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{{Short description|Viceroy of India and British Foreign Secretary (1859–1925)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[His Excellency]] [[The Most Honourable]]
| name = The Marquess Curzon {{nowrap|of Kedleston}}
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=|KG|GCSI|GCIE|PC|FRS|FRGS|FBA}}
| image = George Curzon2.jpg
| order1 = 11th [[Viceroy and Governor-General of India]]
| term_start1 = 6 January 1899
| term_end1 = 18 November 1905
| monarch1 = {{plainlist|
*[[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
*[[Edward VII]]}}
| predecessor1 = [[Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin|The Earl of Elgin]]
| successor1 = [[Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto|The Earl of Minto]]
| deputy1 = [[Oliver Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill|Lord Ampthill]]
| order2 = [[Leader of the House of Lords]]
| term_start2 = 3 November 1924
| term_end2 = 20 March 1925
| monarch2 = [[George V]]
| primeminister2 = [[Stanley Baldwin]]
| predecessor2 = [[Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane|The Viscount Haldane]]
| successor2 = [[James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury|The Marquess of Salisbury]]
| term_start3 = 10 December 1916
| term_end3 = 22 January 1924
| monarch3 = George V
| primeminister3 = {{plainlist|
*[[David Lloyd George]]
*[[Bonar Law]]
*Stanley Baldwin}}
| predecessor3 = [[The Marquess of Crewe]]
| successor3 = The Viscount Haldane
| order4 = [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start4 = 23 October 1919
| term_end4 = 22 January 1924
| monarch4 = George V
| primeminister4 = {{plainlist|
*David Lloyd George
*Bonar Law
*Stanley Baldwin}}
| predecessor4 = [[Arthur Balfour]]
| successor4 = [[Ramsay MacDonald]]
| order5 = [[Lord President of the Council]]
| term_start5 = 3 November 1924
| term_end5 = 20 March 1925
| monarch5 = George V
| primeminister5 = Stanley Baldwin
| predecessor5 = [[Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor|Lord Parmoor]]
| successor5 = The Earl of Balfour
| term_start6 = 10 December 1916
| term_end6 = 23 October 1919
| monarch6 = George V
| primeminister6 = David Lloyd George
| predecessor6 = The Marquess of Crewe
| successor6 = Arthur Balfour
| order7 = [[President of the Air Board]]
| term_start7 = 15 May 1916
| term_end7 = 3 January 1917
| monarch7 = George V
| primeminister7 = {{plainlist|
*[[H. H. Asquith]]
*David Lloyd George}}
| predecessor7 = [[Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby|The Earl of Derby]]
| successor7 = [[Weetman Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray|The Viscount Cowdray]]
| order9 = [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]]
| term_start9 = 20 June 1895
| term_end9 = 15 October 1898
| monarch9 = [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Victoria]]
| primeminister9 = [[The Marquess of Salisbury]]
| predecessor9 = [[Sir Edward Grey]]
| successor9 = [[St John Brodrick]]
| order10 = [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India]]
| term_start10 = 9 November 1891
| term_end10 = 11 August 1892
| monarch10 = Victoria
| primeminister10 = The Marquess of Salisbury
| predecessor10 = Sir [[John Eldon Gorst]]
| successor10 = [[George W. E. Russell]]
| office14 = Member of the [[House of Lords]]
| status14 = [[Lord Temporal]]
| term_label14 = as an [[Irish representative peer]]
| term_start14 = 21 January 1908
| term_end14 = 20 March 1925
| predecessor14 = [[Francis Browne, 4th Baron Kilmaine|Lord Kilmaine]]
| successor14 = [[Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale|The Baroness Ravensdale]]<br /> ''(in barony)''<br /> [[Richard Curzon, 2nd Viscount Scarsdale|The Viscount Scarsdale]]<br />''(in viscountcy)''<br />No successor ''(as Irish representative peer)''
| office15 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]]<br />for [[Southport (UK Parliament constituency)|Southport]]
| term_start15 = 27 July 1886
| term_end15 = 24 August 1898
| predecessor15 = [[George Augustus Pilkington]]
| successor15 = [[Herbert Naylor-Leyland]]
| birth_name = George Nathaniel Curzon
| birth_date = {{birth date|1859|1|11|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Kedleston]], [[Derbyshire]], England
| death_date = {{death date and age|1925|3|20|1859|1|11|df=y}}
| death_place = London, England
| spouse = {{plainlist|
*{{marriage|[[Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston|Mary Leiter]]|1895|1906|end=died}}
*{{marriage|[[Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston|Grace Duggan]]<br />|1917}}}}
| children = {{plainlist|
*[[Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale]]
*[[Lady Cynthia Mosley]]
*[[Lady Alexandra Metcalfe]]}}
| parents = [[Alfred Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale]]<br/>Blanche ''née'' Pocklington-Senhouse
| alma_mater = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
}}
'''George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston''' (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as '''Lord Curzon''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɜr|z|ən}}<ref>{{Cite Collins Dictionary|Curzon}}</ref>), was a British statesman, [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politician, explorer and writer who served as [[Viceroy of India]] from 1899 to 1905 and [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] from 1919 to 1924.
Curzon was born in [[Derbyshire]] into an aristocratic family and educated at [[Eton College]] and [[Balliol College, Oxford]], before entering [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in 1885. In the following years, he travelled extensively in [[Russia]], [[Central Asia]] and the [[Far East]], and published several books on the region in which he detailed his geopolitical outlook and underlined the perceived [[Russian Empire|Russian]] threat to British control of [[India]]. In 1891, Curzon was named [[Under-Secretary of State for India]], and in 1899 he was appointed Viceroy of India. During his tenure, he pursued a number of reforms of the [[British Raj|British administration]], attempted to address the British maltreatment of Indians, undertook the restoration of the [[Taj Mahal]], and sent a [[British expedition to Tibet]] to counter Russian ambitions. In 1905, he presided over the [[Partition of Bengal (1905)|partition of Bengal]] and came into conflict with [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] over issues of military organisation. Unable to secure the backing of the government in London, he resigned later that year and returned to England.
In 1907, Curzon became [[Chancellor of Oxford University]], and the following year he was elected to the [[House of Lords]] as an [[January 1908 Irish representative peer election|Irish representative peer]]. During the [[First World War]], he served in [[H. H. Asquith]]'s [[Asquith coalition|coalition cabinet]] as [[Lord Privy Seal]], and from late 1916 he was [[Leader of the House of Lords]] and served in the war cabinet of Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] and the [[War Policy Committee]]. He was appointed [[Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (UK)|Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]] in October 1919 and lent his name to Britain's proposed Soviet-Polish boundary, the [[Curzon Line]]. He also oversaw the division of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]] and the creation of the [[Emirate of Transjordan]], and was the chief Allied negotiator of the 1922 [[Treaty of Lausanne]] which defined the borders of modern [[Turkey]]. In 1921, he was created a [[marquess]]. On [[Bonar Law]]'s retirement as Prime Minister in 1923, Curzon was a contender for the office but was passed over in favour of [[Stanley Baldwin]]. He remained as [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] until 1924 when the Baldwin government fell, and died a year later at the age of 66.
== Early life ==
Curzon was the eldest son and the second of the eleven children of [[Alfred Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale]] (1831–1916), who was the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of [[Kedleston]] in Derbyshire. George's mother was Blanche (1837–1875), the daughter of Joseph Pocklington-Senhouse of Netherhall in [[Cumberland]]. He was born at [[Kedleston Hall]], built on the site where his family, who were clergymen and priests, had lived since the 12th century. His mother, exhausted by childbirth, died when George was 16; her husband survived her by 41 years. Neither parent exerted a major influence on Curzon's life. Scarsdale was an austere and unindulgent father who believed that landowners should stay on their land and not indefinitely tour the world for pleasure. He disapproved of the journeys across Asia between 1887 and 1895 which made his son one of the most travelled men to be a member of any British cabinet. An influential presence in Curzon's childhood was that of his brutal, sadistic governess, [[Ellen Mary Paraman]], whose tyranny in the nursery stimulated his combative qualities and encouraged the obsessional side of his nature. Paraman used to beat him and periodically forced him to parade through the village wearing a conical hat bearing the words ''liar'', ''sneak'', and ''coward''. Curzon later noted, "No children well born and well-placed ever cried so much and so justly."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Niall |url=https://archive.org/details/empire00nial/page/n4/mode/2up |title=Empire : the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power |date=2004 |publisher=New York : Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02329-5 |pages=172}}</ref>
[[File:George Curzon.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|left|Curzon at Eton, 1870s]]
He was educated at [[Wixenford School]],<ref>Philip Holden, ''Autobiography and Decolonization: Modernity, Masculinity, and the Nation-state'' (2008), p. 46.</ref> [[Eton College]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4309213.stm Eton, the Raj and modern India]; By Alastair Lawson; 9 March 2005; BBC News.</ref> and [[Balliol College, Oxford]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} His over-intimate relationship at Eton College with [[Oscar Browning]] led to the latter's dismissal.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|id=32128|title=Browning, Oscar|first = Richard|last = Davenport-Hines|author-link = Richard Davenport-Hines|date = 3 January 2008|quote = His intimate, indiscreet friendship with a boy in another boarding-house, G. N. Curzon [...] provoked a crisis with [Headmaster] Hornby [….] Amid national controversy he was dismissed in 1875 on the pretext of administrative inefficiency but actually because his influence was thought to be sexually contagious}}</ref><ref>"... Oscar Browning (1837–1923), who had been sacked from Eton in September 1875 under suspicion of [[pederasty]], partly because of his involvement with young George Nathaniel Curzon" in Michael Kaylor, ''Secreted Desires'' (2006), p. 98.</ref> A [[spinal injury]] incurred while riding during his adolescence was a lifelong impediment to Curzon that required him to wear a metal corset for the remainder of his life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mosley |first= Leonard |author-link = Leonard Mosley|title= Curzon: The End of an Epoch |url=https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl |url-access=registration |publisher= Longmans, Green, and Co. |year=1961 |page= }}</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2020}}
[[File:UK-2014-Oxford-All Souls College 03.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Curzon was educated at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], and was later a Prize Fellow of [[All Souls College, Oxford]]]]
Curzon was President of the [[Oxford Union|Union]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and Secretary of the Oxford Canning Club (a Tory political club named after [[George Canning]]), but as a consequence of the extent of his time-expenditure on political and social societies, he failed to achieve a [[first class degree]] in [[Greats]], although he subsequently won both the [[Lothian Prize Essay]] and the Arnold Prize, the latter for an essay on Sir [[Thomas More]], about whom he knew little. In 1883, Curzon received the most prestigious fellowship at the university, a Prize Fellowship at [[All Souls College]]. While at Eton and at Oxford, Curzon was a contemporary and close friend of [[Cecil Spring Rice]] and [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Edward Grey]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Burton|first=David Henry|title=Cecil Spring Rice: A Diplomat's Life|year=1990|page=22|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press|isbn=978-0-8386-3395-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kCGKtLkHnxAC}}</ref> Spring Rice contributed, alongside [[John William Mackail]], to the composition of a famous sardonic [[doggerel]] about Curzon that was published as part of ''[[Balliol rhyme|The Balliol Masque]]'', about which Curzon wrote in later life "never has more harm been done to one single individual than that accursed doggerel has done to me."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Lord Curzon {{!}} Biography & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Curzon|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2 June 2020}}</ref> It read:
{{blockquote|<poem>My name is George Nathaniel Curzon,
I am a most superior person.
