Ambassador to France
Which position did Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe hold from 1922 to 1928?
Robert Crewe-Milnes , 1st Marquess of Crewe Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes , 1st Marquess of Crewe , ( 12 January 185820 June 1945 ) , known as The Lord Houghton from 1885 to 1895 and as The Earl of Crewe from 1895 to 1911 , was a British Liberal politician , statesman and writer . Early life . Robert Offley Ashburton Milnes was born at 16 Upper Brook Street , Mayfair , London , the only son of Richard Monckton Milnes , 1st Baron Houghton , by his wife the Hon . Annabella Crewe , daughter of John Crewe , 2nd Baron Crewe , and was educated firstly at Winton House , near Winchester , and then Harrow . He went up to Trinity College , Cambridge , graduating in 1880 . Political career . A Liberal in politics , Milnes became Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville in April 1883 when Granville was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs . In an 1884 by-election he was the losing Liberal candidate at Barnsley . As Baron Houghton he was made Liberal whip in 1885 . In January 1886 he was made a Lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria during the Third Gladstone ministry , and remained a Home Ruler . Prepared for ministerial success , a severe blow was struck to a burgeoning political career : his wife Sybil Marcia , daughter of Sir Frederick Ulric Graham , 3rd Baronet of Netherby , whom he had married on 3 June 1880 , died suddenly in September 1887 , still only thirty years old . He was determined to get over this personal tragedy by studying agriculture at Cirencester . However , he was prevented by illness from pursuing his studies . Leaving England , he travelled to Egypt where the Stray Verses were written in a somewhat mournful lament at his great loss . Further melancholy hit hard when his eight-year-old son and heir Richard died in 1890 . Returning to Houghton in 1892 , he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Liberal Government of 1892–1895 , in which his old friend Lord Rosebery eventually became Prime Minister . John Morley served as Chief Secretary . On the death of his uncle , Hungerford Crewe , 3rd Baron Crewe , he inherited vast estates of nearly 50,000 acres in four counties , and assumed the same year the additional surname of Crewe by royal licence on 8 June 1894 . On 17 July 1895 he was created Earl of Crewe , in the County Palatine of Chester . On 20 April 1899 he married an eighteen-year-old society beauty , Lady Mary Etrenne Hannah Primrose , daughter of the former Prime Minister Lord Rosebery . The Second Boer War broke out only months later in October . Crewe remained a leader of the conciliators who to the last tried to find a negotiated settlement with President Kruger . He began to grow apart from his father-in-laws Liberal imperialism , advocating a gradualist step-by-step policy of containment of the situation . But the war soon escalated with Crewe finding himself isolated . He was not much of an orator , but had skills in administration , proving an efficient organizer . He became increasingly influential with Henry Campbell-Bannerman and the Radicals . He made a personal friend out of H . H . Asquith , who was his political mainstay in the round of intrigues that intensified during the lead up to the First World War . A close confidante he was appointed as an aide on almost every committee . From 1905 to 1908 he was Lord President of the Council in the Liberal government . The Lords , dominated by Tory Peers , were hostile to Asquiths proposed reforms . They wrecked the Education Bill of 1906 , while Crewe stood out as the main defender of the Cabinets policy . In response to pleas from Campbell-Bannerman he assumed the role of cross-party convenor . Crewe was a moderate in all things . He deplored Lloyd Georges Limehouse Speech in the east end of London in support of the Peoples Budget . By the same token he found it unacceptable for die-hard Tories and Unionists to continue to block legislation . Although Elgin reassured him of Winston Churchills friendliness among Liberals , Crewe was in for a rude shock : he had succeeded the orientalist Lord Elgin as Secretary of State for the Colonies , and in May 1908 he had an angry exchange of letters with Churchill who had intervened in a colonial debate in the Commons . Crewe could be haughty and coldly disapproving : alike to Grey he took a dim view of Lloyd Georges Peoples Budget . It was Crewes job to steer it through the Lords . In his capacity as Leader of the House of Lords he played a key role in bringing the Parliament Act 1911 ( depriving