George Nathaniel Curzon

British diplomat and politician

• Born: January 11, 1859
• Birthplace: Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, England
• Died: March 20, 1925
• Place of death: London, England

Curzon was viceroy of India from 1898 to 1905 and foreign secretary from 1919 to 1924. He established reforms of the treatment of Indian people, took an interest in India’s cultural and artistic heritage, and in England played an important role in university and parliamentary reform.

Early Life

George Nathaniel Curzon (KUHR-zohn) was born at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, the eldest child of the Fourth Baron Scarsdale. Curzon’s mother died during his sixteenth year, and his father had little disposition to supervise his education. Curzon was strongly influenced, therefore, by a series of tutors. During his early school years he developed a distinct capacity for the absorption of knowledge that served him well throughout his entire academic career.

From 1872 until 1878, Curzon followed a successful career at Eton, winning many prizes and honors and serving as officer in several student organizations. While at Eton he developed his lifelong interest in the East. He traveled during several of his school holidays and gained an appreciation for the historical aspects of aesthetics. The mysteries of the exotic East may have been a substitution for the lack of passion in his childhood. At the time he was finishing Eton he began to experience those symptoms of curvature of the spine from which he suffered for the remainder of his life. Rarely free from pain, he was forced to wear an uncomfortable back brace, a fact that has frequently been mentioned as contributing to his stiffness, formality, and pomposity in outward manner.

After finishing at Eton, Curzon entered Balliol College, Oxford. His reputation had preceded him, and within a month of his arrival he appeared before the Oxford Union debating society. While at Oxford he joined with a group of young conservatives such as Lord Cranborne (later Prime Minister Lord Salisbury) and helped form the Canning Club. In 1880, he was elected president of the Oxford Union; the time he spent in this organization as well as his activities with the Canning Club ultimately led to his earning the humiliating second-class honors. He vowed to spend the rest of his life proving his examiners wrong. By the time of his graduation, he had developed the typical conservative political views of Tory democracy coupled with strong devotion to imperialism.

On graduating from Oxford in 1882, Curzon began the first of his many world tours, in this case to the eastern Mediterranean. To help supplement his income, he wrote frequent articles and reviews on topical political matters in some of the popular news publications. In addition to this journalistic flurry, he began his first political soundings preparatory to a parliamentary career. In 1885, Curzon’s political career was started when he became secretary to Prime Minister Lord Salisbury. This connection helped him attain his first parliamentary seat, in the election of 1886, as member from Southport, Lancashire. During his early days in the House of Commons, Curzon struck up an association with Lord Randolph Churchill that continued until Churchill’s resignation in 1886. Churchill’s political self-destruction taught Curzon the lesson that resignations for principles were unfruitful, and that he had best pin his political hopes on Lord Salisbury.

It was during this stage of his life that the bachelor Curzon became associated with an illustrious, irreverent group of aristocrats known as the Souls. This elite group, which flourished from the 1880’s until World War I, revolved, to a large extent, around the Tennant sisters: Charlotte, Laura, Lucy, and especially Margot. Margot Tennant, later Margot Asquith, characterized Curzon as having a “childish love of fine people” and a nature that “left nothing to chance.” Curzon was fond of socializing with the Souls, and even with his limited resources he would host dinner parties for “the gang,” as it was sometimes called. Curzon, who always admired the display of wit, at one such party composed verses about each of his dinner guests and had copies placed at each place setting. These poems were a display of Curzon’s boyish side seldom seen in his professional career.

Life’s Work

Because of his continued travels, Curzon by the 1890’s was established as an authority on Middle Eastern and Far Eastern affairs. His travels further confirmed his faith in the destiny of British imperialism. At a London ball in 1890, Curzon met a Chicago heiress named Mary Leiter; they were married in 1895. Curzon was devoted to his wife, and she had a significant influence on his personality. His married life ended most of his travels, although his wife’s fortune did allow him to rent castles, country estates, and town houses, as well as collect fine art. He began to attend parliamentary sessions with more diligence and often led foreign policy debates for the Conservatives in the Commons. By age thirty-six, he had achieved a place on the Privy Council as undersecretary to the Foreign Office.