My cheek is pink, my hair is sleek,
I dine at [[Blenheim Palace|Blenheim]] once a week.</poem>}}
When Spring Rice was assigned to the British Embassy to the United States in 1894–1895, he was suspected by Curzon of trying to prevent Curzon's engagement to the American Mary Leiter, whom Curzon nevertheless married.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Leonard|title=Curzon: The End of an Epoch|url=https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl|url-access=registration|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co.|year=1961|page=[https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl/page/26 26]}}</ref> Spring Rice assumed for a certainty, like many of Curzon's other friends, that Curzon would inevitably become [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]]: he wrote to Curzon in 1891, 'When you are Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs I hope you will restore the vanished glory of England, lead the European concert, decide the fate of nations, and give me three months' leave instead of two'.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Leonard|title=Curzon: The End of an Epoch|url=https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl|url-access=registration|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co.|year=1961|page=[https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl/page/43 43]}}</ref>
Old texts state that he spent few months in a cottage in [[Dehradun]], India. Though exact records are not available there is a road named after him there (probably near his erstwhile cottage).{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}
== Early political career ==
In his youth, Curzon regularly attended debates at the House of Commons.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilmour|first=David|title=[[Curzon: Imperial Statesman]]|publisher=Penguin Books|page=4|year=2019}}</ref> Curzon became Assistant Private Secretary to the [[Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Marquess of Salisbury]] in 1885, and in 1886 entered [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] as Member for [[Southport (UK Parliament constituency)|Southport]] in south-west [[Lancashire]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} His [[maiden speech]], which was chiefly an attack on [[Irish Home Rule movement|home rule]] and [[Irish nationalism]], was regarded in much the same way as his oratory at the [[Oxford Union]]: brilliant and eloquent but also presumptuous and rather too self-assured.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} The press reaction was mainly favourable. ''The Times'' called it 'brilliant' while other newspapers described it as 'capital' and a 'decided success', and the ''St James' Gazette'' deemed it 'very successful' though 'unnecessarily flippant in tone'. <ref>{{cite book |last1=David |first1=Gilmore |title=Curzon |date=1995 |publisher=Macmillan General Books |___location=London |isbn=0 333 64406 9 |page=62 |edition=1995}}</ref> Subsequent performances in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|Commons]], often dealing with Ireland or reform of the [[House of Lords]] (which he supported), received similar verdicts. He was [[Under-Secretary of State for India]] in 1891–1892 and [[Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]] in 1895–1898.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Leonard|title=''Curzon: The End of an Epoch''|url=https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl|url-access=registration|year=1961}}</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2020}}
==Asian travels and writings==
In the meantime Curzon had travelled around the world: [[Russian Empire|Russia]] and [[Central Asia]] (1888–1889); [[Qajar Persia|Persia]] (September 1889 – January 1890); [[Rattanakosin Kingdom|Siam]], [[French Indochina]], [[Qing dynasty|China]], [[Joseon|Korea]] and [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] (1892); and a daring foray into [[Emirate of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]] and the [[Pamirs]] (1894–1895). He published several books describing central and eastern Asia and related foreign policy issues.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} A bold and compulsive traveller, driven by [[orientalism]], he was awarded the [[Patron's Medal]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] for his exploration of the source of the [[Amu Darya]] (Oxus). His journeys allowed him to study the problems of Asia and their implications for [[British India]], while reinforcing his pride in his nation and her imperial mission.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CURZON, GEORGE NATHANIEL |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/curzon-george-nathaniel |website=[[Encyclopaedia Iranica]]}}</ref>
Curzon believed Russia to be the most likely threat to [[British India]], Britain's most valuable possession, from the 19th century through the early 20th century.<ref>Curzon, ''Russia in Central Asia'' (1967), p. 314.</ref> In 1879 Russia had begun construction of the [[Transcaspian Railway]] along the [[Silk Road]], officially solely to enforce local control. The line starts from the city of Kyzyl-Su, formerly Krasnovodsk (nowadays [[Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenistan|Turkmenbashi]]) (on the [[Caspian Sea]]), travels southeast along the [[Karakum Desert]], through [[Ashgabat]], continues along the [[Kopet Dagh]] Mountains until it reaches [[Tejen]]. Curzon dedicated an entire chapter in his book ''Russia in Central Asia'' to discussing the perceived threat to British control of India.<ref>Curzon, ''Russia in Central Asia'' (1967), p. 272.</ref> This railway connected Russia with the most wealthy and influential cities in Central Asia at the time, including the Persian [[Khorasan Province]],<ref>[[Denis Wright]], "Curzon and Persia", ''The Geographical Journal'' 153#3 (November 1987): 343.</ref> and would allow the rapid deployment of Russian supplies and troops into the area. Curzon also believed that the resulting greater economic interdependence between Russia and Central Asia would be damaging to British interests.<ref>Curzon, ''Russia in Central Asia'' p. 277.</ref>
''Persia and the Persian Question'', written in 1892, has been considered Curzon's ''magnum opus'' and can be seen as a sequel to ''Russia in Central Asia.''<ref>Denis Wright, "Curzon and Persia", ''The Geographical Journal'' 153#3 (November 1987): 346.</ref> Curzon was commissioned by ''[[The Times]]'' to write several articles on the Persian political environment, but while there he decided to write a book on the country as whole. This two-volume work covers Persia's history and governmental structure, as well as graphics, maps and pictures (some taken by Curzon himself). Curzon was aided by General [[Albert Houtum-Schindler]] and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), both of which helped him gain access to material to which as a foreigner he would not have been entitled to have access. General Schindler provided Curzon with information regarding Persia's geography and resources, as well as serving as an unofficial editor.<ref>Wright, "Curzon and Persia", pp. 346–347.</ref>
[[File:Lord and Lady Curzon and staff on tour of Persian Gulf 1903.jpg|thumb|Curzon, his wife, and his staff on a tour of the Persian Gulf in 1903]]
Curzon was appalled by his government's apathy towards Persia as a valuable defensive buffer to India from Russian encroachment.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Brockway | first1 = Thomas P | year = 1941 | title = Britain and the Persian Bubble, 1888–1892 | doi = 10.1086/243919 | journal = The Journal of Modern History | volume = 13 | issue = 1| page = 46 | s2cid = 144405914 }}</ref> Years later Curzon would lament that "Persia has alternatively advanced and receded in the estimation of British statesmen, occupying now a position of extravagant prominence, anon one of unmerited obscurity."<ref>George N. Curzon, ''Persia and the Persian Question'' (Volume 1). New York: Barnes & Noble, 1966, p. 605.</ref>
== First marriage (1895–1906) ==
[[File:Alexandre Cabanel - Mary Victoria Leiter (1870–1906), Lady Curzon.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|[[Mary Curzon, Baroness Curzon of Kedleston|Mary Victoria Leiter]] by [[Alexandre Cabanel]], 1887]]
On 22 April 1895, Curzon married [[Mary Victoria Leiter]], the eldest daughter and co-heiress of [[Levi Leiter]], an American millionaire{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} of [[Swiss people|Swiss]] descent,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=A.N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJmfAAAAMAAJ&q=Levi+Leiter |title=After the Victorians |publisher=Hutchinson |year=2005 |isbn=9780091794842 |page=596}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANdBAQAAIAAJ&q=protestant+swiss |magazine=[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]] |title=Cobbold's Diary |first=Denis |last=Thomas |date=1977 |volume=98 |publisher=[[British Broadcasting Corporation]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Bradford |first=Sarah |date=9 August 1995 |title=Lady Alexandra Metcalfe |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/lady-alexandra-metcalfe-1595421.html |access-date=6 January 2015 |newspaper=The Independent |___location=London}}</ref> who co-founded the Chicago department store Field & Leiter (later [[Marshall Field and Company|Marshall Field]]). While he married Mary for her wealth so he could save his estate, he later developed feelings for her. Mary had a long and nearly fatal illness near the end of summer 1904, from which she never really recovered. Falling ill again in July 1906, she died on the 18th of that month in her husband's arms, at the age of 36.<ref>[http://www.peterwestern.f9.co.uk/maximilia/pafg1237.htm Maximilian Genealogy Master Database, Mary Victoria LEITER, 2000] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306052857/http://www.peterwestern.f9.co.uk/maximilia/pafg1237.htm |date=6 March 2008 }}</ref> It was the greatest personal loss of his life.
