his actual feeling toward Milner. The only comment about Milner in the published
portions of Anson's journal is a rather acid remark regarding the lack of eloquence in a
Milner speech in the House of Lords against the Parliament Act of 1911.(7) Nor did
Anson see eye to eye with Milner, or indeed with most members of the Milner Group,
since he was much too conservative. He was, to be sure, a Liberal Unionist, as most
important members of the Group were. He was also an imperialist and interested in social
welfare, but he did not have the high disregard for systems of economics that is so
characteristic of all members of the Group before 1917. Anson had an ingrained respect
for the economic status quo, and the old Liberal's suspicion of the intervention by public
authority in the economic field. These tendencies had been strengthened by years of
tender attention to the extensive landed wealth possessed by All Souls. Nonetheless,
Anson became one of the chief architects of the Milner Group and is undoubtedly the
chief factor in the Group's domination of All Souls since Anson's death. During his
wardenship (1881-1914), Anson was the most influential figure in All Souls, not merely
in its social and intellectual life but also in the management of its fortune and the
selection of its members. In the ordinary expectation of affairs, the former task was
generally left in the hands of the estates bursar, and the latter was shared with the other
Fellows. Anson, however, took the dominant role in both matters, to such a degree in fact
that Bishop Henson (himself a member of All Souls since 1884), in his Memoir of
Anson, says that the Warden was always able to have his candidate emerge with the
prized fellowship.
In seeking to bestow fellowships at All Souls on those individuals whom we now
regard as the chief members of the Milner Group, Anson was not conscious that he was
dealing with a group at all. The candidates who were offering themselves from New
College in the period 1897-1907 were of such high ability that they were able to obtain
the election on their own merits. The fact that they came strongly recommended by
Fisher served to clinch the matter. They thus did not enter All Souls as members of the
Milner Group—at least not in Anson's lifetime. After 1914 this was probably done (as in
the case of Lionel Curtis in 1921, Basil Williams in 1924, or Reginald Coupland in
1920), but not before. Rather, likely young men who went to New College in the period
on either side of the Boer War were marked out by Fisher and Anson, elected to All
Souls, and sent into Milner's Kindergarten on the basis of merit rather than connections.
Another young man who came to visit in South Africa in 1904 and 1905 was Edward
Frederick Lindley Wood, already a Fellow of All Souls and a future member of the
Milner Group. Better known to the world today as the first Earl of Halifax, he was the
son of the second Viscount Halifax and in every way well qualified to become a member
of the Milner Group. Lord Halifax is a great-grandson of Lord Grey of the great Reform
Bill of 1832, and a grandson of Lord Grey's secretary and son-in-law, Charles Wood
(1800-1885), who helped put the Reform Bill through. The same grandfather became, in
1859-1866, the first Secretary of State for the new India, putting through reforms for that
great empire which were the basis for the later reforms of the Milner Group in the
twentieth century. Lord Halifax is also a grandnephew of Lord Durham, whose famous
report became the basis for the federation of Canada in 1867.
As Edward Wood, the future Lord Halifax undoubtedly found his path into the select
company of All Souls smoothed by his own father's close friendship with Phillimore and
with the future Archbishop Lang, who had been a Fellow for fifteen years when Wood
was elected in 1903.
As a newly elected Fellow, Wood went on a world tour, which took him to South
Africa twice (in 1904 and 1905). Each time, he was accompanied by his father, Viscount
Halifax, who dined with Milner and was deeply impressed. The Viscount subsequently
became Milner's chief defender in the House of Lords. In 1906, for example, when
Milner was under severe criticism in the Commons for importing Chinese laborers into
South Africa, Lord Halifax introduced and carried in the Upper House a resolution of
appreciation for Milner's work.
Edward Wood's subsequent career is one of the most illustrious of contemporary
Englishmen. A Member of Parliament for fifteen years (1910-1925), he held posts as
Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Colonies (1921-1922), President of the Board of
Education (in succession to H. A. L. Fisher, 1922-1924), and Minister of Agriculture,
before he went to India (as Baron Irwin) to be Viceroy. In this post, as we shall see, he
furthered the plans of the Milner Group for the great subcontinent (1926-1931), before
returning to more brilliant achievements as president of the Board of Education (1932-