George Wyndham, PC (29 August 1863 – 8 June 1913) was a British Conservative politician, statesman,

man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

, and one of The Souls.

Background and education

Wyndham was the elder son of the Honourable Percy Wyndham, third son of

George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield (5 June 1787 – 18 March 1869), was a British soldier and peer. A direct descendant of Sir John Wyndham, he was the eldest natural son of George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, and Elizabeth Ilive. ...

, and he was a direct descendant of

Sir John Wyndham ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

. He was the brother of

Guy Wyndham Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Percy Wyndham (19 January 1865 – 17 April 1941) was a British Army soldier. Background and family Wyndham was born on 19 January 1865 as the son of Hon. Percy Wyndham and Madeline Caroline Frances Eden Campbell. He was t ...

and Mary Constance Wyndham. His mother was Madeleine Campbell, sixth daughter of Major-General Sir Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet, and Pamela, through whom he was the great-grandson of the

Irish Republican Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

leader Lord Edward FitzGerald, whom Wyndham greatly resembled physically. 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.

Political career

Wyndham started his political career in 1887, when he became private secretary to Arthur Balfour (afterward the Earl of Balfour). In 1889, he was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

,Dictionary of National Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599 and held the seat until his death. Wyndham launched an Imperialist magazine called '' The Outlook'' in February 1898. This may have been supported financially by

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...

, with whom he had a close relationship.

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

, who was a contributor, described the publication: 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 The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century un ...

, 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, and sworn a member of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

on 11 August 1902. Wyndham furthered the 1902 Land Conference and also successfully saw the significant Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 into law. 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 Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...

scheme to deal with the Home Rule question co-ordinated with the

Irish Reform Association The Irish Reform Association (1904–1905) was an attempt to introduce limited devolved self-government to Ireland by a group of reform oriented Irish unionist land owners who proposed to initially adopt something less than full Home Rule. It ...

conceived by his permanent under-secretary Sir Antony MacDonnell (afterwards Baron) and with the approval of the Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Dudley. He resigned along with the rest of the Unionist government in May 1905. Wyndham was in October 1902 elected by the students of the University of Glasgow to be Lord Rector of the university for three years. Wyndham was the leader of the "die-hard" opponents in the House of Commons of the Parliament Bill that became the Parliament Act 1911.

Family

Wyndham married in 1887 Sibell Mary, Countess Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough, and widow (since 1884) of

Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, (13 October 1825 – 22 December 1899), styled Viscount Belgrave between 1831 and 1845, Earl Grosvenor between 1845 and 1869, and known as The Marquess of Westminster between 1869 and 1874, was an ...

, son of the

1st Duke of Westminster Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, (13 October 1825 – 22 December 1899), styled Viscount Belgrave between 1831 and 1845, Earl Grosvenor between 1845 and 1869, and known as The Marquess of Westminster between 1869 and 1874, was an ...

. 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 Clouds House, also known simply as Clouds, is a Grade II* listed building at East Knoyle in Wiltshire, England. Designed by Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb for Percy Wyndham (1835–1911), Percy Wyndham and his wi ...

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 in June 1913 in Paris, aged 49, of a blood clot. He was survived by his wife and one son. Lady Grosvenor died in February 1929, aged 73. There has been speculation over the years that Wyndham was the natural father of

Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promo ...

, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957. Eden's mother, Sybil, Lady Eden, was evidently close to Wyndham, to whom Eden bore a striking resemblance.D. R. Thorpe (2003) ''Eden''

Works

* ''North's Plutarch'' (1894; editor) * ''The Poems of Shakespeare'' (1898; editor) *
The Ballad of Mr. Rook
' (1901) * ''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

*''Letters of George Wyndham, 1877–1913'' (1915)

Guy Percy Wyndham Lieutenant-Colonel Guy Percy Wyndham (19 January 1865 – 17 April 1941) was a British Army soldier. Background and family Wyndham was born on 19 January 1865 as the son of Hon. Percy Wyndham and Madeline Caroline Frances Eden Campbell. He was t ...

*''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 Timothy Michael Healy, KC (17 May 1855 – 26 March 1931) was an Irish nationalist politician, journalist, author, barrister and a controversial Irish Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain an ...

. *

External links