She was buried in the church at Kedleston, where Curzon designed his memorial for her, a Gothic chapel added to the north side of the nave. Although he was neither a devout nor a conventional churchman, Curzon retained a simple religious faith; in later years he sometimes said that he was not afraid of death because it would enable him to join Mary in heaven.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
They had three daughters during a firm and happy marriage: [[Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale|Mary Irene]] (known as Irene), who inherited her father's [[Baron Ravensdale|Barony of Ravensdale]] and was created a [[life peer]] in her own right; [[Lady Cynthia Mosley|Cynthia Blanche]], who became the first wife of the fascist politician Sir [[Oswald Mosley]]; and [[Lady Alexandra Metcalfe|Alexandra Naldera]] ("Baba"), Curzon's youngest daughter; she married [[Edward Dudley Metcalfe|Edward "Fruity" Metcalfe]], the best friend, best man and [[equerry]] of [[Edward VIII]]. Mosley exercised a strange fascination for the Curzon women: Irene had a brief romance with him before either were married; Baba became his mistress; and Curzon's second wife, [[Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston|Grace]], had a long affair with him.
== Viceroy of India (1899–1905) ==
{{blockquote|Curzon, in 1901, had famously said, "As long as we rule India we are the greatest power in the world. If we lose it, we shall drop straightaway to a third-rate power."<ref>{{Cite news|title=(Catalogue ref: COPY 1/59 f.371)|url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/usefulnotes/g2cs4s6u.htm|publisher=National Archives}}</ref>}}
[[File:Curzon-Sanchi.jpg|thumb|right|Curzon—procession to [[Sanchi]] [[Stupa|Tope]], 28 November 1899.]]
[[File:Lord Curzon Hunting 1901.jpg|thumb|Curzon and [[Madho Rao Scindia]], [[Maharaja]] of [[Gwalior State|Gwalior]], pose with [[Tiger hunting|hunted tigers]], 1901.]]
[[File:Curzon Hall - Northern Facade - University of Dhaka - Dhaka 2015-05-31 1985-1991.tif cropped.jpg|alt=Curzon Hall, in Dhaka, Bangladesh|thumb|[[Curzon Hall]], in [[Dhaka]], Bangladesh]]
In January 1899 Curzon was appointed as [[Viceroy of India]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He was created a baron in the [[peerage of Ireland]] as '''[[Baron Curzon of Kedleston]]''', in the County of Derby,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27016 |date=21 October 1898 |page=6140 }}</ref> on his appointment. (The title was "Curzon of Kedleston" rather than simply "Curzon" because his kinsmen the [[Earl Howe|Earls Howe]] were already Viscounts and Barons Curzon.) As Viceroy, he was ''ex officio'' Grand Master of the [[Order of the Indian Empire]] and [[Order of the Star of India]]. This peerage was created in the [[Peerage of Ireland]] (the last so created) so that he would be free, until his father's death, to re-enter the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] on his return to Britain.
Reaching India shortly after the suppression of the [[Mohmand campaign of 1897–1898|frontier risings of 1897–98]], he paid special attention to the independent tribes of the north-west frontier, inaugurated a new province called the [[North West Frontier Province]], and pursued a policy of forceful control mingled with conciliation. In response to what he called "a number of murderous attacks upon Englishmen and Europeans", Curzon advocated at the Quetta Durbar extremely draconian punishments which he believed would stop what he viewed as such especially abominable crimes. In his own private correspondence, Curzon pondered "Is it possible, under the law, to flog these horrible scoundrels before we execute them? Supposing we remove them for execution to another and distant jail, could we flog them in the first jail before removal? I believe that if we could postpone the execution for a few weeks and give the criminal a few good public floggings – or even one, were more not possible – it would act as a real deterrent. But I have a suspicion that British law does not smile upon anything so eminently practical."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kolsky |first1=Elizabeth |date=October 2015 |title=The Colonial Rule of Law and the Legal Regime of Exception: Frontier "Fanaticism" and State Violence in British India |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43696899 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=120 |issue=4 |pages=1218–1246 |doi=10.1093/ahr/120.4.1218 |jstor=43696899 |access-date=30 April 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The only major armed outbreak on this frontier during the period of his administration was the [[Mahsud Waziri blockade|Mahsud-Waziri campaign]] of 1901.
In the context of the [[Great Game]] between the British and [[Russian Empire]]s for control of Central Asia, he held deep mistrust of Russian intentions. This led him to encourage British trade in [[Qajar Iran|Persia]], and he paid a visit to the [[Persian Gulf]] in 1903. Curzon argued for an exclusive British presence in the Gulf, a policy originally proposed by [[John Malcolm]]. The British government was already [[Persian Gulf Residency|making agreements]] with local sheiks/tribal leaders along the Persian Gulf coast to this end. Curzon had convinced his government to establish Britain as the unofficial protector of [[Sheikhdom of Kuwait|Kuwait]] with the [[Anglo-Kuwaiti Agreement of 1899]]. The Lansdowne Declaration<ref>{{cite Hansard |jurisdiction=Parliament of the United Kingdom |title=Great Britain and the Persian Gulf. |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1903/may/05/great-britain-and-the-persian-gulf#column_1347 |house=House of Lords |date=5 May 1903 |column=1347 |speaker=The Marquess of Lansdowne |position=The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs}}</ref> in 1903 stated that the British would counter any other European power's attempt to establish a military presence in the Gulf.<ref>[[Malcolm Yapp]], "British Perceptions of the Russian Threat to India", ''Modern Asian Studies'' 21#4 (1987): 655.</ref> Only four years later this position was abandoned and the Persian Gulf was declared a neutral zone in the [[Anglo-Russian Convention]] of 1907, prompted in part by the high economic cost of defending India from Russian advances.<ref>Yapp, pp. 655, 664.</ref>
=== Trucial States ===
That neutral status did not extend to the [[Trucial States]], which were bound to Britain under a number of treaties signed since the [[General Maritime Treaty of 1820]], including the Exclusive Agreement of 1892,<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=McNabb |first=Alexander |title=Children of the Seven Sands |publisher=Motivate Media Group |year=2025 |isbn=9781860635120 |___location=Dubai |pages=245}}</ref> which bound the Trucial Sheikhs ‘not to enter into any agreement or correspondence with any Power other than the British Government’. On 21 November 1903, Curzon held a Darbar in [[Sharjah]] (today one of the [[United Arab Emirates]]) and addressed the Sheikhs of the Trucial Coast assembled on the ''Argonaut'', moored some five miles offshore of Sharjah because of the shallow waters nearer land.<ref name=":72">{{Cite book |last=McNabb |first=Alexander |title=Children of the Seven Sands |publisher=Motivate Media Group |year=2025 |isbn=9781860635120 |___location=Dubai |pages=252, 253}}</ref>
In his address to them, Curzon made it clear they should consider themselves blessed by the ''Pax Brittanica'': they were to be appreciative of the peace the British had brought. The 'pacificated Arabs' were to consider that ‘the influence of the British government must remain supreme’ and abide by their treaty obligations by sea and on land.<ref name=":72" /> Three years later, in 1906, the Sheikhs were all presented with a bound collection of the treaties their predecessors had entered into with the British, as a reminder of the obligations they were considered to have inherited. Printed in both Arabic and English, the collection was introduced by a transcribed copy of Curzon’s 1903 Durbar address.<ref name=":72" />
===
At the end of 1903, Curzon sent a [[British expedition to Tibet]] under [[Francis Younghusband]], ostensibly to forestall a Russian advance. After bloody conflicts with [[Tibet under Qing rule|Tibet]]'s poorly armed defenders, the mission penetrated to [[Lhasa]], where the [[Treaty of Lhasa]] was signed in September 1904.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|id=37084|title=Younghusband, Sir Francis Edward|first = David|last = Matless|date = 28 September 2006}}</ref>
During his tenure, Curzon undertook [[Origins and architecture of the Taj Mahal|the restoration of the Taj Mahal]] and expressed satisfaction that he had done so. Curzon was influenced by Hindu philosophy and quoted:
{{blockquote|India has left a deeper mark upon the history the philosophy and the religion of mankind than any other terrestrial unit in the universe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston Quotes|url=https://www.azquotes.com/author/61636-George_Curzon_1st_Marquess_Curzon_of_Kedleston}}</ref>}}
Within India, Curzon appointed a number of commissions to inquire into education, irrigation, police and other branches of administration, on whose reports legislation was based during his second term of office as viceroy. Reappointed Governor-General in August 1904, he presided over the [[1905 partition of Bengal]].
