Robert Cecil, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood

Lore & Background

Cecil was born at Cavendish Square, London, the sixth child and third son of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, three times prime minister. He studied law at University College, Oxford, and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1887. He married Lady Eleanor Lambton on 22 January 1889. He practised civil law from 1887 to 1906, was appointed a Queen's Counsel on 15 June 1899, and served as a private secretary to his father from 1886 to 1888. During World War I, he worked for the Red Cross and became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 30 May 1915, later serving as Minister of Blockade from 23 February 1916 to 18 July 1918. He was a key figure in the formation of the League of Nations, circulating memoranda in 1916 and 1917, and forwarding the Phillimore Report to President Woodrow Wilson in March 1918.

Reader's Guide

Cecil was a convinced believer in free trade, opposing Joseph Chamberlain's Tariff Reform. At the 1906 general election, he was elected as a Conservative MP for Marylebone East. He did not contest the Marylebone seat in either general election in 1910 as a result of the tariff reform controversy; instead he unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in the January 1910 election and Wisbech in the December 1910 election. In 1911, he won a by-election in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, as an Independent Conservative and served as its MP until 1923.

Did You Know?

• Cecil was the brother of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, and the cousin of Arthur Balfour.
• He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937 for his work with the League of Nations.
• Cecil claimed that his marriage to Lady Eleanor Lambton was 'the cleverest thing he had ever done'.
• He was appointed a Queen's Counsel on 15 June 1899.