20 Facts About George Wyndham

George Wyndham, PC was a British Conservative politician, statesman, man of letters, and one of The Souls.

Wyndham was the elder son of the Honourable Percy Wyndham, third son of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield, and he was a direct descendant of Sir John Wyndham.

George Wyndham was the brother of Guy Wyndham and Mary Constance Wyndham.

George Wyndham's 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 leader Lord Edward FitzGerald, whom Wyndham greatly resembled physically.

George Wyndham was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

George Wyndham joined the Coldstream Guards in March 1883, serving through the Suakin campaign of 1885.

George Wyndham launched an Imperialist magazine called The Outlook in February 1898.

Also in 1898, George Wyndham was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War under Lord Salisbury, which he remained until 1900.

George Wyndham was closely involved in Irish affairs at two points.

George Wyndham 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 on 11 August 1902.

George Wyndham furthered the 1902 Land Conference and successfully saw the significant Land Purchase Act 1903 into law.

George Wyndham 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 and with the approval of the Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Dudley.

George Wyndham resigned, largely as a result of the failure of his devolution scheme, in March 1905.

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

George Wyndham was elected a Member of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in January 1903.

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

George Wyndham married in 1887 Sibell Mary, Countess Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough, and widow of Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the Duke of Westminster.

George Wyndham was Wyndham's senior by eight years, and her son succeeded as 2nd Duke of Westminster in 1899.

George Wyndham died suddenly in June 1913 in Paris, aged 49, of a blood clot.

George Wyndham was survived by his wife and one son.