Curzon of Kedleston George Nathaniel Curzon - Curzon: imperial statesman

The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling
The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj
The British in India: Three Centuries of
Ambition and Experience

The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe di Lampedusa
The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land,
Its Regions and Their Peoples

Cities of Spain
The Transformation of Spain: From Franco
to the Constitutional Monarchy

Lebanon: The Fractured Country
Dispossessed: The Ordeal of the Palestinians

The Hungry Generations

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First published by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd, Great Britain 2002
Published in the United States of America by Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2002
Published in Penguin Books with a new Preface 2019

Copyright David Gilmour, 1994, 2003, 2019

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover images: Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India (photogravure), English Photographer, (19th century) / Private Collection / Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images

ISBN: 978-0-141-99087-3

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

To my father, Ian Gilmour

David Gilmour is one of Britains most admired and accomplished historical writers and biographers. He is the author of The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling (Elizabeth Longford Prize), The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj and the acclaimed The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience. His other works include The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions and Their Peoples, The Last Leopard, a biography of Giuseppe di Lampedusa (Marsh Biography Award), as well as several books on the modern history of Spain and the Middle East. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a former Research Fellow of St Antonys College, Oxford.

Lady Scarsdale

Lord Scarsdale

Kedleston Hall

Curzon at the age of 6

Curzon, aged 12

Oscar Browning

Benjamin Jowett

Curzon and William Palmer at Oxford

Alfred and Edward Lyttelton

Sibell Grosvenor painted by Edward Clifford

Curzon as Under-Secretary portrayed by Spy

Curzon soon after his appointment as Viceroy

Family group at Kedleston after Curzons wedding

Curzon with his daughters, Irene and Cynthia

Government House, Calcutta

Viceregal tour of the ruins of the Lucknow Residency

The Vicereine at the Durbar

The Viceroys family and staff at Simla, 1899

The Curzons visit to Hyderabad, 1902

St John Brodrick

Lord George Hamilton

Lord Ampthill

Earl of Minto

Lord Kitchener

John Morley

Tiger shooting at Hyderabad, 1902

Tennis at Hackwood

Lord Lansdowne with Curzon

Elinor Glyn at Montacute

Grace Curzon

Curzon making a speech at Tattershall in 1912

Lord Cromer

Lord Milner

Lord Curzon as Foreign Secretary

Lord Salisbury

Arthur Balfour

H.H. Asquith

David Lloyd George

Andrew Bonar Law

Stanley Baldwin at the Imperial Conference, 1923

Lord Curzon at the age of 66

The author and publishers would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce photographs: Plates , Jane Lady Abdy and Mr Christopher Davson.

Lady Scarsdale Lord Scarsdale Kedleston Hall George Nathaniel at the age of 6 The competitive schoolboy, aged 12, in his last year at Wixenford Oscar Browning (in retirement), who regarded Curzon as one of the most brilliantly gifted boys of his generation Benjamin Jowett, creator of the Balliol mystique, who warned his pupil of the dangers of verbosity Oxford insouciance: Curzon (left) and Willian Palmer (later Viscount Wolmer, later still Earl of Selborne) Straight bats: Alfred and Edward Lyttelton Curzons Blessed Damozel: Sibell Grosvenor painted by Edward Clifford in 1887 A divinity addressing black beetles: Curzon as Under-Secretary portrayed by Spy in 1892 Curzon soon after his appointment as Viceroy in 1898 Family group at Kedleston after Curzons wedding. Behind the married couple are (left to right), Geraldine, Frank, Margaret, Lillian Okeover (who married Assheton), Lord Scarsdale, Assheton, Sophy, Elinor, Sir James Miller, Evie (married to Miller), and Affie. All Curzons brothers and sisters are present except Blanche