Paymaster General (1940), Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (1940-1942), and
Colonial Secretary (1942). He was later Lord Privy Seal (1942-1943), Secretary for
Dominion Affairs again (1943-1945), and Leader of the Conservative Party in the House
of Lords (1942-1945).
Lord Salisbury's second son, Lord William Cecil (1863- ), was Rural Dean of Hertford
(1904-1916) and Bishop of Exeter (1916-1936), as well as chaplain to King Edward VII.
Lord Salisbury's third son, Lord Robert Cecil (Viscount Cecil of Chelwood since
1923), was an M.P. from 1906 to 1923 as well as Parliamentary Under Secretary for
Foreign Affairs (1915-1916), Assistant Secretary in the same department (1918), Minister
of Blockade (1916-1918), Lord Privy Seal (1923-1924), and Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster (1924-1927). He was one of the original drafters of the Covenant of the League
of Nations and was the Englishman most closely associated in the public mind with the
work of the League. For this work he received the Nobel Prize in 1937.
Lord Salisbury's fourth son, Lord Edward Cecil (1867-1918), was the one most
closely associated with Milner, and, in 1921, his widow married Milner. While Lord
Edward was besieged with Rhodes in Mafeking in 1900, Lady Cecil lived in close
contact with Milner and his Kindergarten. After the war, Lord Edward was Agent-
General of the Sudan (1903-1905), Under Secretary of Finance in Egypt (1905-1912),
and financial adviser to the Egyptian government (1912-1918). He was in complete
control of the Egyptian government during the interval between Kitchener's departure and
the arrival of Sir Henry McMahon as High Commissioner, and was the real power in
McMahon's administration (1914-1916). In 1894 he had married Violet Maxse, daughter
of Admiral Frederick Maxse and sister of General Sir Ivor Maxse. Sir Ivor, a good friend
of Milner's, was the husband of Mary Caroline Wyndham, daughter of Baron Leconfield
and niece of Lord Rosebery.
Lord Edward Cecil had a son and a daughter. The daughter, Helen Mary Cecil,
married Captain Alexander Hardinge in the same year (1921) in which she became
Milner's stepdaughter. Her husband was the heir of Baron Hardinge of Penshurst and a
cousin of Sir Arthur Hardinge. Both Hardinges were proteges of Lord Salisbury, as we
shall see.
The fifth son of Lord Salisbury was Lord Hugh Cecil (Baron Quickswood since
1941). He was a Member of Parliament for Greenwich (1895-1906) and for Oxford
University (1910-1937). He is now a Fellow of New College, after having been a Fellow
of Hertford for over fifty years.
The degree to which Lord Salisbury practiced nepotism can be seen by a look at his
third government (1895-1902) or its successor, Balfour's first government (1902-1905).
The Balfour government was nothing but a continuation of Salisbury's government, since,
as we have seen, Balfour was Salisbury's nephew and chief assistant and was made
premier in 1902 by his uncle. Salisbury was Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary;
Balfour was First Lord of the Treasury and Party Leader in Commons (1895-1902); his
brother, Gerald Balfour, was Chief Secretary for Ireland (1895-1900) and President of the
Board of Trade (1900-1905); their cousin-in-law Lord Selborne was Under Secretary for
the Colonies (1895-1900) and First Lord of the Admiralty (1905-1910). Arthur Balfour's
most intimate friend, and the man who would have been his brother-in-law except for his
sister's premature death in 1875 (an event which kept Balfour a bachelor for the rest of
his life), Alfred Lyttelton, was chairman of a mission to the Transvaal in 1900 and
Colonial Secretary (1903-1906). His older brother, Neville, was Assistant Military
Secretary in the War Office (1897-1898), Commander-in-Chief in South Africa under
Milner (1902-1904), and Chief of the General Staff (1904-1908). Another intimate friend
of Balfour's, George Wyndham, was Parliamentary Under Secretary for War (1898-1900)
and Chief Secretary for Ireland (1900-1905). St. John Brodrick (later Lord Midleton), a
classmate of Milner's, brother-in-law of P. L. Gell and son-in-law of the Earl of Wemyss,
was Under Secretary for War (1895-1898), Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs (1898-
1900), Secretary of State for War (1900-1903), and Secretary of State for India (1903-
1905). James Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, Lord Salisbury's heir, was Under Secretary for
Foreign Affairs (1900-1903) and Lord Privy Seal (1903-1905). Evelyn Cecil (Sir Evelyn
since 1922), nephew of Lord Salisbury, was private secretary to his uncle (1895-1902).
Walter Long (later Lord Long), a creation of Salisbury's, was President of the Board of
Agriculture (1895-1900), President of the Local Government Board (1900-1905), and
Chief Secretary for Ireland (1905-1906). George N. Curzon, (later Lord Curzon) a Fellow
of All Souls, ax-secretary and protege of Lord Salisbury, was Under Secretary for
Foreign Affairs (1895-1898) and Viceroy of India (1899-1905).
In addition to these personal appointees of Lord Salisbury, this government had the