Wyndham, George

From Wikipedia entry:
George Wyndham PC (29 August 1863 - 8 June 1913) was a British Conservative politician, Statesman man of letters, noted for his elegance, 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. His mother was Madeleine, 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. Wyndham was educated at Eton and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He joined the Coldstream Guards in March 1883, serving through the Suakin campaign of 1885. 1887 Wyndham became private secretary to Mr Arthur Balfour (afterwards the Earl of Balfour) 1889 Wyndham was elected unopposed to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dover, and held the seat until his death. In 1898 he 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.

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 subverted 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 (afterwards Baron) 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 the leader of the "die-hard" opponents in the House of Commons of the Parliament Bill that became Parliament Act 1911. Wyndham married Sibell Mary in 1887, Countess Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough. After the death of her first husband Victor Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the 1st Duke of Westminster. She was Wyndham's senior by eight years. 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 (1886). 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 Sibell 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 1955-7. Eden's mother, Sybil, Lady Eden, was evidently close to Wyndham, to whom Eden bore a striking resemblance.

For more information, see Wikipedia entry at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wyndham .

Created 2015-10-29 by Anna St.Onge.

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