George Nathaniel Curzon

The English statesman George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859-1925), served as viceroy of India and as a member of several Cabinets.

High offices in the British political and imperial structure at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were generally held by men chosen on the basis of highly restrictive family and educational connections. George Curzon was the epitome of this system, and it was useful to his political and social ambitions before World War I. Afterward, however, he was hurt by his connection with it and by his inconsistent actions that bordered on opportunism in his late drive for government leadership.

Curzon was born on Jan. 11, 1859, at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire. His early life was dominated by the influence of a governess and a schoolmaster who were both strict disciplinarians; those years were not very happy ones for him, but he did exceptionally well at school. He was a leader and an outstanding student at Eton from 1872 to 1878 and at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1878 to 1882, although he was disappointed when he missed getting every honor. With an aristocratic appearance and a bearing that commanded attention, he put unrestrained energy into his work and was not satisfied unless he was in the center of every situation.

In the 3 years after leaving Oxford, Curzon traveled extensively in the Mediterranean world and used the knowledge he acquired to write articles on important issues. In 1885 Lord Salisbury, the prime minister, chose him as his assistant private secretary. Curzon lost his first election that year, but he won a seat the next year in the House of Commons. From 1887 to 1894 he continued to travel widely, choosing Asia as his particular interest and writing three outstanding books on Asian affairs: Russia in Central Asia (1889), Persia and the Persian Question (1892), and Problems of the Far East (1894).

Curzon began his government service in 1891 as undersecretary in the India office in Salisbury's government. The government fell from power in 1892, but when the Conservatives came in again in 1895, Curzon was named parliamentary undersecretary in the Foreign Office, directly under Salisbury, who was both prime minister and foreign secretary. Curzon was the principal government spokesman on foreign affairs in the House of Commons.

Viceroy of India

Curzon was chosen viceroy of India in 1898. This position was perfectly suited to his desire for public attention, since he was in charge of the entire British administration of the Indian empire. He stayed in India for 7 years, ruling firmly in matters of domestic policy and making strong appeals in matters of foreign policy. In the latter, Curzon was particularly involved in the problem of defense along India's frontiers and in those areas of possible danger from Russian expansion and competition—Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet.

Military matters were Curzon's undoing. He and Lord Kitchener, the commander in chief of the Indian army after 1902, became locked in a dispute over military organization; the government in England, then under Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, chose to sacrifice Curzon in favor of Kitchener, who was a more popular figure. Curzon returned to Britain in late 1905, out of favor with his own Conservative party leadership and, since the Liberals were coming into power, with no opportunity of remaking his reputation in another government assignment.

War Cabinet and Foreign Office

Curzon was out of politics except as a member of the House of Lords, until he was included in the wartime coalition government formed in May 1915. When David Lloyd George became prime minister in December 1916, Curzon was brought into the five-man War Cabinet, and he participated in all the major decisions of the latter part of World War I. He was given the task of running the Foreign Office through most of 1919, while Lloyd George and the foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, were at the Paris peace conference, and in late 1919 he was named as Balfour's successor in the Foreign Office.

Curzon's service in the War Cabinet and as foreign secretary was the second peak in his career. But his role in the Foreign Office in the postwar era was not so satisfactory to Curzon as it would have been in an earlier era. British government was changing, and concentration of authority in the prime minister's hands had increased tremendously under Lloyd George's personal control and the emergency of wartime government. Curzon was a leading candidate for prime minister in May 1923; he was disappointed at the last moment, however, and Stanley Baldwin was chosen instead. Curzon was dismayed, but he stayed on to serve under Baldwin in the same post until the government fell in January 1924. Curzon's public service ended then, and he died on March 20, 1925.

Further Reading

The most complete work on Curzon is the Earl of Ronaldshay, The Life of Lord Curzon (3 vols., 1928). Two studies which are old but still worthwhile are Harold Nicolson, Curzon, the Last Phase, 1919-1925: A Study in Post-war Diplomacy (1934), and Arthur Anthony Baumann's sketch in Humbert Wolfe, ed., Personalities: A Selection from the Writings of A. A. Baumann (1936). Two other books essential to a full understanding of Curzon as a man are Leonard Mosley, The Glorious Fault: The Life of Lord Curzon (1960; published in England as Curzon: The End of an Epoch), and Kenneth Rose, Superior Person (1969). Michael Edwardes, High Noon of Empire: India under Curzon (1965), deals with India while Curzon was viceroy. Recommended for general historical background are R. C. K. Ensor, England, 1870-1914 (1936); Gordon A. Craig and Felix Gilbert, eds., The Diplomats, 1919-1939 (1953); The Cambridge History of the British Empire, vol. 3: E. A. Benians and others, eds., The Empire-Commonwealth, 1870-1919 (1959); and A. J. P. Taylor, English History, 1914-1945 (1965).

Additional Sources

Curzon, George Nathaniel Curzon, Marquis of, 1859-1925, A viceroy's India: leaves from Lord Curzon's note-book, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984.

Gilmour, David, Curzon, London: J. Murray, 1994 (1995 printing).