{{blockquote|In 'Lion and the Tiger : The Rise and Fall of the British Raj, 1600–1947', Denis Judd wrote: "Curzon had hoped… to bind India permanently to the Raj. Ironically, his partition of Bengal, and the bitter controversy that followed, did much to revitalize [[Indian National Congress|Congress]]. Curzon, typically, had dismissed the Congress in 1900 as 'tottering to its fall'. But he left India with Congress more active and effective than at any time in its history."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lion and Tiger:The Rise and fall of British Empire 1600 to 1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mitiTQZ1qu4C|first=Dennis|last=Judd|year=2004| publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0192803581}}</ref>}} Curzon was determined to address the British maltreatment of Indians. In particular, he incurred the displeasure of many in the European community in India by pressing for severe punishment for Europeans who had attacked Indians. On two occasions, he imposed collective punishment on [[British Army]] units which had attacked Indians: when soldiers of the [[West Kent Regiment]] raped a Burmese woman, he had the whole regiment exiled to [[Aden]] without leave. He later imposed similar punishment on the [[9th Queen's Royal Lancers]] for the murder of an Indian cook.<ref name="ODNBCurzon" />
[[Mahatma Gandhi]] lauded Curzon as the first viceroy to express sympathy for [[indentured Indian labourers]] and question why the system should continue. Curzon was especially concerned with the treatment of Indian emigrants to the [[Transvaal Colony|Transvaal]] and [[Colony of Natal|Natal]]. After learning about the realities of labour conditions for indentured Indians, he deemed it impossible to defend the system in its current state, and committed to a stance of reform. In 1900, Curzon wrote an appeal to the [[Permanent secretary|Permanent Under-Secretary]] for India calling for indentured labourers to be treated better given their contribution to colonial defences, although this did not prompt immediate change. On 14 May 1903, he wrote a lengthy despatch to the [[India Office]] demanding full discretion to withdraw from the system of indentured labour if they would not concede to the proper treatment of Indian workers. He continued to champion this cause throughout his time as viceroy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tinker |first=Hugh |title=A New System of Slavery: the Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920 |publisher=Oxford University Press for the Institute of Race Relations |year=1974 |___location=London |pages=286–333}}</ref>
Curzon proposed the [[Partition of Bengal (1905)|Partition of Bengal]] and put it into effect on 16 October 1905 creating the new province of [[Eastern Bengal and Assam]]. Behind this incident, his excuse was that the area of Bengal was too large and it was difficult for the British to administer efficiently but actually his intention was to divide Bengalis into religious and territorial grounds to weaken the growing nationalism in Bengal. He said, "Partition of Bengal is a settled fact and what is settled cannot be unsettled." Huge protest ([[Swadeshi movement]]) was seen from every corner of Bengal and on 1911 this so-called "settled fact" became "unsettled" by [[Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst|Lord Hardinge]]. It was done in response to the Swadeshi movement's riots in protest against the policy but the partition animated the Muslims to form their own national organization along communal lines.{{Citation needed |date=March 2024}}
=== Indian Army ===
Curzon took an active interest in military matters and in 1901 he founded the [[Imperial Cadet Corps]], or ICC. The ICC was a corps d'elite, designed to give Indian princes and aristocrats military training, after which a few would be given officer commissions in the [[British Indian Army|Indian Army]] but these commissions were "special commissions" which did not empower their holders to command any troops. Predictably, this was a major stumbling block to the ICC's success, as it caused much resentment among former cadets. Though the ICC closed in 1914, it was a crucial stage in the drive to Indianise the Indian Army's officer corps, which was haltingly begun in 1917.
Military organisation proved to be the final issue faced by Curzon in India. It often involved petty issues that had much to do with clashes of personality: Curzon once wrote on a document "I rise from the perusal of these papers filled with the sense of the ineptitude of my military advisers", and once wrote to the [[Commander-in-Chief, India]], [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener]], advising him that signing himself "Kitchener of Khartoum" took up too much time and space, which Kitchener thought petty (Curzon simply signed himself "Curzon" as if he were a hereditary peer, although he later took to signing himself "Curzon of Kedleston").<ref>Reid 2006, p. 116.</ref> A difference of opinion with Kitchener regarding the status of the military member of the [[Viceroy's Executive Council]] (who controlled army supply and logistics, which Kitchener wanted under his own control), led to a controversy in which Curzon failed to obtain the support of the home government. He resigned in August 1905 and returned to England.
=== Indian famine ===
{{main|Indian famine of 1899–1900}}
A major famine coincided with Curzon's time as viceroy in which 1 to 4.5 million people died.<ref>Fagan, Brian (2009), Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations, Basic Books. p. 13</ref> Curzon implemented a variety of measures, including opening up famine relief works that fed between 3 and 5 million, reducing taxes and spending vast amounts of money on irrigation works.<ref>David Gilmour's ''Curzon'' and ''Ruling Caste''. In ''Curzon'' he writes that 3.5 million were on famine relief, in ''Ruling Caste'' he writes it was over five million.</ref> In ''[[Late Victorian Holocausts]]'', the historian [[Mike Davis (scholar)|Mike Davis]] criticised Curzon for cutting back rations and raising relief eligibility. At the time, Curzon stated that "any government which imperiled the financial position of India in the interests of prodigal philanthropy would be open to serious criticism; but any government which by indiscriminate alms-giving weakened the fibre and demoralized the self-reliance of the population, would be guilty of a public crime."<ref>Davis, Mike. ''[[Late Victorian Holocausts]]''. 1. Verso, 2000. {{ISBN|1-85984-739-0}} pp. 162–164</ref>
== Return to Britain ==
[[Arthur Balfour]]'s refusal to recommend an earldom for Curzon in 1905 was repeated by Sir [[Henry Campbell-Bannerman]], the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] prime minister, who formed his government the day after Curzon returned to England. In deference to the wishes of the King and the advice of his doctors, Curzon did not stand in the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1906]] and thus found himself excluded from public life for the first time in twenty years. It was at this time, the nadir of his career, that Mary died.
After the death of [[George Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen|Lord Goschen]] in 1907, the post of Chancellor of Oxford University fell vacant. Curzon was elected as [[University of Oxford#Chancellor of the University of Oxford|Chancellor of Oxford]] after by 1,001 votes to 440 against [[Lord Rosebery]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Ronaldshay|title=The Life of Curszon Vol.3}}</ref> He proved to be an active chancellor – "[he] threw himself so energetically into the cause of university reform that critics complained he was ruling Oxford like an Indian province."<ref name="ODNBCurzon"/>
==House of Lords==
{{further|January 1908 Irish representative peer election}}
In 1908, Curzon [[January 1908 Irish representative peer election|was elected]] an [[Irish representative peer]], and thus relinquished any idea of returning to the House of Commons. In 1909–1910 he took an active part in opposing the Liberal government's{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} proposal to abolish the legislative veto of the House of Lords, and in 1911 was created '''Baron Ravensdale''', of Ravensdale in the County of Derby, with remainder (in default of heirs male) to his daughters, '''Viscount Scarsdale''', of Scarsdale in the County of Derby, with remainder (in default of heirs male) to the heirs male of his father, and '''Earl Curzon of Kedleston''', in the County of Derby, with the normal remainder, all in the [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28547 |date=3 November 1911 |page=7951 }}</ref>
He became involved with saving [[Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire]], from destruction. This experience strengthened his resolve for heritage protection. He was one of the sponsors of the [[Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act 1913]].<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21587468 | title=The man who demolished Shakespeare's house| work=BBC News| date=7 March 2013| last1=Winterman| first1=Denise}}</ref> He served as President of the Committee commissioning the [[Survey of London]] which documented the capital's principal buildings and public art.<ref>{{cite web |title=Members of the Survey Committee Pages 4–7 Survey of London Monograph 12 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/bk12/pp4-7 |website=British History Online |publisher=Guild & School of Handicraft, London, 1926 |access-date=30 December 2022}}</ref>
On 5 May 1914, he spoke out against a bill in the House of Lords that would have permitted women who already had the right to vote in local elections the right to vote for members of Parliament.
== First World War ==
[[File:George Nathaniel Curzon, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston by John Cooke.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Lord Curzon of Kedleston by [[John Singer Sargent]], 1914. [[Royal Geographical Society]]]]
Curzon joined the Cabinet, as [[Lord Privy Seal]], when Asquith formed [[Asquith coalition ministry|his coalition]] in May 1915. Like other politicians (e.g. [[Austen Chamberlain]], [[Arthur Balfour]]) Curzon favoured British Empire efforts in [[Mesopotamian campaign|Mesopotamia]], believing that the increase in British prestige would discourage a German-inspired Muslim revolt in India.<ref>Woodward, 1998, pp. 113, 118–119.</ref> Curzon was a member of the Dardanelles Committee and told that body (October 1915) that the recent [[Macedonian front|Salonika]] expedition was "quixotic chivalry".<ref>Woodward, 1998, p. 16.</ref> Early in 1916 Curzon visited Sir [[Douglas Haig]] (newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in France) at his headquarters in France. Haig was impressed by Curzon's brains and decisiveness, and considered that he had mellowed since his days as viceroy (Major-General Haig had been Inspector-General of Cavalry, India, at the time) and had lost "his old pompous ways".<ref>Groot 1988, pp. 226–227.</ref> Curzon served in [[Lloyd George]]'s small [[War cabinet]] as [[Leader of the House of Lords]] from December 1916, and he also served on the [[War Policy Committee]]. With Allied victory over [[German Empire|Germany]] far from certain, Curzon wrote a paper (12 May 1917) for the War Cabinet urging that Britain seize Palestine and possibly Syria.<ref>Woodward, 1998, pp. 155–157.</ref> Like other members of the War Cabinet, Curzon supported further [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] offensives lest, with Russian commitment to the war wavering, [[French Third Republic|France]] and [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]] be tempted to make a separate peace.
[[File:Imperial War Cabinet.jpg|left|thumb|Imperial War Cabinet (1917) Lord Curzon seated, third from the left]]
At the War Policy Committee (3 October 1917) Curzon objected in vain to plans to redeploy two divisions to Palestine, with a view to advancing into Syria and knocking the [[Ottoman Empire]] out of the war altogether. Curzon's commitment wavered somewhat as the losses of the [[Third Battle of Ypres]] mounted.<ref>Woodward, 1998, pp. 134, 159–161.</ref> In the summer of 1917 the [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff]] (CIGS) General [[William Robertson (British Army officer)|William Robertson]] sent Haig a biting description of the members of the War Cabinet, who he said were all frightened of Lloyd George; he described Curzon as "a gasbag". During the crisis of February 1918, Curzon was one of the few members of the government to support Robertson, threatening in vain to resign if he were removed.<ref>Woodward, 1998, p. 200.</ref> Despite his opposition to [[women's suffrage]] (he had been co-president of the [[National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage]]), the House of Lords voted conclusively in its favour.
== Second marriage (1917) ==
[[File:Grace Elvina, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Grace Elvina, second wife]]
After a long affair with the romantic novelist [[Elinor Glyn]], Curzon married the former [[Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston|Grace Elvina Hinds]] in January 1917. She was the wealthy [[Alabama]]-born widow of Alfredo Huberto Duggan (died 1915), a first-generation [[Irish Argentinian]] appointed to the Argentine [[Legation]] in London in 1905. Elinor Glyn was staying with Curzon at the time of the engagement and read about it in the morning newspapers.
Grace had three children from her first marriage, two sons, [[Alfred Duggan|Alfred]] and [[Hubert Duggan|Hubert]], and a daughter, Grace Lucille. Alfred and Hubert, as Curzon's step-sons, grew up within his influential circle. Curzon had three daughters from his first marriage, but he and Grace (despite fertility-related operations and several miscarriages) did not have any children together, which put a strain on their marriage. Letters written between them in the early 1920s imply that they still lived together, and remained devoted to each other. In 1923, Curzon was passed over for the office of Prime Minister partly on the advice of [[Arthur Balfour]], who joked that Curzon "has lost the hope of glory but he still possesses the means of Grace" (a humorous allusion to the well known "General Thanksgiving" prayer of the Church of England, which thanks God for "the means of grace, and for the hope of glory").<ref>{{cite web |last1=The Church of England |title=Prayers and Thanksgivings |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/prayers-and-thanksgivings |website=The Book of Common Prayer (1662) |access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref>
In 1917, Curzon bought [[Bodiam Castle]] in East Sussex, a 14th-century building that had been gutted during the [[English Civil War]]. He restored it extensively, and then bequeathed it to the [[National Trust]].<ref>[[Channel 4]] history microsites: [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/C/castle/bod_main.html Bodiam Castle]</ref> From 1915 he also rented [[Montacute House]] as a residence for himself and Elinor Glyn.
== Foreign Secretary (1919–1924) ==
[[File:Curzon fronting Victoria Memorial.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Statue of Curzon in front of the [[Victoria Memorial, Kolkata]]]]
===Relations with Lloyd George===
Curzon did not have [[David Lloyd George]]'s support. Curzon and Lloyd George had disliked one another since the [[Parliament Act 1911|1911 Parliament Crisis]]. The Prime Minister thought him overly pompous and self-important, and it was said that he used him as if he were using a [[Rolls-Royce Motor Cars|Rolls-Royce]] to deliver a parcel to the station; Lloyd George said much later that [[Winston Churchill]] treated his ministers in a way that Lloyd George would never have treated his: "They were all men of substance — well, except Curzon."<ref>Michael Foot: ''Aneurin Bevan''.</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2020}} Multiple drafts of resignation letters written at this time were found upon Curzon's death. Despite their antagonism, the two were often in agreement on government policy.<ref>Johnson, Gaynor "Preparing for Office: Lord Curzon as Acting Foreign Secretary, January- October 1919." Contemporary British History 18.3 (2004): 56.</ref> Lloyd George needed the wealth of knowledge Curzon possessed so was both his biggest critic and, simultaneously, his largest supporter. Likewise, Curzon was grateful for the leeway he was allowed by Lloyd George when it came to handling affairs in the Middle East.<ref>G. H. Bennett, "Lloyd George, Curzon and the Control of British Foreign Policy 1919–22", ''Australian Journal of Politics & History'' 45#4 (1999): 479.</ref>
Other cabinet ministers also respected his vast knowledge of Central Asia but disliked his arrogance and often blunt criticism. Believing that the Foreign Secretary should be non-partisan, he would objectively present all the information on a subject to the Cabinet, as if placing faith in his colleagues to reach the appropriate decision. Conversely, Curzon would take personally and respond aggressively to any criticism.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bennett | first1 = G. H. | year = 1999 | title = Lloyd George, Curzon and the Control of British Foreign Policy 1919–22 | journal = Australian Journal of Politics & History | volume = 45 | issue = 4| page = 472 | doi = 10.1111/1467-8497.00076 }}</ref>
It has been suggested that Curzon's defensiveness reflected institutional insecurity by the [[Foreign Office]] as a whole. During the 1920s the Foreign Office was often a passive participant in decisions which were mainly reactive and dominated by the prime minister.<ref>Sharp, Alan "Adapting to a New World? British Foreign Policy in the 1920s." Contemporary British History 18.3 (2004): 76.</ref> The creation of the job of [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]], the [[Cabinet Office]] and the [[League of Nations]] added to the Foreign Office's insecurity.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bennett | first1 = G. H. | year = 1999 | title = Lloyd George, Curzon and the Control of British Foreign Policy 1919–22 | journal = Australian Journal of Politics & History | volume = 45 | issue = 4| page = 473 | doi = 10.1111/1467-8497.00076 }}</ref>
===Policy under Lloyd George===
[[File:Curzon line en.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|The territorial changes of Poland. ''Light blue line'': Curzon Line "B" as proposed by Lord Curzon in 1919. ''Dark blue line'': Curzon Line "A" as proposed by the Soviet Union in 1940. ''Pink'': [[Recovered Territories|Formerly German provinces annexed by Poland after World War II]]. ''Grey'': Pre–World War II Polish territory east of the Curzon Line annexed by the Soviet Union after the war.]]
{{Territorial evolution of Poland}}
After nine months as acting Secretary while Balfour was at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]],<ref>Gaynor Johnson, "Preparing for Office: Lord Curzon as Acting Foreign Secretary, January–October 1919", ''Contemporary British History'', vol. 18, n°3, 2004, pp. 53–73.</ref> Curzon was appointed Foreign Secretary in October 1919. He gave his name to the British government's proposed Soviet-Polish boundary, the [[Curzon Line]] of December 1919. Although during the subsequent [[Polish-Soviet War]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] conquered [[Kresy|territory in the east]], after [[World War II]], Poland was shifted westwards, leaving the border between Poland and its eastern neighbours today approximately at the Curzon Line.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sarah Meiklejohn Terry|title=Poland's Place in Europe: General Sikorski and the Origin of the Oder-Neisse Line, 1939–1943|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOL_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121|year=1983|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=121|isbn=9781400857173}}</ref>
Curzon was largely responsible for the Peace Day ceremonies on 19 July 1919. These included the plaster [[The Cenotaph|Cenotaph]], designed by the noted architect Sir [[Edwin Lutyens]], for the Allied Victory parade in London. It was so successful that it was reproduced in stone, and still stands.
In 1918, during World War I, as [[Mesopotamian campaign|Britain occupied Mesopotamia]], Curzon tried to convince the Indian government to reconsider his scheme for [[Qajar Iran|Persia]] to be a buffer against Russian advances.<ref>Yapp, p. 654.</ref> British and Indian troops were in Persia protecting the oilfields at [[Abadan]] and watching the Afghan frontier – Curzon believed that British economic and military aid, sent via India, could prop up the Persian government and make her a British client state. The [[Anglo-Persian Agreement]] of August 1919 was never ratified and the British government rejected the plan as Russia had the geographical advantage and the defensive benefits would not justify the high economic cost.<ref>Yapp, p. 653.</ref>
Small British forces had twice occupied [[Baku]] on the Caspian in 1918, while an entire British division had occupied [[Batum]] on the Black Sea, supervising German and Turkish withdrawal. Against Curzon's wishes, but on the advice of Sir [[George Milne]], the commander on the spot, the [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff|CIGS]] [[Sir Henry Wilson]], who wanted to concentrate troops in Britain, Ireland, India, and Egypt,{{sfn|Jeffery| 2006| p=251–252}} and of Churchill ([[Secretary of State for War]]), the British withdrew from Baku (the small British naval presence was also withdrawn from the Caspian Sea), at the end of August 1919 leaving only three battalions at Batum.
