Hugh Richard Heathcote Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood
PC (14 October 1869 – 10 December 1956), styled Lord Hugh Cecil until 1941, was a British
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
politician.
Background and education
Cecil was the eighth and youngest child of
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a ...
, three times
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...
, and
Georgina Alderson, daughter of Sir
Edward Hall Alderson. He was the brother of
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury
James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, (23 October 1861 – 4 April 1947), known as Viscount Cranborne from 1868 to 1903, was a British statesman.
Background and education
Born in London, Salisbury was the eldest son ...
,
Lord William Cecil,
Lord Cecil of Chelwood and
Lord Edward Cecil
Lord Edward Herbert Gascoyne-Cecil (12 July 1867 – 13 December 1918), known as Lord Edward Cecil, was a distinguished and highly decorated English soldier. As colonial administrator in Egypt and advisor to the Liberal government, he helped t ...
and a first cousin of Prime Minister
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...
. He was educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
. He graduated with first-class honours in Modern History in 1891 and was a fellow of
Hertford College, Oxford
Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The col ...
, from 1891 until 1936, when he considered that he could not be
Provost of Eton College and simultaneously a Fellow of Hertford.
[thepeerage.com Hugh Richard Heathcote Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st and last Baron Quickswood](_blank)
/ref>
Political career
After his graduation as BA in 1891, Cecil went to work in parliament. From 1891 to 1892 he was Assistant Private Secretary to his father, who was Foreign Secretary. Having paid his subscription he was elevated to MA in 1894, and entered the Commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...
as Conservative Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
in 1895. He took a keen interest in ecclesiastical questions and became an active member of the Church party, resisting attempts by nonconformists and secularists
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations.
Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...
to take the discipline of the Church out of the hands of the archbishops and bishops, and to remove the bishops from their seats in the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
. In a speech on the second reading of Balfour's Education Bill of 1902, he maintained that for the final settlement of the religious difficulty there must be cooperation between the Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
and nonconformity, which was the Church's natural ally; and that the only possible basis of agreement was that every child should be brought up in the belief of its parents. The ideal to be aimed at in education was the improvement of the national character. In the later stages of the Bill's progress, he strongly resented an amendment approved by the House and taken over by the Government giving the school managers (governors, in modern parlance), instead of the local vicar, control of religious education in voluntary, i.e. church, schools. This was not the only point on which he showed considerable independence of the government of which Balfour, his cousin, was the head.
During the early 20th century, Cecil (known to his friends as "Linky") was the eponymous leader of the Hughligans, a group of privileged young Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
Members of Parliament critical of their own party's leadership. Modelled after Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British statesman. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term 'Tory democracy'. He inspired a generation of party managers, created the National Union of ...
's Fourth Party, the Hughligans included Cecil, F. E. Smith
Frederick Edwin Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead, (12 July 1872 – 30 September 1930), known as F. E. Smith, was a British Conservative politician and barrister who attained high office in the early 20th century, in particular as Lord High Chan ...
, Arthur Stanley, Ian Malcolm and, until 1904, Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
. Cecil was the best man
A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...
at Churchill's wedding in 1908 and the latter greatly admired his eloquence in the House of Commons. As Churchill declared to a contemporary, Llewellyn Atherley-Jones
Llewellyn Archer Atherley-Jones Queen's Counsel, QC (1851 – 15 June 1929) was a radical British Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician and Barrister who eventually became a judge.
Background
Atherley-Jones was the son of Ernest Jones ...
,"How I wish I had his powers; speech is a painful effort to me." Cecil dissented from the beginning from Joseph Chamberlain
Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...
's policy of tariff reform
The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competitio ...
