View source for George Wyndham

{{Short description|British politician (1863–1913)}}
{{Other people|George Wyndham}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{Infobox Officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = George Wyndham
| honorific-suffix =
| image = George Wyndham.jpg
| imagesize = 
| caption = George Wyndham in the early 1900s.
| order1 = [[Under-Secretary of State for War]]
| term_start1 = 10 October 1898
| term_end1 = 13 November 1900
| monarch1 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
| primeminister1 = [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury]]
| predecessor1 = [[St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton|St John Brodrick]]
| successor1 = [[George Somerset, 3rd Baron Raglan|The Lord Raglan]]
| order2 = [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]]
| term_start2 = 9 November 1900
| term_end2 = 12 March 1905
| monarch2 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]] <br/> [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|Edward VII]]
| primeminister2 = [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury]] <br/> [[Arthur Balfour]]
| predecessor2 = [[Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour|Gerald Balfour]]
| successor2 = [[Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long|Walter Long]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1863|08|29}} 
| birth_place = 
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1913|06|8|1863|08|29}} 
| death_place = 
| nationality = British
| party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]  
| alma_mater =  
| spouse = Lady Sibell Lumley <br/>(1855–1929) 
}}

'''George Wyndham''', [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|PC]] (29 August 1863 – 8 June 1913) was a British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician, statesman, [[man of letters]], and one of [[The Souls]].

==Background and education==
Wyndham was the elder son of the Honourable [[Percy Wyndham (1835–1911)|Percy Wyndham]],<ref>Dictionary of Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599</ref> third son of [[George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield]], and he was a direct descendant of Sir [[John Wyndham (1558-1645)|John Wyndham]]. He was the brother of [[Guy Wyndham]] and [[Mary Constance Wyndham]]. His mother was Madeleine Campbell, sixth daughter of Major-General [[Sir Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet]],<ref>Dictionary of Biography 1912–1921; Oxford pages 598+599</ref> and Pamela, through whom he was the great-grandson of the [[Irish republicanism|Irish Republican]] 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 Expedition]] of 1885.<ref>dictionary of National Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599</ref>

==Political career==
Wyndham started his political career in 1887, when he became private secretary to [[Arthur Balfour]]. In 1889, he was elected unopposed to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] as Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Dover (UK Parliament constituency)|Dover]],<ref name="ReferenceA">Dictionary of National Biography 1912–1921, Oxford pages 598–599</ref> and held the seat until his death.<ref>{{Rayment-hc|d|3|date=March 2012}}</ref>

Wyndham launched an Imperialist magazine called ''[[The Outlook (British magazine)|The Outlook]]'' in February 1898. This may have been supported financially by [[Cecil Rhodes]], with whom he had a close relationship.<ref name="cohen">{{cite journal |title=Imperialism Tempered by Expediency: Conrad and ''The Outlook'' |first=Scott A. |last=Cohen |journal=Conradiana |volume=41 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2009 |pages=48–66 |doi=10.1353/cnd.0.0030|s2cid=161661633 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=George Wyndham |newspaper=Boston Evening Transcript |date=11 April 1903 |page=32 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OnI-AAAAIBAJ&pg=4779%2C1756104 |access-date=6 August 2014}}</ref> [[Joseph Conrad]], who was a contributor, described the publication: {{quote|There is a new weekly coming. Its name The Outlook; its price three pence sterling, its attitude&nbsp;– literary; its policy&nbsp;– Imperialism, tempered by expediency; its mission&nbsp;– to make money for a Jew; its editor [[Percy Hurd]] (never heard of him)&nbsp;...<ref name="cohen" />}}

Also in 1898, Wyndham was appointed [[Under-Secretary of State for War]] under [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|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]], Wyndham was himself made Chief Secretary by Salisbury in 1900. He continued in this position after Balfour succeeded as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]] in July 1902, but was taken into the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]],<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Mr Balfour´s Ministry - full list of appointments |date=9 August 1902 |page=5 |issue=36842}}</ref> and sworn a member of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] on 11 August 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27464 |date=12 August 1902 |page=5173 }}</ref>

Wyndham furthered the 1902 [[Land Conference]] and also successfully saw the significant [[Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903]] into law.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> 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.