the Lords of its veto ) to the floor of the house and eventually onto the statute book . Asquith valued him highly as a colleague , for his common sense and sound judgment rather than any exceptional brilliance . But when Churchill circulated a memorandum proposing the abolition of the Lords in 1910 , Crewe remained essentially whiggish and cautious , blocking any attempt to change the bicameral relationship . He sat on the Constitutional Conference Commission set up on 16 June 1910 during the crisis following Edward VIIs death . The inconclusive outcome of the January 1910 election , which increased Unionist representation in the Commons , caused a wide-ranging debate on the constitutional implications of the Lords powers . The new King , George V , to obviate a stalemate agreed to create 500 new peers , should the Liberals win the December 1910 election . Crewe was present at the discussions as one of the Inner Sanctum in the cabinet . He had previously taken a more right-wing position with Asquith arguing for reform of the membership of the Upper House , rather than of its customary powers . Crewe was selected to face leading Tory Lord Cromer , and the Archbishop of Canterbury , in negotiation of the provisions of the Veto bill , which would give a whip hand to an elected Commons . It was his colonial responsibilities from September 1910 as part of his terms as Secretary of State for India ( 1910–11 and 1911–15 ) , for which he gained the hoped for promotion in the peerage . The Delhi Durbar was an invention of his genius for organization , designed to the last detail for the first British monarch in history to pay a visit to India . In that post , he was responsible for the removal of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi , and the reunion of the two Bengals under a Governor-in-Council , as well as commissioning the architect , Sir Edwin Lutyens for his outstanding visionary grand design of New Delhi . He was further honoured in 1911 when he was created Earl of Madeley and Marquess of Crewe . In at least one of Asquiths cabinet lists 1913–14 , Crewe was at the top ; but other ministers , like Churchill , were more thrusting at pushing themselves forward for promotion . Crewe was widely respected for his administrative competence , efficiency and personal intelligence . Crewe served as Lord President of the Council again from May 1915 , coming second in Asquiths rankings and working closely with Lloyd George on currency and exchange rate stabilisation in the budget . His home at Crewe House , Curzon Street in Mayfair became a centre for war propaganda . In 1916 he was appointed briefly as President of the Board of Education , and may have been useful in the post-war educational sector , but the coalition split in December . He remained as ever , an Asquithian , declining office under Lloyd George , and after his resignation he continued to lead the independent Liberal opposition in the House of Lords . He took the largely honorific title of Chairman of London County Council . He maintained a leading role in the education sector , serving as Chairman of the Governing Body of Imperial College London ( 1907–22 ) , and Chancellor of Sheffield University . He was later Ambassador to France appointed by Bonar Law from October ( 1922–28 ) . As Ambassador to France , he launched a fund for the creation of a British Institute in Paris , which has since developed into the University of London Institute in Paris ( ULIP ) . He had a very brief ten-week stint as Secretary for War in MacDonalds National Coalition from August 1931 , but did not hold office after the general election . The Samuelite Liberals withdrew over free trade from the National Coalition in 1932 . From 1936 and throughout the Second World War Crewe was leader of the Independent Liberals in the House of Lords . He served as Lord High Constable of England for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth . Public-speaker . He did not much like public speaking , but that was probably because he contrasted sharply with Lloyd Georges firebrand delivery and populist demagogy . Crewe himself tended to hesitate too long time with pregnant pauses , as his speech became stilted . He was above all fastidious in the royal tradition of Charles I . Edwin Montagu claimed , somewhat sardonically , that one of his female constituents died of boredom listening to the Marquess . His father-in-law , Lord Rosebery , had been Liberal Leader six years before he himself became Leader in the House of Lords of that party . Rosebery thought Crewe a reliable politician but a poor speaker . When it was announced to him that his daughter , the Marchioness of