Goradia, Nayana, Lord Curzon: the last of the British Moghuls, Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Parker, James G., Lord Curzon, 1859-1925: a bibliography, New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Rose, Kenneth, Curzon, a most superior person: a biography, London: Papermac, 1985. □

George Nathaniel Curzon Curzon of Kedleston, 1st Marquess , 1859–1925, British statesman. A member of the minor aristocracy, he attended Eton and Oxford. From his university days onward, he earned a reputation for an unusually high intelligence mingled with an enormous ego, snobbery, and pomposity. Entering Parliament as a conservative in 1886, he showed early brilliance in politics and was undersecretary of state for India (1891–92) and undersecretary for foreign affairs (1895–98). Three trips to Asia resulted in several books— Russia in Central Asia (1889), Persia and the Persian Question (1892), and Problems of the Far East (1894). As viceroy of India (1898–1905) he championed the imperial colonial ideal, achieved important reforms in administration, transportation, education, and currency, and set up (1901) the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , Pakistan). He also partitioned (1905) Bengal , an action that angered Indian nationalists. He resigned (1905) after a quarrel with Lord Kitchener , commander of the army in India, who was supported by the home government.

After his return to England, Curzon became (1907) chancellor of the Univ. of Oxford and was created (1911) an earl (raised to marquess in 1921). During World War I he served in the coalition cabinets of Asquith (see Oxford and Asquith, Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st earl of ) and Lloyd George . As foreign secretary (1919–24), he presided over the Conference of Lausanne (see under Lausanne, Treaty of ), disapproved of the French occupation of the Ruhr , and paved the way for the Dawes Plan for settling German war reparations. He expected to succeed Andrew Bonar Law as prime minister in 1923 and was bitterly disappointed at being passed over in favor of Stanley Baldwin .

Bibliography: See biographies by Lord Ronaldshay (1928), K. Rose (1969), and D. Gilmour (1994, U.S. ed. 2003); D. Dilks, Curzon in India (2 vol., 1969).

Curzon, George Nathaniel, Marquess of Kedleston (b. 11 Jan. 1859, d. 20 Mar. 1925). British Foreign Secretary 1919–23 Born in Kedleston, Derbyshire, he was educated at Eton and Oxford. He entered Parliament in 1886, and in 1898 was appointed viceroy of India. For seven years, he presided over reforms of education and agriculture, and the extension of the country's railways and canals. However, his partition of Bengal in 1905 was controversial, and he resigned after clashing with the Commander-in-Chief in India, Kitchener, over control of the Indian army. In 1915, he became a member of Asquith's coalition Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal; in 1916, he was made Lord President of the Council, a post he continued to hold in Lloyd George's War Cabinet. As Foreign Secretary, his influence was limited due to the interference of Lloyd George, although his name was given to the Curzon Line – the proposed boundary between Poland and Russia in 1920. He hoped to become Prime Minister in 1923, but was passed over in favour of Baldwin. He continued as Foreign Secretary in Baldwin's first government, but was mortified when he lost this office to Austen Chamberlain in Baldwin's second government in November 1924. He was then Lord President of the Council until his death.

Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquis Curzon (1859–1925). Curzon became an authority on the East through travelling extensively in the 1880s, and a passionate advocate of British imperial power. His main contribution to that came when he was sent to India as viceroy in 1899, where he worked hard to further the interests—as he saw them—of both Britain and the natives, and in some splendour. He also quarrelled with his army commander, Lord Kitchener; and with most of the population of Bengal by partitioning the province in 1905. His resignation later that year was accompanied by bitterness, and followed by a period of exclusion from public life, under an unsympathetic Liberal government, until the First World War resurrected his career in 1916. After the war he was foreign secretary (1919–24), but again quarrelsome; and was disappointed at not becoming prime minister in 1923. His earldom came in 1911, the marquisate in 1921. He had a reputation for arrogance and inflexibility, which some attributed to a painful spinal condition which required him to wear a corset for most of his life.

Bernard Porter

Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquis Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) British statesman. As viceroy of India (1899–1905) he achieved reforms in administration, education, and currency, and set up the North-West Frontier province (1901). He was instrumental in the partitioning of Bengal in 1901, incurring thereby the ill-feeling of the Hindus. A strong supporter of imperialism, he resigned in 1905 in a dispute with KITCHENER. LLOYD GEORGE included him in his coalition war cabinet (1916–18). He became Foreign Secretary in 1919. Lloyd George's tendency to conduct foreign affairs himself irritated Curzon, who joined the Conservative rebellion in 1922 against the coalition government. Bonar LAW became Prime Minister and made Curzon his Foreign Secretary in 1922. As Foreign Secretary he gave his name to the frontier line proposed (1920) by Lloyd George, between Poland and Russia. The broad outline of the frontier became (1939) the boundary between the Soviet and German spheres of occupied Poland. It was imposed (1945) on Poland by the Allies as the definitive frontier between itself and the Soviet Union.

Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquis Curzon (1859–1925). Curzon became an authority on the East through travelling extensively in the 1880s. He was sent to India as viceroy in 1899, where he worked hard to further the interests of both Britain and the natives, and in some splendour. He also quarrelled with his army commander, Lord Kitchener; and with most of the population of Bengal by partitioning the province in 1905. His resignation later that year was accompanied by recrimination, and followed by exclusion from public life, until the First World War resurrected his career in 1916. After the war he was foreign secretary (1919–24), but again quarrelsome; and was disappointed at not becoming prime minister in 1923.

Curzon, George Nathaniel, 1st Marquess of Kedleston (1859–1925) British Conservative statesman. He entered Parliament in 1886, and travelled widely in Asia before becoming Viceroy of India (1899–1905). Lord Curzon carried out many reforms in India before resigning as a result of an argument with Lord Kitchener. He served in the war cabinet (1915–19) and as foreign secretary (1919–24).