After serving as a subordinate to Lord Salisbury for three sometimes troubled years, Curzon finally attained his great political opportunity. In August, 1898, he became Baron Kedleston and was made viceroy of India. Formally entering his term in January, 1899, Curzon began a seven-year tenure that can be seen in two distinct parts, divided by the coronation celebration of Edward VII in 1903. Initially, he was admired at home and in India for his efforts, and later, after 1903, when his popularity and support had declined, his efforts were quickly forgotten.

On his arrival in India, Curzon made a positive impression when he promised that he would be balanced in his treatment of the multiple nationalities in India. At Calcutta, he promptly attempted to diminish red tape; his efforts were scarcely applauded by the members of the Indian Civil Service, who considered him to be acting precipitously. His tenure as viceroy began auspiciously with much of the native population, however, when he took quick measures to protect Indian sugar production from outside competition by imposing sugar duties, by reducing the existing policy of adventurism on the northwestern frontier, and by reducing political tensions in the Punjab.

Fairly soon after his arrival, Curzon made extensive tours of the Indian provinces, which pleased Indian circles. During his rounds, famine was in constant evidence. By the summer of 1901, Curzon’s work pace quickened as Lady Curzon became ill and the viceroy tried to submerge his loneliness in his duties. By the fall of 1901, a crisis had arisen over the Afghan and Tibetan borders. Curzon recommended a military expedition to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa to encourage the Dalai Lama to accede to the British position. The London government, busy with a major South African war, was in no mood to comply. Curzon personally visited the Khyber Pass and Hyderabad in Afghanistan to gain a settlement of the northwest frontier. In November, 1902, a treaty was concluded settling the grievance. Curzon considered this the most important problem he had yet solved. For the next year, preparations for the great Durbar (celebration of Edward VII’s coronation) of 1903 occupied his attention.

Although the Durbar was to celebrate the British royal family, and the king’s brother, the duke of Connaught, was present, it was Viceroy Curzon who commanded center stage from beginning to end. It was Curzon’s hope that the sheer magnitude of the Durbar, with its more than 200,000 participants, would best illustrate his vision of a contented land at last united under British rule. Further, Curzon used the Durbar as a backdrop to highlight his interest in the Indian cultural heritage. He arranged for the erection of a huge pavilion containing the grandest display of Indian art and craftsmanship ever assembled. The viceroy had already made a name for himself as conservator of India’s ancient buildings and monuments. The Taj Mahal, for example, had been restored under his direction.

Following the Durbar, however, his viceroyship ceased to be as exciting and successful as it had been. He did commission an expedition to Tibet, which resulted in a treaty with the Dalai Lama at the Tibetan capital at Lhasa, but the terms did not meet Curzon’s expectations. Moreover, he found himself more frequently at odds with the War Office and the generals. The military commander in chief, Lord Kitchener, became an implacable foe, a foe to whom Curzon ultimately yielded.

In November, 1905, after losing several battles with the likes of Lord Kitchener and the Indian civil service establishment, Curzon decided to resign his position. On returning to Great Britain, he received surprisingly little recognition for his seven years of service in India. In addition, he had to endure the death of his wife in July, 1906. He remained a recluse, with only his three young daughters as company for several years, and then a succession of political disappointments began.

Among his post-Indian political activities were his term as chancellor of Oxford University and his service, after 1908, in the House of Lords. He was active in university reform, such as financial management, and published a work on the subject titled Principles and Methods of University Reform (1909). His efforts were able to forestall an impending parliamentary investigation of Oxford. Regarding his political and service activities, he was, during these years, president of the Royal Geographical Society, a trustee of the National Gallery, active in the restoration of historical monuments, and president of the Air Board. During World War I he began to achieve higher political office.