Crewe , was in labour , Rosebery is said to have quipped I hope that her delivery is not as slow as Crewes . Always at ease in London High Society , Crewe hosted the dinner party at which Winston Churchill met Clementine Hozier . Political positions . Crewe voiced his support during his time in Parliament for numerous reforms , including old-age pensions , an eight-hour day for miners , and meal provisions for schoolchildren . In November 1905 , Crewe had written to ( then ) Party leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman of the need for innovative reform on the part of the Liberals , noting that More than ever before , the Liberal Party is on its trial as an engine for securing social reforms , - taxation , land , housing , etc . It has to resist the I.L.P . claim to be the only friend of the workers . Can it do this and attempt Home Rule as well ? During the Liberal party crises of 1886 , 1909–11 , and 1916 , he stayed loyal to the party . He was also said to have acknowledged the damage the First World War did to liberalism . When he died the 4th Marquess of Salisbury described Crewe as the best of the whig statesmen . One historian believed his whiggery was more temperamental than ideological . Reserved and stiff upper-lipped by nature he sought compromise by mediation attempting to negotiate a middle way . His meetings were often spontaneous and informal , but dominated by an aristocratic clique : Lloyd George recalled how in 1912 Crewe had tried at Deeside to resolve Ulsters longstanding problems with Bonar Law over a round of golf . Literary work . Crewe inherited his fathers literary tastes , and published for public consumption Stray Verses in 1890 , besides other miscellaneous literary work , including Gleanings from Béranger ( privately printed in 1889 ) , much of which he translated . A war poem , —which touches on the theme of what might have been—was published in several anthologies during and following World War I . Lord Crewe was the last of the Liberal grandees at the end of Empire . He was essentially by character a Victorian , and this showed in his austere reverential writings that took few risks with the material . Soon after the death of his father-in-law the 5th Earl of Rosebery in 1929 , the family asked Crewe to write his biography . The two-volume Lord Rosebery was published by John Murray in 1931 . Crewes dedication reads To my wife - this attempt to tell the story of one we both loved . Death . Crewe died on 20 June 1945 at the age of 87 . His body was buried in the graveyard of Saint Bertolines Church in the Cheshire village of Barthomley . As he had no surviving male heir , both his sons ( one from each marriage ) having died in childhood , his titles became extinct upon his death . Family . Crewe married twice . In 1880 , he married Sibyl Marcia Graham ( 1857–1887 ) , daughter of Sir Frederick Graham , 3rd Baronet , of Netherby in the County of Cumberland . They had three daughters and one son , who died as a child : - Lady Annabel Crewe-Milnes ( 1881–1948 ) . She married twice . In 1903 , she married Arthur ONeill ( 1876–1914 ) , later Ulster Unionist MP for Mid Antrim . Their third son , Terence ONeill , was to become Prime Minister of Northern Ireland . Her second marriage was to Hugh Dodds to whom she bore two sons , the writer Quentin Crewe and Colin Crewe . - Hon . Richard Charles Rodes Milnes ( 1882–1890 ) , died in childhood . - Lady Celia Hermione Crewe-Milnes ( 1884–1985 ) , twin with her sister Cynthia . She married Sir Edward Clive Milnes-Coates , 2nd Baronet . - Lady Helen Cynthia Crewe-Milnes ( 1884–1968 ) . Twin with her sister Celia . She married the Hon . George Charles Colville ( 1867–1943 ) and was mother of Sir John Colville who served as a Private Secretary to Neville Chamberlain , Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee . In 1899 , more than a decade after his first wifes death , the 41-year-old Crewe married again . At eighteen years of age , the bride was around the same age as Crewes eldest daughter . She was Lady Margaret Etrenne Hannah ( Peggy ) Primrose , daughter of the 5th Earl of Rosebery . As Lady Crewe , she became one of the first seven women appointed as magistrates in 1919 following the passing of the Sex Disqualification ( Removal ) Act 1919 . They had two children , a son and a daughter , and again the son died in childhood . The children were : - Richard George Archibald John Lucian Hungerford Crewe-Milnes , Earl of Madeley ( 1911–1922 ) , - Lady Mary Evelyn Hungerford Crewe-Milnes ( 1915–2014 ) , first wife of the 9th Duke of Roxburghe . External links . - Milnes , Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .