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Hugh Richard Heathcote Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood PC (14 October 1869 – 10 December 1956), styled Lord Hugh Cecil until 1941, was a British Conservative Party politician.


Background and education

Cecil was the eighth and youngest child of
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903), known as Lord Salisbury, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for ...
, three times
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...
, and Georgina Alderson, daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson. He was the brother of
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, (23 October 1861 – 4 April 1947), known as Viscount Cranborne from 1868 to 1903, was a British politician. Background and education Born in London, Salisbury was the eldest son ...
, Lord William Cecil, Lord Cecil of Chelwood and Lord Edward Cecil and a first cousin of Prime Minister
Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (; 25 July 184819 March 1930) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As Foreign Secretary ...
. He was educated at Eton and
University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...
. He graduated with first-class honours in Modern History in 1891 and was a fellow of
Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main ga ...
, from 1891 until 1936, when he considered that he could not be Provost of Eton College and simultaneously a Fellow of Hertford.


Political career

After his graduation as BA in 1891, Cecil went to work in parliament. From 1891 to 1892 he was Assistant Private Secretary to his father, who was Foreign Secretary. Having paid his subscription he was elevated to MA in 1894, and entered the
Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
in 1895. He took a keen interest in ecclesiastical questions and became an active member of the Church party, resisting attempts by nonconformists and secularists to take the discipline of the Church out of the hands of the archbishops and bishops, and to remove the bishops from their seats in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
. In a speech on the second reading of Balfour's Education Bill of 1902, he maintained that for the final settlement of the religious difficulty there must be cooperation between the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
and nonconformity, which was the Church's natural ally; and that the only possible basis of agreement was that every child should be brought up in the belief of its parents. The ideal to be aimed at in education was the improvement of the national character. In the later stages of the Bill's progress, he strongly resented an amendment approved by the House and taken over by the Government giving the school managers (governors, in modern parlance), instead of the local vicar, control of religious education in voluntary, i.e. church, schools. This was not the only point on which he showed considerable independence of the government of which Balfour, his cousin, was the head. During the early 20th century, Cecil (known to his friends as "Linky") was the eponymous leader of the Hughligans, a group of privileged young
Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
Members of Parliament critical of their own party's leadership. Modelled after
Lord Randolph Churchill Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British aristocrat and politician. Churchill was a Tory radical who coined the term "One-nation conservatism, Tory democracy". He participated in the creation ...
's Fourth Party, the Hughligans included Cecil, F. E. Smith, Arthur Stanley, Ian Malcolm and, until 1904,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
. Cecil was the
best man A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be selected. From his groomsmen, the groom usuall ...
at Churchill's wedding in 1908 and the latter greatly admired his eloquence in the House of Commons. As Churchill declared to a contemporary, Llewellyn Atherley-Jones,"How I wish I had his powers; speech is a painful effort to me." Cecil dissented from the beginning from
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
's policy of
tariff reform Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
, pleading in Parliament against any devaluation of the idea of empire to a "gigantic profit-sharing business". He took a prominent position among the " Free Food Unionists"; consequently he was attacked by the tariff reformers, and lost his seat at Greenwich in 1906. In 1910 Cecil became an MP for
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, which he represented for the next 27 years. He immediately threw himself with passion into the struggle against the Ministerial Veto Resolutions, comparing the Asquith government to "thimble riggers". In the next year, he was active in the resistance to the Parliament Bill, treating Asquith as a "traitor" for his advice to the Crown to swamp the Conservative majority in the Lords by creating hundreds of Liberal peers, and taking a prominent part in the disturbance which prevented the Prime Minister from being heard on 24 July 1911. But he never quite regained the authority which he had possessed in the House in the early years of the century. He strongly opposed the Welsh Church Bill, and he denounced the 1914 Home Rule Bill as reducing
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
from the status of a wife to that of a mistress — she was to be kept by
John Bull John Bull is a national personification of England, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country-dwelling, jolly and matter-of-fact man. He originated in satirical works of ...
, not united to him. In 1916 Cecil was part of the Mesopotamia Commission of Inquiry. He was sworn of the Privy Council on 16 JanuaryBurke's Peerage & Baronetage (106th ed.) (Salisbury) 1918. Apart from his political career Cecil served as a
Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in the
Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...
during the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In that capacity, in debate in 1918, he severely censured the treatment of General Trenchard by the government. Lord Hugh was a committed Anglican, and a member of House of Laity in the Church Assembly from 1919. He was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law by Oxford University in 1924. He pleaded for lenient treatment of
conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
s, and endeavoured unsuccessfully to relieve them of disability. He left the House of Commons in 1937 because the previous year he had been appointed Provost of Eton College, a post he retained until 1944. On 25 January 1941 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Quickswood, of Clothall in the County of Hertford. He was a Trustee of the London Library, and an honorary Doctor of Civil Law at
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
. He was also honorary
Doctor of Law A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...
s at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
in 1910, and at
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
in 1933. From 1944 until his death he had an honorary association with
New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...
.


Personal life

Lord Quickswood never married. He died on 10 December 1956, aged 87, at which time the barony became extinct.


Arms


Publications


"Presidential Address."
In ''Political Socialism, a Remonstrance'', edited by Mark H. Judge, London: P.S. King, 1908.
''Liberty and Authority''
London: Edward Arnold, 1910.
''Conservatism''
London: Williams and Norgate, 1912.
"Second Chambers in the British Dominions and in Foreign Countries."
In ''Rights of Citizenship'', Chap. VII. London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1912.
"The Position of the Incumbent in the Parochial Church Council."
In ''Church and State'', Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1916. * "The Irish Question Again," ''The Living Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 301, 31 May 1919
''Nationalism and Catholicism''
Macmillan & Co., Limited, 1919. * "National Instinct, the Basis of Social Institutions," ''Burnett House Papers'', No. 9, Oxford University Press, 1926.

London: Humphrey Milford, 1935 (digitized by Richard Mammana).


Footnotes


References


Sources

* * * * * * *


External links

*
Character Sketch: Lord Hugh Cecil
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quickswood, Hugh Cecil, 1st Baron 1869 births 1956 deaths Fellows of Hertford College, Oxford Alumni of University College, Oxford Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom British Army personnel of World War I Royal Flying Corps officers Cecil, Lord Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh Cecil, Hugh UK MPs who were granted peerages Hugh Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood Barons created by George VI People educated at Eton College Provosts of Eton College Children of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury