William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne KGThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
,
GCMGThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent whilst he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III. It is named in honour of two military saints, St. Michael and St...
, PC (17 October 1859 – 26 February 1942), styled
Viscount Wolmer between 1882 and 1895, was a British politician and colonial administrator.
Selborne was the son of
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of SelborneRoundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne PC , was a British lawyer and politician. He served twice as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...
, and Lady Laura, daughter of Vice-Admiral
William Waldegrave, 8th Earl WaldegraveVice-Admiral William Waldegrave, 8th Earl Waldegrave, CB was a British naval commander and politician.Waldegrave was the son of the 4th Earl Waldegrave and was educated at Eton. In 1802, he became a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, rising to the ranks of Lieutenant in 1806 and Commander in 1809...
. He was educated at
WinchesterWinchester College is a famous boys' independent school, set in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England, the ancient capital. Officially known as Collegium Sanctae Mariae prope Wintoniam , or St Mary's College near Winchester, the College is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just...
and
University College, OxfordUniversity College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, where he took a first class degree in history.
Selborne was assistant private secretary to the
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
,
Hugh ChildersHugh Culling Eardley Childers was a British and Australian Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for being the politician responsible for the sinking of HMS Captain and for his reforms at the Admiralty. However he had other failures. At the War Office he made...
, from 1882 to 1885, when he was elected
LiberalThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
for
East HampshireEast Hampshire is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It was created in 1983 to replace the Petersfield Parliamentary constituency. The sitting member of...
.
William Waldegrave Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne KGThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
,
GCMGThe Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent whilst he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III. It is named in honour of two military saints, St. Michael and St...
, PC (17 October 1859 – 26 February 1942), styled
Viscount Wolmer between 1882 and 1895, was a British politician and colonial administrator.
Background and education
Selborne was the son of
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of SelborneRoundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne PC , was a British lawyer and politician. He served twice as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Background and education:...
, and Lady Laura, daughter of Vice-Admiral
William Waldegrave, 8th Earl WaldegraveVice-Admiral William Waldegrave, 8th Earl Waldegrave, CB was a British naval commander and politician.Waldegrave was the son of the 4th Earl Waldegrave and was educated at Eton. In 1802, he became a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, rising to the ranks of Lieutenant in 1806 and Commander in 1809...
. He was educated at
WinchesterWinchester College is a famous boys' independent school, set in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England, the ancient capital. Officially known as Collegium Sanctae Mariae prope Wintoniam , or St Mary's College near Winchester, the College is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just...
and
University College, OxfordUniversity College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, where he took a first class degree in history.
Political career
Selborne was assistant private secretary to the
Chancellor of the ExchequerThe Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called The Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
,
Hugh ChildersHugh Culling Eardley Childers was a British and Australian Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for being the politician responsible for the sinking of HMS Captain and for his reforms at the Admiralty. However he had other failures. At the War Office he made...
, from 1882 to 1885, when he was elected
LiberalThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
for
East HampshireEast Hampshire is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It was created in 1983 to replace the Petersfield Parliamentary constituency. The sitting member of...
. Like his father, he became a
Liberal UnionistThe Liberal Unionists were a British political party that split away from the Liberals in 1886. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain the party formed a political alliance with the Conservatives in opposition to Irish Home Rule...
in 1886 when William Gladstone proposed Irish Home Rule. He retained his seat till 1892, when he was elected for
Edinburgh WestEdinburgh West is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom , first used in the 1885 general election...
. In 1895 he was appointed
Under-Secretary of State for the ColoniesThe Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and, from 1948, also to a Minister of State....
by his father-in-law
Lord SalisburyRobert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868, was a British statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
, where he became junior to the
Colonial SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet official in charge of managing the various British colonies. The position was first created in 1768 to deal with the increasingly troublesome North American colonies...
Joseph ChamberlainJoseph Chamberlain was an influential British businessman, politician, and statesman.In his early years Chamberlain was a radically minded Liberal Party member, a campaigner for educational reform, and President of the Board of Trade. He later became a Liberal Unionist in alliance with the...
. During the difficult period before the outbreak of the
Second Boer WarThe Second Boer War , commonly referred to as The Boer War and also known as the South African War , the Anglo-Boer War and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog , or the Engelse oorlog was fought...
he progressed rapidly.