, pleading in Parliament against any devaluation of the idea of empire to a "gigantic profit-sharing business". He took a prominent position among the " Free Food Unionists"; consequently he was attacked by the tariff reformers, and lost his seat at Greenwich in 1906.[
In 1910 Cecil became an MP for ]Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
, which he represented for the next 27 years. He immediately threw himself with passion into the struggle against the Ministerial Veto Resolutions, comparing the Asquith government to "thimble riggers". In the next year, he was active in the resistance to the Parliament Bill, treating Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of ...
as a "traitor" for his advice to the Crown to swamp the Conservative majority in the Lords by creating hundreds of Liberal peers, and taking a prominent part in the disturbance which prevented the Prime Minister from being heard on 24 July 1911. But he never quite regained the authority which he had possessed in the House in the early years of the century. He strongly opposed the Welsh Church Bill, and he denounced the 1914 Home Rule Bill as reducing Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
from the status of a wife to that of a mistress — she was to be kept by John Bull
John Bull is a national personification of the United Kingdom in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country-dwelling, jolly and matter- ...
, not united to him.[ In 1916 Cecil was part of the Mesopotamia Commission of Inquiry. He was sworn of the Privy Council on 16 January][Burke's Peerage & Baronetage (106th ed.) (Salisbury)] 1918.
Apart from his political career Cecil served as a Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In that capacity, in debate in 1918, he severely censured the treatment of General Trenchard by the government.
Lord Hugh was a committed Anglican, and a member of House of Laity
The House of Laity is the lower house in the tricameral General Synod of the Church of England legislature. They are responsible for representing the laity of the Church of England in the legislature. They are indirectly elected every 5 years by m ...
in the Church Assembly
The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...
from 1919. He was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law
Doctor of Civil Law (DCL; la, Legis Civilis Doctor or Juris Civilis Doctor) is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees.
At Oxford, the degree is a higher ...
by Oxford University in 1924. He pleaded for lenient treatment of conscientious objectors, and endeavoured unsuccessfully to relieve them of disability.[ He left the House of Commons in 1937 because the previous year he had been appointed Provost of Eton College, a post he retained until 1944.] On 25 January 1941 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Quickswood, of Clothall in the County of Hertford. He was a Trustee of the London Library
The London Library is an independent lending library in London, established in 1841. It was founded on the initiative of Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Museum Library. It is located at 14 St James' ...
, and an honorary Doctor of Civil Law at Durham University. He was also honorary Doctor of Law
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL ...
s at the University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
in 1910, and at Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
in 1933. From 1944 until his death he had an honorary association with New College, Oxford.
Personal life
Lord Quickswood never married. He died on 10 December 1956, aged 87, at which time the barony became extinct.
Arms
Publications
"Presidential Address."
In ''Political Socialism, a Remonstrance'', edited by Mark H. Judge, London: P.S. King, 1908.
''Liberty and Authority''
London: Edward Arnold, 1910.
''Conservatism''
London: Williams and Norgate, 1912.
"Second Chambers in the British Dominions and in Foreign Countries."
In ''Rights of Citizenship'', Chap. VII. London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1912.
"The Position of the Incumbent in the Parochial Church Council."
In ''Church and State'', Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1916.
* "The Irish Question Again," ''The Living Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 301, 31 May 1919
''Nationalism and Catholicism''
Macmillan & Co., Limited, 1919.
* "National Instinct, the Basis of Social Institutions," ''Burnett House Papers'', No. 9, Oxford University Press, 1926.
London: Humphrey Milford, 1935 (digitized by Richard Mammana).
Footnotes
References
Sources
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External links
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Character Sketch: Lord Hugh Cecil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quickswood, Hugh Cecil, 1st Baron
1869 births
1956 deaths
Children of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford
Alumni of University College, Oxford
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
British Army personnel of World War I
Royal Flying Corps officers
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UK MPs who were granted peerages
Hugh Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood
Hugh Richard Heathcote Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood PC (14 October 1869 – 10 December 1956), styled Lord Hugh Cecil until 1941, was a British Conservative Party politician.
Background and education
Cecil was the eighth and youngest ...
Barons created by George VI
People educated at Eton College
Provosts of Eton College