In January 1920 Curzon insisted that British troops remain in Batum, against the wishes of Wilson and the Prime Minister. In February, while Curzon was on holiday, Wilson persuaded the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]] to allow withdrawal, but Curzon had the decision reversed on his return, although to Curzon's fury (he thought it "abuse of authority") Wilson gave Milne permission to withdraw if he deemed it necessary. At Cabinet on 5 May 1920 Curzon "by a long-winded jaw" (in Wilson's description) argued for a stay in Batum. After a British garrison at [[Enzeli]] (on the Persian Caspian coast) was taken prisoner by [[Bolshevik]] forces on 19 May 1920, Lloyd George finally insisted on a withdrawal from Batum early in June 1920. For the rest of 1920 Curzon, supported by [[Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner|Milner]] (Colonial Secretary), argued that Britain should retain control of Persia. When Wilson asked (15 July 1920) to pull troops out of Persia to put down the rebellions in [[Iraqi Revolt|Iraq]] and [[Irish War of Independence|Ireland]], Lloyd George blocked the move, saying that Curzon "would not stand it". In the end, financial retrenchment forced a British withdrawal from Persia in the spring of 1921.{{sfn|Jeffery| 2006| p=233–234, 247–251}}
Curzon worked on several Middle Eastern problems. He designed the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] (10 August 1920) between the victorious Allies and the [[Ottoman Empire]]. The treaty obliged Turkey to renounce all rights over Arab Asia and North Africa, but a new government in [[Turkey]] under [[Kemal Atatürk]] rejected the treaty. The [[Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)|Greeks invaded Turkey]]. Curzon tried and failed to induce the Greeks to accept a compromise on the status of [[Occupation of Smyrna|Smyrna]] and failed to force the Turks to renounce their nationalist program. Lloyd George tried to use force at [[Chanak Crisis|Chanak]] but lost support and was forced to step down as prime minister. Curzon remained as foreign secretary and helped tie down loose ends in the Middle East at the [[Lausanne Conference of 1922–1923|peace conference at Lausanne]].<ref>Domna Visvizi-Dontas, "The Allied powers and the Eastern Question 1921–1923." ''Balkan Studies'' 17.2 (1976): 331–357 [https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/viewFile/1284/1305 online].</ref>
Curzon helped to negotiate Egyptian independence ([[Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence|agreed in 1922]]) and the division of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate of Palestine]], despite the strong disagreement he held with the policy of his predecessor Arthur Balfour,<ref name=UnregardedProphet>{{cite journal|author-link=Sir David Gilmour, 4th Baronet|first=David|last=Gilmour|title=The Unregarded Prophet: Lord Curzon and the Palestine Question|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=25|issue=3|pages=60–68|date=1996|jstor=2538259|doi=10.2307/2538259}}</ref> and helped create the [[Emirate of Transjordan]] for [[Faisal I of Iraq|Faisal]]'s brother, which may also have delayed the problems there. According to [[Sir David Gilmour, 4th Baronet|Sir David Gilmour]], Curzon "was the only senior figure in the British government at the time who foresaw that its policy would lead to decades of Arab–Jewish hostility".<ref name=UnregardedProphet/>
During the [[Irish War of Independence]], but before the introduction of martial law in December 1920, Curzon suggested the "Indian" solution of blockading villages and imposing collective fines for attacks on the police and army.{{sfn|Jeffery| 2006| p=266–67}}
In 1921 Curzon was granted the titles '''Earl of Kedleston''', in the County of Derby, and '''Marquess Curzon of Kedleston'''.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32376 |date=1 July 1921 |page=5243 }}</ref>
In 1922, he was the chief negotiator for the Allies of the [[Treaty of Lausanne]], which officially ended the war with the Ottoman Empire and defined the borders of Turkey.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
Curzon defended the geopolitical talent of [[Eyre Crowe]], who served as [[Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office]] from 1920 until his death in 1925.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}
===Under Bonar Law===
Unlike many leading Conservative members of Lloyd George's Coalition Cabinet, Curzon ceased to support Lloyd George over the [[Chanak Crisis]] and had just resigned when Conservative backbenchers voted at the [[Carlton Club meeting]] to end the Coalition in October 1922. Curzon was thus able to remain Foreign Secretary when [[Bonar Law]] formed a purely Conservative ministry.
In 1922–23 Curzon had to negotiate with [[Interwar France|France]] after French troops [[Occupation of the Ruhr|occupied the Ruhr]] to enforce the payment of [[World War I reparations|German reparations]]; he described the French Prime Minister (and former president) [[Raymond Poincaré]] as a "horrid little man". Curzon had expansive ambitions and was not much happier with Bonar Law, whose foreign policy was based on "retrenchment and withdrawal", than he had been with Lloyd George. Curzon provided invaluable insight into the Middle East and was instrumental in shaping British foreign policy in that region.<ref>Bennett, "Lloyd George, Curzon and the Control of British Foreign Policy 1919–22", p. 477.</ref>
==Passed over for the premiership, 1923==
[[File:Curzon GGBain.jpg|thumb|Curzon {{circa|1920–1925}}]]
On [[Bonar Law]]'s retirement as prime minister in May 1923, Curzon was passed over in favour of [[Stanley Baldwin]], despite his eagerness for the job.
This decision was taken on the private advice of leading members of the party including former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. Balfour advised the monarch that in a democratic age it was inappropriate for the prime minister to be a member of the [[House of Lords]], especially when the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], which had few peers, had become the [[His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition|main opposition party]] in the Commons. In private Balfour admitted that he was prejudiced against Curzon, whose character was objectionable to some. [[George V]] shared this prejudice. A letter purporting to detail the opinions of Bonar Law but actually written by Baldwin sympathisers was delivered to the King's Private Secretary [[Lord Stamfordham]], though it is unclear how much impact this had in the outcome. Curzon felt he was cheated because [[J. C. C. Davidson]]—to whom Baldwin was loyal—and Sir [[Charles Waterhouse (British politician)|Charles Waterhouse]]{{Disputed inline|Error in Mosley re Waterhouse|for=Mosley has the name wrong|date=November 2020}} falsely claimed to Stamfordham that Law had recommended that George V appoint Stanley Baldwin, not Curzon, as his successor.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Leonard|title=''Curzon: The End of an Epoch''|url=https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl|url-access=registration|year=1961|pages=[https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl/page/264 264–275]}}</ref> Harry Bennett says Curzon's arrogance and unpopularity probably prevented him from becoming prime minister despite his brilliance, great capacity for work and accomplishments.<ref>Harry Bennett, "Lord Curzon of Kedleston: 'Easily misunderstood' and 'Easily misrepresented'", ''The Historian'', No. 49, 1996. pp. 17–19.</ref>
[[Winston Churchill]], one of Curzon's main rivals, accurately contended that Curzon "sow[ed] gratitude and resentment along his path with equally lavish hands".<ref>Winston S. Churchill, ''Great Contemporaries''.</ref> Even contemporaries who envied Curzon, such as Baldwin, conceded that Curzon was, in the words of his biographer [[Leonard Mosley]], "a devoted and indefatigable public servant, dedicated to the idea of Empire".<ref>{{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Leonard|title=''Curzon: The End of an Epoch''|url=https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl|url-access=registration|year=1961|page=[https://archive.org/details/curzonendofepoch0000mosl/page/288 288]}}</ref>
Curzon, summoned by Stamfordham, rushed to London assuming he was to be appointed. He burst into tears when told the truth. He later ridiculed Baldwin as "a man of the utmost insignificance", although he [[Conservative government, 1922–1924|served under Baldwin]] and proposed him for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Curzon remained foreign secretary under Baldwin until the government fell in January 1924. When Baldwin formed a [[Second Baldwin ministry|new government]] in November 1924 he appointed Curzon [[Lord President of the Council]].
Curzon's rejection was a turning point in the nation's political history. Henceforth, by convention peers were deemed to be barred from being leaders of major political parties and from becoming prime minister. In an age of democracy, it was no longer acceptable for the prime minister to be based in an unelected and largely powerless chamber.<ref>Chris Cooper, "Heir not Apparent: Douglas Hailsham, the role of the House of Lords, and the Succession to the Conservative Leadership 1928–31." ''Parliamentary History'' 31.2 (2012): 206–229.</ref>
==Death==
[[File:Curzon-last-pic.jpg|thumb|upright|The last photograph taken of Curzon on his way to attend a cabinet meeting (1925)]]
In March 1925 Curzon suffered a severe haemorrhage of the bladder. Surgery was unsuccessful and he died in London on 20 March 1925 at the age of 66. His coffin, made from the same tree at Kedleston that had encased his first wife, Mary, was taken to [[Westminster Abbey]] and from there to his ancestral home in [[Derbyshire]], where he was interred beside Mary in the family vault at [[All Saints Church, Kedleston|All Saints Church]] on 26 March. In his will, proven on 22 July, Curzon bequeathed his estate to his wife and his brother Francis; his estate was valued for probate at £343,279 10s. 4d. (roughly equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|0.343279|1925|r=-0}}}} million in {{Inflation-year|UK}}){{Inflation/fn|UK|df=y}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Curzon&yearOfDeath=1925&page=3#calendar |title=Curzon of Kedleston |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1925 |website=probatesearchservice.gov |publisher=UK Government |access-date=7 August 2019 }}</ref>
Upon his death the barony, earldom and marquessate of Curzon of Kedleston and the earldom of Kedleston became extinct, while the [[Viscount Scarsdale|viscountcy]] and barony of Scarsdale were inherited by a nephew. The [[Baron Ravensdale|barony of Ravensdale]] was inherited by his eldest daughter [[Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale|Mary]] and is today held by his second daughter [[Lady Cynthia Mosley|Cynthia]]'s great-grandson, [[Daniel Mosley, 4th Baron Ravensdale]].
