OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 150, 21 March 1925, Page 6

OBITUARY

MARQUESS CURZON Bx Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright (Rec. March 20, 8.45 p.m.) London, ■ March 19. Marquess Curzon died to-night. A bulletin issued in the evening stated that he had lost ground during the day, and that the gravity of his condition was increasing greatly.— Reuter. [The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston was a prominent figure in British politics for many years. He was born on January 11, 1859, being the eldest son of the Rev. Alfred Curzon, fourth Baron Scarsdale. He entered Parliament in 1886; was Under-Secretary for India and then Foreign Affairs, and made a reputation in the House of Commons. In 1898 he was created a peer, and in the

same year became Viceroy of India, a position he held till 1905, when difficulties over a new military scheme in India led to his resignation. His ViceRoyalty was a period of strenuous activity and departmental reform; the administration was overhauled and speeded up; the problems of railways and the frontier, education, and police reform, agriculture, irrigation, and famine relief, were attacked in turn. His final administrative act, the partition of Bengal, led to prolonged native agitation, In 1907 he was elected Chancellor of Oxford University, and in 1908 Lord Rector of Glasgow. He led the Opposition in the House of Lords during the illness of Lord Landsdowne in November, 1914, and became Lord Privy Seal in the Coalition Government formed in May of the following year. He joined Ml Llovd George’s Ministry as Lord President ot the Council in December, 1916. In 1919, he became Foreign Secretary, succeeding Mr. (now Earl) Balfour, and held that office until the. defeat of the first Baldwin Ministry. When Mr. Baldwin returned to office on the downfall of the Labour Government, Marquess Curzon was included in the Cabinet as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords. He was made an earl in 1911, received the Order of the Garter on New \ear s Dav, 1916, and a marquisate was conferred in June, 1921. He was married twice. The first Lady Curzon, who died in 1906, was a daughter of Mr. L. Z. Leiter, of Washington,. United States of Ameriba. In 1917 he married Mrs. Duggan, a daughter of the United States Minister in Brazil, and widow of Mr. Alfred Duggan, Buenos Ayres. On March 9 last he underwent a serious operation for removal of the cause of severe hemorrhage. For a. few days he appeared to be progressing favourable, but.on Wednesday he showed signs of lung complications, and his condition became critical.]