leaders of the Unionist Party, which had split off from the Liberal Party in the fight over
Home Rule in 1886. These included the eighth Duke of Devonshire and his nephew, the
Marquess of Hartington (the Cavendish family), the latter's father-in-law (Lord
Lansdowne), Goschen, and Joseph Chamberlain. The Duke of Devonshire was Lord
President of the Council (1895-1903); his nephew and heir was Treasurer of 11.M.
Household (1900-1903) and Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1903-1905). The latter's
father-in-law, Lord Lansdowne, was Secretary for War (1895-1900) and Foreign
Secretary (1900-1905); Goschen was First Lord of the Admiralty (1895-1900) and
rewarded with a viscounty (1900). Joseph Chamberlain was Secretary for the Colonies
(1895-1903).
Most of these persons were related by numerous family and marital connections which
have not yet been mentioned. We should point out some of these connections, since they
form the background of the Milner Group.
George W. Lyttelton, fourth Baron Lyttelton, married a sister of Mrs. William E.
Gladstone and had eight sons. Of these, Neville and Alfred have been mentioned;
Spencer was secretary to his uncle, W. E. Gladstone, for three extended periods between
1871 and 1894, and was an intimate friend of Arthur Balfour (world tour together in
1875); Edward was Headmaster of Haileybury (1890-1905) and of Eton (1905-1916);
Arthur was chaplain to the Queen (1896-1898) and Bishop of Southampton (1898-1903).
Charles, the oldest son, fifth Baron Lyttelton and eighth Viscount Cobham (1842-1922),
married Mary Cavendish and had four sons and three daughters. The oldest son, now
ninth Viscount Cobham, was private secretary to Lord Selborne in South Africa (1905-
1908) and Parliamentary Under Secretary of War (1939-1940). His brother George was
assistant master at Eton. His sister Frances married the nephew of Lady Chelmsford.
The youngest son of the fourth Baron Lyttelton, Alfred, whom we have already
mentioned, married twice. His first wife was Laura Tennant, whose sister Margot married
Herbert Asquith and whose brother Baron Glenconner married Pamela Wyndham.
Pamela married, for a second husband, Viscount Grey of Fallodon. For his second wife,
Alfred Lyttelton married Edith Balfour. She survived him by many years and was later
deputy director of the women's branch of the Ministry of Agriculture (1917-1919), a
substitute delegate to the Assembly of the League of Nations for five sessions (1923-
1931), and a member of the council of the Royal institute of International Affairs. Her
son, Captain Oliver Lyttelton, has been an M.P. since 1940, was managing director of the
British Metals Corporation, Controller of Non-ferrous Metals (1939-1940), President of
the Board of Trade (1940-1941, 1945), a member of the War Cabinet (1941-1945), and
Minister of Production (1942-1945).
Almost as ramified as the Lyttelton clan were the Wyndhams, descendants of the first
Baron Leconfield. The Baron had three sons. Of these, the oldest married Constance
Primrose, sister of Lord Rosebery, daughter of Lord Dalmeny and his wife, Dorothy
Grosvenor (later Lady Brassey), and granddaughter of Lord Henry Grosvenor and his
wife, Dora Wemyss. They had four children. Of these, one, Hugh A. Wyndham, married
Maud Lyttelton and was a member of Milner's Kindergarten. His sister Mary married
General Sir Ivor Maxse and was thus the sister-in-law of Lady Edward Cecil (later Lady
Milner). Another son of Baron Leconfield, Percy Scawen Wyndham, was the father of
Pamela (Lady Glenconner and later Lady Grey), of George Wyndham (already
mentioned), who married Countess Grosvenor, and of Mary Wyndham, who married the
eleventh Earl of Wemyss. It should perhaps be mentioned that Countess Grosvenor's
daughter Lettice Grosvenor married the seventh Earl of Beauchamp, brother-in-law of
Samuel Hoare. Countess Grosvenor (Mrs. George Wyndham) had two nephews who
must be mentioned. One, Lawrence John Lumley Dundas (Earl of Ronaldshay and
Marquess of Zetland), was sent as military aide to Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1900. He
was an M.P. (1907-1916), a member of the Royal Commission on Public Services in
India (1912-1914), Governor of Bengal (1917-1922), a member of the Indian Round
Table Conference of 1930-1931 and of the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on
India in 1933. He was Secretary of State for India (1935-1940) and for Burma (1937-
1940), as well as the official biographer of Lord Curzon and Lord Cromer.
The other nephew of Countess Grosvenor, Laurence Roger Lumley (Earl of
Scarbrough since 1945), a cousin of the Marquess of Zetland, was an M.P. as soon as he
graduated from Magdalen (1922-1929, 1931-1937), and later Governor of Bombay
(1937-1943) and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for India and Burma (1945).
Countess Grosvenor's sister-in-law Mary Wyndham (who married the Earl of
Wemyss) had three children. The younger son, Guy Charteris, married a Tennant of the
same family as the first Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, the second Mrs. Herbert Asquith, and