There is a [[blue plaque]] on the house in London where Curzon lived and died, No. 1 [[Carlton House Terrace]], [[City of Westminster|Westminster]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/6258|title=George Nathaniel Curzon blue plaque|publisher=openplaques.org|access-date=13 May 2013}}</ref>
== Titles ==
On his appointment as [[Viceroy of India]] in 1898, he was created [[Baron Curzon of Kedleston]], in the County of Derby. This title was created in the [[Peerage of Ireland]] to enable him to potentially return to the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]], as Irish peers did not have an automatic right to sit in the [[House of Lords]]. His was the last title to be created in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1908, he was elected a [[Representative peer|representative of the Irish peerage]] in the British House of Lords, from which it followed that he would be a member of the House of Lords until death; indeed, his [[Irish representative peer]]age would continue even if (as proved to be the case) he later received a [[Peerage of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom peerage]] entitling him to a seat in the House of Lords in his own right.
In 1911 he was created [[Earl Curzon of Kedleston]], [[Viscount Scarsdale]], and [[Baron Ravensdale]]. All of these titles were in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Upon his father's death in 1916, he also became 5th [[Baron Scarsdale]], in the [[Peerage of Great Britain]]. The title had been created in 1761.
In the [[1921 Birthday Honours]], he was created Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32346 |date=4 June 1921 |page=4529 |supp=y}}</ref> The title became extinct upon his death in 1925, as he was survived by three daughters and no sons.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lord Curzon: A Great Career |newspaper=[[The Times]] |page=7 |date=21 March 1925 }}</ref>
== Assessment ==
Few statesmen have experienced such changes in fortune in both their public and their personal lives.
[[Sir David Gilmour, 4th Baronet|David Gilmour]] concludes:
<blockquote>Curzon's career was an almost unparalleled blend of triumph and disappointment. Although he was the last and in many ways the greatest of Victorian viceroys, his term of office ended in resignation, empty of recognition and barren of reward.... he was unable to assert himself fully as Foreign Secretary until the last weeks of Lloyd George's premiership. And finally, after he had restored his reputation at Lausanne, his last ambition was thwarted by George V.<ref name="ODNBCurzon">{{Cite ODNB|id=32680|title=Curzon, George Nathaniel, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|date = 6 January 2011|first = David|last = Gilmour|author-link = David Gilmour (historian)}}</ref></blockquote>
Critics generally agreed that Curzon never reached the heights that his youthful talents had seemed destined to reach. This sense of opportunities missed was summed up by [[Winston Churchill]] in his book ''[[Great Contemporaries]]'' (1937):<blockquote>The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were polished until it shone after its fashion.</blockquote>
Churchill also wrote there was certainly something lacking in Curzon:<blockquote>it was certainly not information nor application, nor power of speech nor attractiveness of manner and appearance. Everything was in his equipment. You could unpack his knapsack and take an inventory item by item. Nothing on the list was missing, yet somehow or other the total was incomplete.<ref>Churchill, ''Great Contemporaries'', Chapter on Curzon.</ref></blockquote>
His Cabinet colleague [[David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford]] provided a withering personal judgment in his diary; "I never knew a man less loved by his colleagues and more hated by his subordinates, never a man so bereft of conscience, of charity or of gratitude. On the other hand the combination of power, of industry, and of ambition with a mean personality is almost without parallel. I never attended a funeral ceremony at which the congregation was so dry-eyed!"{{sfn|Lindsay|p=507}}
The first leader of independent India, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], paid Curzon a tribute, stating that as viceroy, Curzon exhibited real love of Indian culture. He ordered a restoration project for several historic monuments, including the [[Taj Mahal]]:<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1481257/Reviled-Curzon-name-wins-new-respect-in-India.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/1481257/Reviled-Curzon-name-wins-new-respect-in-India.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Reviled-Curzon-name-wins-new-respect-in-India|publisher=telegraph.co.uk|access-date=29 August 2017|date=15 January 2005|last1=Roy|first1=Amit}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
<blockquote>After every other Viceroy has been forgotten, Curzon will be remembered because he restored all that was beautiful in India.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/When-Curzon-rescued-Ahmedabads-icon/articleshow/13015110.cms|title=When Curzon rescued Ahmedabad's icon|newspaper=The Times of India |date=6 May 2012 |publisher=timesofindia.indiatimes.com|access-date=5 July 2017}}</ref></blockquote>
==Legacy==
By [[Remainder (law)|special remainders]], although he had no son, two of Curzon's peerages survive to the present day. His barony of Ravensdale went first to his eldest daughter, [[Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale]], and then to his grandson [[Nicholas Mosley]], both of whom sat in the [[House of Lords]], while his [[Viscount Scarsdale]] title went to a nephew. His great-great-grandson [[Daniel Mosley, 4th Baron Ravensdale]], is a current member of the House of Lords, having been elected as a representative hereditary peer.
[[Curzon Hall]], the home of the faculty of science at the [[University of Dhaka]], is named after him. Curzon had inaugurated the building in 1904.
[[Curzon Gate, Bardhaman|Curzon Gate]], a ceremonial gate, was erected by Maharaja Bijay Chand Mahatab in the heart of Burdwan town and was renamed to commemorate Lord Curzon's visit to the town in 1904, which was renamed as Bijay Toran after the independence of India in 1947.
Curzon Road, the road connecting India Gate, the memorial dedicated to the Indian fallen during the Great War of 1914–18, and Connaught Place, in New Delhi was named after him. It has since been renamed [[Kasturba Gandhi]] Marg. The apartment buildings on the same road are named after him.
The George Nathaniel Curzon Foundation was established in 2025 to commemorate the centenary of Curzon's death.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 January 2025 |title=The George Nathaniel Curzon Foundation |url=https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-george-nathaniel-curzon-foundation/ |website=LinkedIn}}</ref>
{{Clear|right}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
=== Curzon's writings ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Curzon, ''Russia in Central Asia in 1889 and the Anglo-Russian Question'' (1889) Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., London (reprinted Cass, 1967), Adamant Media Corporation; {{ISBN|978-1-4021-7543-5}} (27 February 2001) Reprint (Paperback) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1402175434 Details]
* Curzon, ''Persia and the Persian Question'' (1892) Longmans, Green, and Co., London and New York.; facsimile reprint:
** '''Volume 1''' (Paperback) by George Nathaniel Curzon, Adamant Media Corporation; {{ISBN|978-1-4021-6179-7}} (22 October 2001) [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1402161794 Abstract]
** '''Volume 2''' (Paperback) by George Nathaniel Curzon, Adamant Media Corporation; {{ISBN|978-1-4021-6178-0}} (22 October 2001) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1402161786 Abstract]
*Curzon, ''On the Indian Frontier'', Edited with an introduction by Dhara Anjaria; (Oxford U.P. 2011) 350 pages {{ISBN|978-0-19-906357-4}}
* Curzon, ''Problems of the Far East'' (1894; new ed., 1896) George Nathaniel Curzon ''Problems of the Far East. Japan -Korea – China'', reprint; {{ISBN|1-4021-8480-8}}, {{ISBN|978-1-4021-8480-2}} (25 December 2000) Adamant Media Corporation (Paperback)[https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1402184808 Abstract]
* Curzon, ''The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus'', 1897, The Royal Geographical Society. ''Geographical Journal'' 8 (1896): 97–119, 239–63. A thorough study of the region's history and people and of the British–Russian conflict of interest in Turkestan based on Curzon's travels there in 1894. Reprint (paperback): Adamant Media Corporation, {{ISBN|978-1-4021-5983-1}} (22 April 2002) [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1402159838 Abstract]. Unabridged reprint (2005): Elbiron Classics, Adamant Media Corporation; {{ISBN|1-4021-5983-8}} (pbk); {{ISBN|1-4021-3090-2}} (hardcover).
* Curzon, The Romanes Lecture 1907, ''FRONTIERS'' by the Right Hon Lord Curzon of Kedleston [[G.C.S.I.]], [[Order of the Indian Empire|G.C.I.E.]], [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|PC]], [[D.C.L.]], [[LL.D.]], [[Fellow of the Royal Society|F.R.S.]], All Souls College, Chancellor of the university, Delivered in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 2 November 1907 [[s:Frontiers|full text]].
