Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian
Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian KT CH PC (1882–1940) was a British politician and diplomat.
Philip Kerr was educated at the Oratory School, Birmingham, and New College, Oxford University.
He served in the South African government from 1905–10 after which he returned to England to found and edit the Round Table[1]. In 1916, he was appointed David Lloyd George's private secretary and was active in the Paris Peace Conference.
He was a member of what was called "Milner's Kindergarten". This was more a group of colonial officers who deemed themselves reformist then an actual political faction. They believed the colonies should have more say in the Commonwealth. In the terms of the era they were liberal, but in modern terms they might be deemed right wing as most of them only had interest in elevating the status of white colonials, rejected independence, and had a paternalistic view of non-whites. Philip Kerr became more liberal on these issues than them, admiring Mohandas Gandhi and trying, if not entirely succeeding, to be more progressive than them on racial issues.
He came from an aristocratic family who were staunch members of the Roman Catholic Church. He himself considered becoming a priest or monastic at times, but in adulthood he became disillusioned with the faith. His close friendship to Nancy Astor led to their both converting to the Church of Christ, Scientist together. The reaction of his family to this eventually led to his support of Anti-Catholicism.
Lord Lothian was best known in the United States for having aided Washington Post owner Eugene Meyer scoop the world on reporting Britain's King Edward VIII's relationship with Wallis Simpson, eventually leading to Edward's abdication of the crown.
He was a Director of United Newspapers 1921-2, and served for four months in 1931 as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was Under-Secretary of State for India 1931-2. He was later British Ambassador to the United States of America, from 1939 to 1940. He felt initial sympathy for Germany over the Treaty of Versailles and so at first he favored appeasement, but later abandoned the idea. Devoted to the very end to the religion to which he had converted, he died having refused medical treatment as a Christian Scientist.
Lord Lothian bequeathed Blickling Hall to the National Trust.
His kinsman is the Conservative politician Michael Ancram MP, who is now the 13th Marquess.
References
- Cowling, Maurice, The Impact of Hitler - British Policies and Policy 1933-1940, Cambridge University Press, 1975, p.411, ISBN 0-521-20582-4
- Round Table Movement - Past and Future, 1913
- Papers relating to the application of the principle of DYARCHY T0 THE GOVERNMENT OF- INDIA, 1920
- Lord Lothian, Philip Kerr, 1882-1940 by J. R. M Butler, St. Martin's Press (1960), ASIN: B0007ITY2A