He was thought to be associated with the [[devolution]] scheme to deal with the [[Irish Home Rule Movement|Home Rule]] question,  co-ordinated with the [[Irish Reform Association]] and conceived by his permanent under-secretary Sir [[Antony MacDonnell]] (afterwards Baron) with the approval of the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland|Lord Lieutenant]] [[William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>He resigned, largely as a result of his perceived association with the failure of the devolution scheme, in March 1905. Balfour's [[Unionist government, 1895–1905|Unionist government]] fell in December 1905.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Wyndham was in October 1902 elected by the students of the [[University of Glasgow]] to be [[Lord Rector of Glasgow University|Lord Rector of the university]] for three years.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=University intelligence - Glasgow|date=27 October 1902 |page=11 |issue=36909}}</ref> He was elected a Member of the [[Worshipful Company of Musicians]] in January 1903.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=23 January 1903 |page=4 |issue=36985}}</ref>

Wyndham was the leader of the "die-hard" opponents in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|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]],<ref name="ReferenceA"/> and widow (since 1884) of [[Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor]], son of [[Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster]]. She was Wyndham's senior by eight years, and her son succeeded as [[Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster|2nd Duke of Westminster]] in 1899. Towards the end of his life the couple settled at [[Clouds House]] in Wiltshire, designed for his father [[Percy Wyndham (1835–1911)|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 [[Embolism|blood clot]]. He was survived by his wife and one son.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Lady Grosvenor died in February 1929, aged 73.

There has been speculation over the years that Wyndham was the natural father of [[Anthony Eden]], 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.<ref>D. R. Thorpe (2003) ''Eden''.</ref>

==Works==
* ''North's Plutarch'' (1894; editor)
* ''The Poems of Shakespeare'' (1898; editor)
* ''[https://agmlib.cheltenham.gov.uk/Details/collect/21387 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==
{{reflist|2}}
*''Letters of George Wyndham, 1877–1913'' (1915) [[Guy Percy Wyndham]]
*''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]].
*{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Wyndham, George|short=x}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |title=Constructing George Wyndham: Narratives of Aristocratic Masculinity in Fin-De-Siecle England |first=Nancy W. |last=Ellenberger |journal=Journal of British Studies |volume=39 |issue=4 |date=October 2000 |pages=487–517 |doi=10.1086/386229 |jstor=175860|s2cid=143598618}} 
* Ellenberger, Nancy W. ''Balfour's World: Aristocracy and Political Culture at the Fin de Siècle'' (2015). [https://www.amazon.com/Balfours-World-Aristocracy-Political-Culture/dp/1783270373/ excerpt]

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-george-wyndham | George Wyndham }}

{{S-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
  | title  = Member of Parliament for [[Dover (UK Parliament constituency)|Dover]]
  | years  = [[1889 Dover by-election|1889]]–[[1913 Dover by-election|1913]]
  | before = [[Alexander George Dickson|Alexander Dickson]]
  | after  = [[Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough|Viscount Duncannon]]
}}
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{{succession box | title=[[Under-Secretary of State for War]] | before=[[St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton|St John Brodrick]] | after=[[George Somerset, 3rd Baron Raglan|The Lord Raglan]] | years=1898–1900}}
{{succession box | title=[[Chief Secretary for Ireland]] | before=[[Gerald Balfour, 2nd Earl of Balfour|Gerald Balfour]] | after=[[Walter Long, 1st Viscount Long|Walter Long]] | years=1900–1905}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box | before=[[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|The Earl of Rosebery]]| title=[[Rector of the University of Glasgow]] | years=1902–1905 | after=[[H. H. Asquith]]}}
{{succession box | before=[[Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane|Richard Haldane]]| title=[[Rector of the University of Edinburgh]] | years=1908–1911 | after=[[Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto|The Earl of Minto]]}}
{{S-end}}

{{Authority control}}

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