* Curzon, ''Tales of Travel''. First published by Hodder & Stoughton 1923 (Century Classic Ser.) London, Century. 1989, Facsimile Reprint; {{ISBN|0-7126-2245-4}}; reprint with foreword by Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, Introduction by Peter King. A selection of Curzon's travel writing including essays on Egypt, Afghanistan, Persia, Iran, India, Iraq Waterfalls, etc. (includes the future viceroy's escapade into Afghanistan to meet the "Iron Emir", Abdu Rahman Khan, in 1894)
* Curzon and H. Avray Tipping. Finished by [[Henry Avray Tipping]] after Curzon's death: Marquess George Nathaniel Curzon Curzon of Kedleston and Henry Avray Tipping {{google books|jkGAAAAAIAAJ|Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: A Historical & Descriptive Survey by the Late Marquis Curzon of Kedleston, K.G. and H. Avray Tipping (1929)}}
* Curzon, ''Travels with a Superior Person'', London, Sidgwick & Jackson. 1985, Reprint; {{ISBN|978-0-283-99294-0}}, Hardcover, illustrated with 90 contemporary photographs most of them from Curzon's own collection (includes ''Greece in the Eighties'', pp. 78–84; edited by Peter King; introduced by Elizabeth, Countess Longford)
{{refend}}
=== Secondary sources ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* Bennet, G. H. (1995). ''British Foreign Policy During the Curzon Period, 1919–1924''. New York: St. Martin's Press. {{ISBN|0-312-12650-6}}.
* Carrington, Michael. Officers, Gentlemen, and Murderers: Lord Curzon's campaign against 'collisions' between Indians and Europeans, 1899–1905, ''Modern Asian Studies'' 47:03, May 2013, pp. 780–819.
* Carrington, Michael. A PhD thesis, ''Empire and authority: Curzon, collisions, character and the Raj, 1899–1905.'' Discusses a number of interesting issues raised during Curzon's Viceroyalty (available through British Library).
* {{EB1911 |wstitle=Curzon of Kedleston, George Nathaniel, 1st Baron |volume=7 |page=665}}
* De Groot, Gerard ''Douglas Haig 1861–1928'' (Larkfield, Maidstone: Unwin Hyman, 1988)
* Dilks, David; ''Curzon in India'' (2 volumes, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1969 & 1970) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59429856 online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070307000328/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59429856 |date=7 March 2007 }}
* Edwardes, Michael. "The Viceroyalty Of Lord Curzon" ''History Today'' (Dec 1962) 12#12, pp. 833–844.
* Edwardes, Michael. ''High Noon of Empire: India under Curzon'' (1965).
* Gilmour, David (1994). UK: ''[[Curzon: Imperial Statesman|Curzon]]''. London: John Murray; US: ''Curzon: Imperial Statesman''. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. [https://www.amazon.com/Curzon-David-Gilmour/dp/0333644069/ excerpt and text search]
* Gilmour, David. "Curzon, George Nathaniel, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32680, accessed 30 Sept 2014] doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32680
* Goudie A. S. (1980). "George Nathaniel Curzon: Superior Geographer", ''The Geographical Journal'', 146, 2 (1980): 203–209, {{doi|10.2307/632861}} [https://www.jstor.org/pss/632861#abstract Abstract]
* Goradia, Nayana. ''Lord Curzon The Last of the British Moghuls'' (1993) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150923215426/http://www.dli.ernet.in/cgi-bin/metainfo.cgi?&title1=Lord%20Curzon%20The%20Last%20Of%20The%20British%20Moghuls&author1=Nayana%20Goradia&subject1=GEOGRAPHY.%20BIOGRAPHY.%20HISTORY&year=1993%20&language1=english&pages=342&barcode=2990100067864&author2=&identifier1=&publisher1=Oxford%20University%20Press%2C%20Delhi&contributor1=&vendor1=NONE&scanningcentre1=ttd%2C%20s.v%20digital%20library&slocation1=NONE&sourcelib1=SNL%20Vetapalem&scannerno1=0&digitalrepublisher1=Digital%20Library%20Of%20India&digitalpublicationdate1=2005-01-21&numberedpages1=&unnumberedpages1=&rights1=©rightowner1=©rightexpirydate1=&format1=Tagged%20Image%20File%20Format%20&url=%2Fdata_copy%2Fupload%2F0067%2F869 full text online free].
* {{cite book|last=Jeffery|first=Keith|title=Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-820358-2}}
* Katouzian, Homa. "The Campaign Against the Anglo-Iranian Agreement of 1919." ''British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies'' 25 (1) (1998): 5–46.
*Loades, David, ed. ''Reader's Guide to British History'' (2003) 1:324-25; historiography
* {{cite book | last = Lindsay | first = David | author-link = David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford | editor = [[John Vincent (historian)|John Vincent]] | year = 1984 | title = The Crawford Papers: The journals of David Lindsay, twenty-seventh Earl of Crawford and tenth Earl of Balcarres 1871–1940 during the years 1892 to 1940 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=k81RAQAAIAAJ&q=the+crawford+papers | ___location = Manchester | publisher = Manchester University Press | isbn = 978-0-71900-948-8 | ref = {{sfnRef|Lindsay}} }}
* McLane, John R. "The Decision to Partition Bengal in 1905", ''Indian Economic and Social History Review'', July 1965, 2#3, pp 221–237
* [[Leonard Mosley|Mosley, Leonard Oswald]]. ''The glorious fault: The life of Lord Curzon'' (1960)[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.458978 online]
* Nicolson, Harold George (1934). ''Curzon: The Last Phase, 1919–1925: A Study in Post-war Diplomacy''. London: Constable. {{ISBN|9780571258925}}
* Reid, Walter. ''Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig'' (Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh, 2006.) {{ISBN|1-84158-517-3}}
* Ronaldshay, Earl of (1927). ''The Life of Lord Curzon''. (Two volumes; London)
* Rose, Kenneth. ''Superior Person: A Portrait of Curzon and His Circle in Late Victorian England'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969 {{ISBN|1842122339}}
* Ross, Christopher N. B. "Lord Curzon and E. G. Browne Confront the 'Persian Question{{'"}}, ''Historical Journal'', 52, 2 (2009): 385–411, {{doi|10.1017/S0018246X09007511}}
* Woodward, David R., ''Field Marshal Sir William Robertson'', Westport Connecticut & London: Praeger, 1998, {{ISBN|0-275-95422-6}}
* [[Denis Wright|Wright, Denis]]. "Curzon and Persia". ''The Geographical Journal'' 153 (3) (1987): 343–350.
{{refend}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite web|last=Curzon |title=George Nathaniel Curzon, Marquess of Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) – Bodiam Castle, Sussex : a historical and descriptive survey / by the Marquis Curzon of Kedleston. |url=https://www.rct.uk/collection/1140236/bodiam-castle-sussex-a-historical-and-descriptive-survey-by-the-marquis-curzon-of |website=rct.uk |access-date=24 April 2021 |year=1926}}
* Marabello, Thomas Quinn (2023) "The Centennial of the Treaty of Lausanne: Turkey, Switzerland, the Great Powers and a Soviet Diplomat's Assassination," ''Swiss American Historical Society Review'': Vol. 59. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss3/4
== External links ==
{{Commons category|George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110911062951/http://www.britishempirehistory.com/pages/8.html ''Analysis of George Curzon as Viceroy'']
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-george-curzon | the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston }}
* India under Curzon and after, By Lovat Fraser, Published by William Heinemann, London – 1911. [https://archive.org/stream/indiaundercurzon00frasuoft#page/n9/mode/2up Digital Rare Book] :
* [[iarchive:problemsoffareas00curziala|''Problems of the Far East: Japan – Korea – China'' by George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston at archive.org]]
* [[iarchive:modernparliament00curzuoft|''Modern parliamentary eloquence; the Rede lecture, delivered before the University of Cambridge, 6 November 1913'' by George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston at archive.org]]
* [https://archive.org/details/russiaincentrala032476mbp ''Russia In Central Asia In 1889'' by George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston at archive.org]
* {{Librivox author |id=16692}}
* [[iarchive:warpoemsandother00curzuoft|''War poems and other translations'' by George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston at archive.org]]
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* [http://www.maximiliangenealogy.co.uk/maximilia/pafg1237.htm ''George Nathaniel CURZON was born 11 Jan 1859. He died 20 Mar 1925. George married Mary Victoria LEITER on 22 Apr 1895'']
* {{PM20|FID=pe/003608}}
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{{Conservative Party (UK)}}
{{Leaders of the Opposition UK}}
{{Foreign Secretary}}
{{Viceroys of India}}
{{Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society}}
{{Bonar Law Ministry}}
{{Indian Independence Movement}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curzon of Kedleston, George Curzon, 1st Marquess}}
[[
[[Category:1890s in British India]]
[[Category:1900s in British India]]
[[Category:1925 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century regents]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British secretaries of state for foreign affairs]]
[[Category:Chancellors of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies|Curzon, George]]
[[Category:Curzon family|George]]
[[Category:British expatriates in Iran]]
[[Category:British orientalists]]
[[Category:Explorers of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Irish representative peers]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Conservative Party (UK)]]
[[Category:Leaders of the House of Lords]]
[[Category:Lord presidents of the Council]]
[[Category:Lords Privy Seal]]
[[Category:Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports]]
[[Category:Marquesses in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Peers of Ireland created by Queen Victoria]]
[[Category:People educated at Wixenford School]]
[[Category:People from Kedleston]]
[[Category:People of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Oxford Union]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Glasgow]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1886–1892|Curzon, George]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1892–1895|Curzon, George]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1895–1900|Curzon, George]]
[[Category:UK MPs who inherited peerages]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
[[Category:Viceroys of India]]
[[Category:Viscounts Scarsdale|1]]
[[Category:Peers created by George V]]
[[Category:Barons created by George V]]
[[Category:Barons Ravensdale|1]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Classical Association]]
[[Category:British anti-suffragists]]
[[Category:British anti-Zionists]]
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