In November 1900 Selborne was sworn of the Privy Council and made First Lord of the Admiralty under Salisbury, with a seat in the cabinet, an office he retained when
Arthur BalfourArthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
became Prime Minister in 1902. In 1905 he succeeded
Lord MilnerAlfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner KG, GCB, GCMG, PC was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played an influential leadership role in the formulation of foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s...
as
High Commissioner for South Africa and governor of the
TransvaalThe Transvaal is the name of an area of northern South Africa. Originally the bulk of the independent Boer South African Republic, after the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 it became the Transvaal Colony, and one of the founding provinces of the Union of South Africa, with its regional capital in...
and
Orange RiverThe Orange River , Gariep River, Groote River or Senqu River is the longest river in South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg mountains in Lesotho, flowing westwards through South Africa to the Atlantic Ocean...
colonies. He assumed office at
PretoriaPretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
in May of that year. He had gone out with the intention of guiding the destinies of
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
during a period when the ex-
BoerBoer is the Dutch word for farmer which came to denote the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking pastoralists of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
republics would be in a transitional state between crown colony government and self-government, and
letters patentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
were issued granting the Transvaal representative institutions.
But the
Liberal PartyThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
came into office in Britain the following December, before the new constitution had been established, and, the decision was now taken to give both the Transvaal and Orange River colonies self-government without delay. Lord Selborne accepted the changed situation, and the experiment proved successful. He ceased to be governor of the
Orange River ColonyThe Orange River Colony was the British colony created after this nation first occupied and then annexed the independent Orange Free State in the Second Boer War...
on its assumption of self-government in June 1907, but retained his other posts until May 1910, retiring on the eve of the establishment of the
Union of South AfricaThe Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day state of the Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unity of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
.
The despatch, dated 7 January 1907 and known as the Selborne Memorandum, in which he reviewed the situation in its economic and political aspects, was a comprehensive statement of the dangers inherent in the existing system and of the advantages likely to attend union. The document had in fact been compiled by Lionel Curtis and other members of Milner's Kindergarten. The force of its appeal had a marked influence on the course of events, while the loyalty with which Lord Selborne co-operated with the
BothaLouis Botha was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa—the forerunner of the modern South African state...
administration was an additional factor in reconciling the Dutch and British communities.
He returned to England with his reputation, according to the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, "as a statesman enhanced by the respect of all parties, and with a practical experience, second only to that of Lord Milner, of British
imperialismImperialism, as defined by the dictionary of human geography, is “the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.” Imperialism, in many ways, is described...
in successful operation." His experience made him a valuable ally in the movement among the Unionist party at home for Tariff Reform and Colonial Preference, to which he could now give his full support.
In 1915 Selborne returned to government during the First World War when he became
President of the Board of AgricultureThe Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a UK cabinet position, responsible for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The post was originally named President of the Board of Agriculture and was created in 1889...
in the war time coalition of Liberal prime minister
H. H. AsquithHerbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
. He resigned the following year and did not hold high political office again.
Apart from his political career Selborne served as Master of the
Worshipful Company of MercersThe Worshipful Company of Mercers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. It was incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1394. Its aim was to act as a trade association for general merchants, and especially for exporters of wool and importers of velvet, silk and other luxurious fabrics...
in 1910 and 1933, as his father had done before him, in 1875. He was also Warden of
Winchester CollegeWinchester College is a famous boys' independent school, set in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England, the ancient capital. Officially known as Collegium Sanctae Mariae prope Wintoniam , or St Mary's College near Winchester, the College is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just...
between 1920 and 1925 and High Steward of
WinchesterWinchester is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. It lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of the River Itchen...
between 1929 and 1942. He was made a
Knight of the GarterThe Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry, or knighthood, originating in medieval England, and presently bestowed on recipients in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms; it is the pinnacle of the honours system in the United Kingdom...
in 1909.
Family
Lord Selborne married Lady Maud Cecil, elder daughter of future Prime Minister Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, in 1883. They had three sons and one daughter. His second son, the Hon. Robert Palmer, was a Captain in the Hampshire Regiment and was killed on active service in 1916. His letters home were privately published as
Letters from Mesopotamia. Lord Selborne died in February 1942, aged 82, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
Roundell, Viscount WolmerRoundell Cecil Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne, CH, PC was a British Conservative politician, known as Viscount Wolmer from 1895 to 1941....
, who had already the previous year been summoned to the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
through a
writ of accelerationA writ in acceleration, commonly called a writ of acceleration was a type of writ of summons to the House of Lords that enabled the eldest son and heir apparent of a peer with multiple peerage titles to attend the British House of Lords or Irish House of Lords, using one of his father's subsidiary...
in his father's junior title of Baron Selborne. The Countess of Selborne died in April 1950.