of the Air Board in May 1916, and in July became a permanent member of the War Committee of the Cabinet. When Mr. Lloyd George formed his Ministry in Dec., he was accorded a still more prominent position. Lord Lansdowne and Lord Crewe - the two leaders of parties in the Lords - both retired, and Lord Curzon became the leader of the House with the office of President of the Council. He was chosen also to be one of the four ministers (the others being the Prime Minister, Lord Milner, and Mr. Henderson) who constituted the War Cabinet, and were charged with the permanent daily conduct of the war. After the Paris Conference he took over the Foreign Office from Mr. Balfour, retaining his leadership in the Lords. As leader, though not able to claim the sympathetic touch and close familiarity with their lordships' idiosyncrasies possessed by some of his predecessors, he exhibited remarkable intellectual powers and oratorical capacity, and gradually established his ascendancy in the House. In the Foreign Office he found a specially congenial sphere, as he had throughout his life made a study of the external relations of the country, and had travelled extensively. But foreign affairs in the years immediately following the war were still dominated by the Prime Minister, and by the Supreme Council.
Lord Curzon's first wife, by whom he had three daughters, died in 1906, and in 1917 he married, as his second wife, Grace Elvina, widow of Alfred Duggan, of Buenos Aires, and daughter of J. Munroe Hinds, U.S. minister in Brazil. He succeeded to the barony of Scarsdale on his father's death in 1916, and became a K.G. in the same year. He was created a marquess on the King's birthday in 1921.
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'George Nathaniel Curzon Curzon of Kedleston'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/g/george-nathaniel-curzon-curzon-of-kedleston.html. 1910.
