Anglo-American Establishment полностью

In spite of the prominence of his family and his own position as heir presumptive to the

third Baron Leconfield, it is difficult to obtain any adequate information about him. His

biography in Who's Who does not mention his experiences in South Africa or his other

connections with the Milner Group. This is obviously the result of a deliberate policy,

since editions of Who's Who of thirty-five years ago do mention the South African

connection. Wyndham wrote Problems of Imperial Trusteeship (1933); Britain and the

World; and the chapter on "The Formation of the Union of South Africa, 1901-1910" in

volume VIII of the Cambridge History of the British Empire (1936). He was, like all the

members of the Milner Group, a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs,

wrote many book reviews for its Journal, and at the outbreak of war in 1939 became the

usual presiding officer at its meetings (in the absence of Lord Astor). When publication

of the Journal was resumed after the war, he became chairman of its editorial board, a

position he still holds. Married to Maude Lyttelton, daughter of Viscount Cobham, he is

also a brother-in-law of Sir Ivor Maxse (the brother of Lady Milner) and a nephew of

Lord Rosebery.

Dougal Malcolm (Sir Dougal since 1938), a grandson of Lord Charles Wellesley,

joined the Colonial Office in 1900 and served there under Chamberlain and Alfred

Lyttelton for several years. In 1905 he went to South Africa as private secretary to Lord

Selborne and remained there until Union was achieved. He was secretary to Lord Grey,

Governor-General of Canada, during the last year of his tenure (1910-1911); an official

of the British Treasury for a year; and, in 1913, became a director of the British South

Africa Company (president since 1938). He is also vice-president of the British North

Borneo Company, of which his brother-in-law, General Sir Neill Malcolm, is

president.(3) Sir Dougal wrote the biographies of Otto Beit, of Dr. Jameson, and of J.

Rochford Maguire for the Dictionary of National Biography.

William Lionel Hichens (1874-1940), on graduating from New College, served briefly

as a cyclist messenger in the Boer War and then joined the Egyptian Ministry of Finance

(1900). After only nine months' service, he was shifted by Milner to South Africa to join

the Kindergarten as Treasurer of Johannesburg. He at once went to England to float a

loan, and on his return (in 1902) was made Colonial Treasurer of the Transvaal and

Treasurer of the Inter-colonial Council. Later he added to his responsibilities the role of

Acting Commissioner of Railways. In 1907 he went to India as a member of the Royal

Commission on Decentralization, following this with a stint as chairman of the Board of

Inquiry into Public Service in Southern Rhodesia (1909). In 1910 he went into private

business, becoming chairman of the board of a great steel firm, Cammell Laird and

Company, but continued as a member of the Milner Group. In 1915, Lloyd George sent

Hichens and Brand to organize the munitions industry of Canada. They set up the

Imperial Munitions Board of Canada, on which Joseph Flavelle (Sir Joseph after 1917)

was made chairman, Charles B. Gordon (Sir Charles after 1917) vice-chairman, and

Brand a member. In later years Hichens was a prominent businessman, one of the great

steel masters of England, director of the Commonwealth Trust Company (which sent

John Dove to India in 1918), of the London Northwestern Railway and its successor, the

London, Midlands and Scottish. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the

Carnegie United Kingdom Trust for over twenty years (1919-1940), which may help to

explain the extraordinary generosity of the Carnegie Foundation toward the Royal

Institute of International Affairs (of which Hichens was a member). He was an

enthusiastic supporter of adult education programs and spent years of effort on Birkbeck

College, the graduate evening school of the University of London. He w as chairman of

the board of governors of this institution from 1927 until his death, by a German bomb, in

December of 1940. From 1929 onwards, like most of the inner circle of the Milner

Group, he lived close to Oxford (at North Aston). He married Hermione Lyttelton,

daughter of Sir Neville Lyttelton, niece of Viscount Cobham, and cousin of the present

Oliver Lyttelton.

George Vandeleur Fiddes (Sir George after 1912) had been private secretary to the

Earl of Onslow, father of Lady Halifax, before he was secretary to Milner in South Africa

(1897-1900). Later he was political secretary to the Commander-in-Chief in South Africa

(1900), secretary to the Transvaal administration (1900-1902), Assistant Under Secretary

of State for the Colonies (1909-1916), and Permanent Under Secretary for the Colonies

(1916-1921).

John Hanbury-Williams (Sir John after 1908) had been in the regular army for