George Wyndham

George Wyndham, PC (29 August 1863 – 8 June 1913) was a British Conservative politician, statesman, man of letters, and one of The Souls.

For other people named George Wyndham, see George Wyndham (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable George Wyndham
George Wyndham in the early 1900s.
Under-Secretary of State for War
In office 10 October 1898 – 13 November 1900
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	Hon. St John Brodrick
Succeeded by	The Lord Raglan
Chief Secretary for Ireland
In office 9 November 1900 – 12 March 1905
Monarch	Victoria Edward VII
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour
Preceded by	Gerald Balfour
Succeeded by	Walter Long
Personal details
Born	(1863-08-29)29 August 1863
Died	8 June 1913(1913-06-08) (aged 49)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Lady Sibell Lumley (1855–1929)

Background and education

Wyndham was the elder son of the Honourable Percy Wyndham,[1] third son of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield, and he was a direct descendant of Sir John Wyndham. His mother was Madeleine Campbell, sixth daughter of Major-General Sir Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet,[2] and Pamela, through whom he was the great-grandson of the Irish Republican leader, Lord Edward FitzGerald, whom Wyndham greatly resembled physically. He was the brother of Guy Wyndham and Mary Constance Wyndham. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He joined the Coldstream Guards in March 1883, serving through the Suakin campaign of 1885.[3]

Political career

Wyndham started his political career in 1887, when he became private secretary to Arthur Balfour (afterwards the Earl of Balfour). In 1889, he was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover,[4] and held the seat until his death.[5]

Wyndham launched an Imperialist magazine called The Outlook in February 1898. This may have been supported financially by Cecil Rhodes, with whom he had a close relationship.[6][7] Joseph Conrad, who was a contributor, described the publication:

There is a new weekly coming. Its name The Outlook; its price three pence sterling, its attitude – literary; its policy – Imperialism, tempered by expediency; its mission – to make money for a Jew; its editor Percy Hurd (never heard of him) ...[6]

Also in 1898, Wyndham was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War under Lord Salisbury, which he remained until 1900. He was closely involved in Irish affairs at two points. Having been private secretary to Arthur Balfour during the years around 1890 when Balfour was Chief Secretary for Ireland, Wyndham was himself made Chief Secretary by Salisbury in 1900. He continued in this position after Balfour succeeded as Prime Minister in July 1902, but was taken into the Cabinet,[8] and sworn a member of the Privy Council on 11 August 1902.[9]

Wyndham furthered the 1902 Land Conference and also successfully saw the significant 1903 Irish Land Act into law.[4] This change in the law ushered in the most radical change in history in Ireland's land ownership. Before it, Ireland's land was largely owned by landlords; within years of the Acts, most of the land was owned by their former tenants, who had been supported in their purchases by government subsidies. This could without exaggeration be called the most radical change in Irish life in history.

He brought forward a devolution scheme to deal with the Home Rule question co-ordinated with the Irish Reform Association conceived by his permanent under-secretary Sir Antony MacDonnell (afterwards Baron) and with the approval of the Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Dudley.[4]

He resigned along with the rest of the Unionist government in May 1905.[4]

Wyndham was in October 1902 elected by the students of the University of Glasgow to be Lord Rector of the university for three years.[10]

Wyndham was the leader of the "die-hard" opponents in the House of Commons of the Parliament Bill that became Parliament Act 1911.

Family

Wyndham married in 1887 Sibell Mary, Countess Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough,[4] and widow (since 1884) of Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the 1st Duke of Westminster. She was Wyndham's senior by eight years, and her son succeeded as 2nd Duke of Westminster in 1899. Towards the end of his life the couple settled at Clouds House in Wiltshire, designed for his father Percy Wyndham by the Arts and Crafts movement architect, Philip Webb (1886). In 1911 he succeeded his father and had the management of a small landed estate on his hands.

Wyndham died suddenly June 1913 in Paris, France, aged 49 of a blood clot. He was survived by his wife and one son.[4]

Lady Grosvenor died in February 1929, aged 73.

There has been speculation over the years that Wyndham was the natural father of Anthony Eden, who was Prime Minister from 1955–57. Eden's mother, Sybil, Lady Eden, was evidently close to Wyndham, to whom Eden bore a striking resemblance.[11]

Works

• North's Plutarch (1894) editor
• The Poems of Shakespeare (1898) editor
• The Ballad of Mr. Rook (1901) writer
• Ronsard & La Pleiade, with Selections From Their Poetry and Some Translations in the Original Metres (1906)
• Sir Walter Scott (1908)
• The Springs of Romance in the Literature of Europe (1910) address, University of Edinburgh October 1910
• Essays in Romantic Literature (1919) edited by Charles Whibley

References

1. Dictionary of Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599
2. Dictionary of Biography 1912–1921; Oxford pages 598+599
3. dictionary of National Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599
4. Dictionary of National Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599
5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)
6. Cohen, Scott A. (Spring 2009). "Imperialism Tempered by Expediency: Conrad and The Outlook". Conradiana. 41 (1): 48–66. doi:10.1353/cnd.0.0030.
7. "George Wyndham". Boston Evening Transcript. 11 April 1903. p. 32. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
8. "Mr Balfour´s Ministry - full list of appointments". The Times (36842). London. 9 August 1902. p. 5.
9. "No. 27464". The London Gazette. 12 August 1902. p. 5173.
10. "University intelligence - Glasgow". The Times (36909). London. 27 October 1902. p. 11.
11. D. R. Thorpe (2003) Eden

• Letters of George Wyndham, 1877–1913 (1915) Guy Percy Wyndham
• Life and Letters of George Wyndham (1924) Guy Percy Wyndham and J. W. Mackail
• “In Dublin Castle 1899–1903” (1928) chapter from the memoirs of T. M. Healy.
• "Wyndham, George" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

Further reading

• Ellenberger, Nancy W. (October 2000). "Constructing George Wyndham: Narratives of Aristocratic Masculinity in Fin-De-Siecle England". Journal of British Studies. 39 (4): 487–517. JSTOR 175860.
• Ellenberger, Nancy W. Balfour's World: Aristocracy and Political Culture at the Fin de Siècle (2015). excerpt

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Wyndham

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Alexander Dickson	Member of Parliament for Dover 1889–1913	Succeeded by Viscount Duncannon
Political offices
Preceded by St John Brodrick	Under-Secretary of State for War 1898–1900	Succeeded by The Lord Raglan
Preceded by Gerald Balfour	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1900–1905	Succeeded by Walter Long
Academic offices
Preceded by The Earl of Rosebery	Rector of the University of Glasgow 1902–1905	Succeeded by H. H. Asquith
Preceded by Richard Haldane	Rector of the University of Edinburgh 1908–1911	Succeeded by The Earl of Minto