In 1916, with the creation of the coalition government of David Lloyd George, Curzon was appointed Lord Privy Seal and later Lord President of the Council. He favored compulsory military service and held strong views on military strategy matters, such as his opposition to the evacuation of Gallipoli. He attended hundreds of meetings and supplied his positive views on subjects such as the creation of an Arab state and his negative views on subjects such as the creation of a Jewish state. At the war’s end, he served as interim foreign secretary at the Versailles conference and as chair of the peace celebrations. It was during these wartime services that Curzon undertook a second marriage, to another American, the widow Grace Duggan.

Having served as interim foreign secretary during the war, Curzon had aspirations of holding that office in his own right after the war. Conditions were not immediately right, however, and his desire was temporarily frustrated. Finally, in 1919, he succeeded Arthur Balfour as foreign secretary. His policies, particularly in the Middle East, were frequently overruled because of secret negotiations being undertaken by Prime Minister Lloyd George. In spite of mixed signals within the British government, Curzon was able, at a conference in Lausanne, to regain some prestige for British policy, particularly in Turkey. He also played a minor role in helping to develop the Dawes and Young plans for the financial restoration of Germany after the war.

Curzon’s hopes of becoming prime minister were raised in 1923, when Bonar Law resigned from the office owing to ill health. Curzon was frustrated when George V called for Stanley Baldwin instead. Curzon recovered from his disappointment, however, and continued to serve under Baldwin. After elections were held in 1924, returning Baldwin to power, Curzon was not asked to continue as foreign secretary. After a sudden illness and an unsuccessful emergency operation, he died on March 20, 1925.

Significance

Lord Curzon genuinely believed in the usefulness of empire. “Under Providence,” he believed it to be “the greatest instrument for good that the world has seen . . . there has never been anything so great in the world’s history.” Holding office in such an empire was one of his highest ambitions. Becoming viceroy of India, he once said, was “the dream of my childhood, the fulfilled ambition of my manhood, and my highest conception of duty to the State.” It was his fate to achieve success early and experience disappointment for much of the remainder of his career. He was never in political position higher than imperial viceroy, although he aspired to become prime minister. He is therefore remembered as the quintessential imperial grandee.

Bibliography

Asquith, Margot. The Autobiography. 1920-1922. Abridged ed. Edited by Mark Bonham Carter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. These remembrances are by one of the central figures of the group known as the Souls, of which Curzon was a member. Asquith’s astute observations are considered more perceptive than mere gossip.

Bennett, G. H., and Marion Gibson. The Later Life of Lord Curzon of Kedleston Aristocrat, Writer, Politician, Statesman: An Experiment in Political Biography. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. A biography examining Curzon’s later life as a politician, aristocrat, husband, scholar, and art patron.

Gilmour, David. Curzon: Imperial Statesman. Rev. ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. A well-researched and well-written assessment of Curzon’s life, career, and achievements, in which he emerges as a complex, tragic figure and a gifted leader.

Lambert, Angela. Unquiet Souls: A Social History of the Illustrious, Irreverent, Intimate Group of British Aristocrats Known as “the Souls.” New York: Harper & Row, 1984. As the title implies, this is a social history of the Souls. It provides a fascinating view of Curzon in his less somber moments.

Morris, James. Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat. New York: Harvest Books, 1978. The one volume in Morris’s Pax Brittanica series that deals with the end of the British Empire. There is an evocative essay depicting Curzon as the quintessential imperial grandee.

Mosley, Leonard. Curzon: The End of an Epoch. London: Longmans, Green, 1961. One of the older works dealing with Curzon, stressing the role of the aristocracy during the fin de siècle.

Nicolson, Nigel. Mary Curzon. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977. An account of the most important figure in Curzon’s life. Although their marriage was short owing to her early death, her influence on his early political rise was substantial.

Rose, Kenneth. Superior Person: A Portrait of Curzon and His Circle in Late-Victorian England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969. Reprint. London: Phoenix, 2001. The major modern biography, written by a writer who specializes in traditional biographies of the period.

Zetland, Lawrence John Lumley Dundas. Life of Lord Curzon. 3 vols. London: Ernest Benn, 1928. The officially sanctioned multivolume biography, so popular with Victorian statesmen. Although these volumes are often rich in reprinted letters and documents, they are often too sympathetic to the subject.