George Wyndham


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

Background and education

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. His 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. He was the brother of Guy Wyndham and Mary Constance Wyndham. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He joined the Coldstream Guards in March 1883, serving through the Suakin campaign of 1885.

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 as Member of Parliament for Dover, and held the seat until his death.
Wyndham launched an Imperialist magazine called The Outlook in February 1898. This may have been supported financially by Cecil Rhodes, with whom he had a close relationship. Joseph Conrad, who was a contributor, described the publication:
Also in 1898, Wyndham was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War under 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 in July 1902, but was taken into the Cabinet, and sworn a member of the Privy Council on 11 August 1902.
Wyndham furthered the 1902 Land Conference and also successfully saw the significant 1903 Irish Land Act into law. 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. This could without exaggeration be called the most radical change in Irish life in history.
He 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.
He resigned along with the rest of the Unionist government in May 1905.
Wyndham was in October 1902 elected by the students of the University of Glasgow to be Lord Rector of the university for three years.
Wyndham was the leader of the "die-hard" opponents in the House of Commons of the Parliament Bill that became Parliament Act 1911.

Family

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 1st Duke of Westminster. She was Wyndham's senior by eight years, and her son succeeded as 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 by the Arts and Crafts movement architect, Philip Webb.
In 1911 he succeeded his father and had the management of a small landed estate on his hands.
Wyndham died suddenly June 1913 in Paris, France, aged 49 of a blood clot. He was survived by his wife and one son.
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 1955–57. Eden's mother, Sybil, Lady Eden, was evidently close to Wyndham, to whom Eden bore a striking resemblance.

Works