Evening star., 1940-12-12
Lord Lothian Dies
Suddenly After
Brief Illness
Bachelor Diplomat Was
British Representative
Here Since 1889
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chief of the Division of European
Affairs.
The unexpected passing Of Great
Britain's leading representative in
the New World may have far
reaching consequences in interna-
tional politics. The energy and wis
dom displayed by Lord Lothian in
serving London here has been the
chief factor in the development of
the administration policy of large
scale division of war goods with the
British Empire.
Lord Lothian rose to his high post
OF Ambassador after a long political
career launched under the aegis of
Lloyd George. Philip Kerr served as
Prime Minister Georges secretary
in the days after the World War.
He was a journalist and also a
scholarly writer.
The immediate reason for his
choice as Ambassador at a critical
time for his country was the deep
understanding of the United States
which he displayed in a series of
articles on this country which ap-
peared in the London Sunday OBJ
server in the spring of 1889. He was
secretary of the Rhodes Trust,
charged with choosing the scholars
drawn from the United States for
attendance on Rhodes scholarships
at Oxford University, England.
Some wonderment was expressed
at the time of his appointment by
persons who recalled that Lord
Lothian had been for cooperation
with Germany. They did not know
that he changed his point Of view
profoundly after the German seizure
of Sudetenland and the violation OF
the Munich peace by the seizure OF
Czecho-Slovakia
Long before he was sent to the
United States he became pro-
found advocate of British rearming
and urged a vigorous British diplo-
matte front against the eXpansionist
policies of the German National So
cialist Reich.
The great responsibility which
Lord Lothian assumed when he be-
came Ambassador little more than
a year ago was only the climax to
a busy and successful career.
AS the son of younger son of
nobility, born April 18, 1882, he early
realized he had his own way to
make in the world, and his way of
life became that of vigorous, hard
working and democratic citizen
without false ideas of the privileges
to which his high birth entitled him.
Well Known in U. S.
The empire, in its hour OF need,
could have selected no envoy better
equipped for the task of interpret
ing Great Britain to the United
States, according to diplomats here.
Lord Lothian had long known and
liked the President and high officials
of the State Department. he got
along we'll with the press and he
made valuable friends for Britain
wherever he went in his wide travels
about the country.
Born Of Old Scottish Family.
Philip Henry Kerr was born April
10, 1882, the oldest son of Maj. Gen.
Lord Ralph Kerr and descendant Of
an old Scottish family traced in
Burke's Peerage to the 14th century.
His mother was sister OF the late
Duke of Norfolk.
He was educated at the Roman
Catholic Oratory School and at New
College, oxford. He arrived at Ok
ford in the days when England was
being stirred by Goth century liberal
ism, the movement which had its
pre-war climax in the curbing OF the
House of Lords political authority
and in the famous Lloyd George
budget Of 1910, pinching the heredi-
tary landowners.
The movement affected young
Kerr. He grasped the political and
economic liberalism and also de-
serted Catholicism for Christian
Science. He came of Catholic
family. The Norfolks are the fore
most Catholic family in England.
Like many another untitled Eng
lishman, Mr.. Kerr decided to seek
his fortunes in far fields. In 1906
he went to South Africa to assist
Lord Miner in unifying that coun-
try.
Secretary to Lloyd George.
The capacities he revealed in that
work brought his name favorably
before the leaders of the English
Liberal Party, which then was COM
Ing into its heydey.
He published the Liberal Weekly,
the Roundtable. In 1916, when
David Lloyd George, the foremost
member of the Liberal Party, be-
came Prime Minister of the British
wartime coalition government, Mr..
Kerr was chosen as one of his secre-
taries.
Now his future was assured. He
demonstrated such ability to Lloyd
George that by the wars end he
was the Prime Minister'S personal
secretary and the recipient OF a