69 Facts About Lord Curzon

1.

Lord Curzon went on to serve as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the Foreign Office from 1919 to 1924.

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2.

In 1923, Lord Curzon was a contender for the office of Prime Minister, but Bonar Law and some other leading Conservatives preferred Stanley Baldwin for the office.

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3.

Lord Curzon was the eldest son and the second of the eleven children of Alfred Lord Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale, who was the Rector of Kedleston in Derbyshire.

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4.

George Lord Curzon's mother was Blanche, the daughter of Joseph Pocklington Senhouse of Netherhall in Cumberland.

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5.

Lord Curzon was born at Kedleston Hall, built on the site where his family, who were of Norman ancestry, had lived since the 12th century.

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6.

Lord Curzon's mother, exhausted by childbirth, died when George was 16; her husband survived her by 41 years.

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7.

Lord Curzon disapproved of the journeys across Asia between 1887 and 1895 which made his son one of the most travelled men to be a member of any British cabinet.

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8.

An influential presence in Lord Curzon's childhood was that of his brutal, sadistic governess, Ellen Mary Paraman, whose tyranny in the nursery stimulated his combative qualities and encouraged the obsessional side of his nature.

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9.

Lord Curzon was educated at Wixenford School, Eton College, and Balliol College, Oxford.

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10.

Lord Curzon was President of the Union and Secretary of the Oxford Canning Club, but as a consequence of the extent of his time-expenditure on political and social societies, he failed to achieve a first class degree in Greats, although he subsequently won both the Lothian Prize Essay and the Arnold Prize, the latter for an essay on Sir Thomas More, about whom he knew little.

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11.

In 1883, Lord Curzon received the most prestigious fellowship at the university, a Prize Fellowship at All Souls College.

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12.

Whilst at Eton and at Oxford, Lord Curzon was a contemporary and close friend of Cecil Spring Rice and Edward Grey.

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13.

Lord Curzon became Assistant Private Secretary to the Marquess of Salisbury in 1885, and in 1886 entered Parliament as Member for Southport in south-west Lancashire.

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14.

Lord Curzon published several books describing central and eastern Asia and related policy issues.

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15.

Lord Curzon's journeys allowed him to study the problems of Asia and their implications for British India, whilst reinforcing his pride in his nation and her imperial mission.

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16.

Lord Curzon believed Russia to be the most likely threat to British India, Britain's most valuable possession, from the 19th century through the early 20th century.

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17.

Lord Curzon dedicated an entire chapter in his book Russia in Central Asia to discussing the perceived threat to British control of India.

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18.

Lord Curzon believed that the resulting greater economic interdependence between Russia and Central Asia would be damaging to British interests.

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19.

Lord Curzon was commissioned by The Times to write several articles on the Persian political environment, but while there he decided to write a book on the country as whole.

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20.

Lord Curzon was aided by General Albert Houtum-Schindler and the Royal Geographical Society, both of which helped him gain access to material to which as a foreigner he would not have been entitled to have access.

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21.

Lord Curzon was appalled by his government's apathy towards Persia as a valuable defensive buffer to India from Russian encroachment.

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22.

Lord Curzon's was buried in the church at Kedleston, where Curzon designed his memorial for her, a Gothic chapel added to the north side of the nave.

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23.

Lord Curzon was created a baron in the peerage of Ireland as Baron Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, on his appointment.

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24.

Lord Curzon argued for an exclusive British presence in the Gulf, a policy originally proposed by John Malcolm.

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25.

Lord Curzon had convinced his government to establish Britain as the unofficial protector of Kuwait with the Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899.

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26.

Lord Curzon, typically, had dismissed the Congress in 1900 as 'tottering to its fall'.

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27.

Lord Curzon was determined to address the British maltreatment of Indians.

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28.

Lord Curzon later imposed similar punishment on the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers for the murder of an Indian cook.

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29.

Lord Curzon proposed the Partition of Bengal and put it into effect on 16 October 1905.

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30.

In deference to the wishes of the King and the advice of his doctors, Lord Curzon did not stand in the general election of 1906 and thus found himself excluded from public life for the first time in twenty years.

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31.

Mary died in 1906 and Lord Curzon devoted himself to private matters, including establishing a new home.

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32.

In 1908, Lord Curzon was elected a representative peer for Ireland, and thus relinquished any idea of returning to the House of Commons.

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33.

Lord Curzon became involved with saving Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, from destruction.

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34.

Lord Curzon was one of the sponsors of the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act 1913.

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35.

Lord Curzon was a member of the Dardanelles Committee and told that body that the recent Salonika expedition was "quixotic chivalry".

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36.

Early in 1916 Lord Curzon visited Sir Douglas Haig at his headquarters in France.

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37.

At the War Policy Committee Lord Curzon objected in vain to plans to redeploy two divisions to Palestine, with a view to advancing into Syria and knocking Turkey out of the war altogether.

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38.

Lord Curzon's commitment wavered somewhat as the losses of the Third Battle of Ypres mounted.

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39.

Lord Curzon's was the wealthy Alabama-born widow of Alfredo Huberto Duggan, a first-generation Irish Argentinian appointed to the Argentine Legation in London in 1905.

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40.

Lord Curzon had three daughters from his first marriage, but he and Grace did not have any children together, which put a strain on their marriage.

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41.

In 1923, Lord Curzon was passed over for the office of Prime Minister partly on the advice of Arthur Balfour, who joked that Lord Curzon "has lost the hope of glory but he still possesses the means of Grace" .

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42.

In 1917, Lord Curzon bought Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, a 14th-century building that had been gutted during the English Civil War.

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43.

Lord Curzon restored it extensively, and then bequeathed it to the National Trust.

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44.

Lloyd George needed the wealth of knowledge Lord Curzon possessed so was both his biggest critic and, simultaneously, his largest supporter.

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45.

Likewise, Lord Curzon was grateful for the leeway he was allowed by Lloyd George when it came to handling affairs in the Middle East.

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46.

Conversely, Lord Curzon would take personally and respond aggressively to any criticism.

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47.

Lord Curzon gave his name to the British government's proposed Soviet-Polish boundary, the Curzon Line of December 1919.

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48.

Lord Curzon was largely responsible for the Peace Day ceremonies on 19 July 1919.

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49.

In 1918, during World War I, as Britain occupied Mesopotamia, Lord Curzon tried to convince the Indian government to reconsider his scheme for Persia to be a buffer against Russian advances.

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50.

British and Indian troops were in Persia protecting the oilfields at Abadan and watching the Afghan frontier – Lord Curzon believed that British economic and military aid, sent via India, could prop up the Persian government and make her a British client state.

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51.

In January 1920 Lord Curzon insisted that British troops remain in Batum, against the wishes of Wilson and the Prime Minister.

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52.

Lord Curzon designed the Treaty of Sevres between the victorious Allies and Ottoman Turkey.

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53.

Lord Curzon tried and failed to induce the Greeks to accept a compromise on the status of Smyrna and failed to force the Turks to renounce their nationalist program.

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54.

Lord Curzon remained as foreign minister and helped tie down loose ends in the Middle East at the peace conference at Lausanne.

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55.

In 1921 Lord Curzon was created Earl of Kedleston, in the County of Derby, and Marquess Lord Curzon of Kedleston.

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56.

Lord Curzon defended the geopolitical talent of Eyre Crowe, who served as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1920 until his death in 1925.

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57.

Unlike many leading Conservative members of Lloyd George's Coalition Cabinet, Lord Curzon ceased to support Lloyd George over the Chanak Crisis and had just resigned when Conservative backbenchers voted at the Carlton Club meeting to end the Coalition in October 1922.

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58.

Lord Curzon was thus able to remain Foreign Secretary when Bonar Law formed a purely Conservative ministry.

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59.

Lord Curzon had expansive ambitions and was not much happier with Bonar Law, whose foreign policy was based on "retrenchment and withdrawal", than he had been with Lloyd George.

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60.

On Bonar Law's retirement as prime minister in May 1923, Lord Curzon was passed over for the job in favour of Stanley Baldwin, despite his eagerness for the job.

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61.

Lord Curzon, summoned by Stamfordham, rushed to London assuming he was to be appointed.

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62.

Lord Curzon later ridiculed Baldwin as "a man of the utmost insignificance", although he served under Baldwin and proposed him for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

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63.

Lord Curzon remained foreign secretary under Baldwin until the government fell in January 1924.

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64.

Lord Curzon's rejection was a turning point in the nation's political history.

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65.

Lord Curzon's was the last title to be created in the Peerage of Ireland.

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66.

Lord Curzon's career was an almost unparalleled blend of triumph and disappointment.

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67.

Critics generally agreed that Lord Curzon never reached the heights that his youthful talents had seemed destined to reach.

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68.

Lord Curzon's great-great-grandson Daniel Mosley, 4th Baron Ravensdale, is a current member of the House of Lords, having been elected as a representative hereditary peer.

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69.

Curzon Gate, a ceremonial gate, was erected by Maharaja Bijay Chand Mahatab in the heart of Burdwan town and was renamed to commemorate Lord Curzon's visit to the town in 1904, which was renamed as Bijay Toran after the independence of India in 1947.

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