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15 unusual facts about Arthur Balfour


Arthur Frederick Jeffreys

He served briefly under Arthur Balfour as Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board from June to December 1905.

Article XV squadrons

The Air Training Agreement (sometimes known as the "Ottawa Agreement" or the "Riverdale Agreement", after the UK representative at the negotiations, Lord Riverdale) was officially signed on 17 December 1939.

Chase Price

He was an ancestor of two British Prime Ministers, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and Arthur Balfour.

Committee on Industry and Trade

The Committee on Industry and Trade, also known as the Balfour Report because it was chaired by the industrialist Arthur Balfour, was a committee set up to discover the reasons for the United Kingdom's economic decline since the Great War.

Earl of Donoughmore

His grandson, the fifth Earl, was also a Conservative politician and held office as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1903 to 1904 under Arthur Balfour.

György Dungyersky

After retiring from tennis, Dungyersky became a tennis instructor in Geneva, and acted as sparring partner to many famous diplomats including Arthur Balfour.

James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury

He served under his father and then his cousin Arthur Balfour as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1900 to 1903 and under Balfour as Lord Privy Seal from 1903 to 1905 and as President of the Board of Trade in 1905.

The Right Reverend Lord William Cecil, Lord Cecil of Chelwood and Lord Quickswood were his younger brothers and Prime Minister Arthur Balfour his first cousin.

Land War

Prime Minister Gladstone attempted to resolve the land question with Balfour’s dual ownership Second Land Act of 1881, but it failed to eliminate tenant evictions.

League of Nations mandate

The Official Journal of the League of Nations, dated June 1922, contained a statement by Lord Balfour (UK) in which he explained that the League's authority was strictly limited.

Lord Randolph Churchill

Along with Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff, Sir John Gorst and occasionally Arthur Balfour, he made himself known as the audacious opponent of the Liberal administration and the unsparing critic of the Conservative front bench.

Marquess of Londonderry

He was a Conservative politician and held office in the administrations of Lord Salisbury and Arthur Balfour as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, as Postmaster General, as President of the Board of Education, as Lord Privy Seal and as Lord President of the Council.

Max Wyndham, 2nd Baron Egremont

Egremont studied modern history at Oxford University and has written books about Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Arthur Balfour and Sir Edward Spears, as well as a historical travelogue of East Prussia.

Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 6th Earl of Donoughmore

He served as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1903 to 1905 in the Unionist administration headed by Arthur Balfour.

Transjordan memorandum

On September 16, 1922, Lord Balfour, representing the United Kingdom, reminded the Council of the League of Nations of Article 25 of the Mandate for Palestine (which had been previously approved but had not yet come into effect).


Ailwyn Fellowes, 1st Baron Ailwyn

He was a member of Arthur Balfour's cabinet as President of the Board of Agriculture between March and December 1905.

Baron Wolverton

He served as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from 1902 to 1905 in the Conservative administration of Arthur Balfour.

Edith Lyttelton

The daughter of Archibald Balfour, a London businessman and merchant in Russia, Edith Balfour was educated privately and moved in the aristocratic circle of friends known as the "Souls", which included A. J. Balfour, George Curzon, Margot Tennant (later Asquith), and Alfred Lyttelton, whom she married at Bordighera on the Italian Riviera in April 1892 after the death of his first wife.

Grillion's

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many leading statesmen belonged to the club, including prime ministers Gladstone, Salisbury, Balfour, Asquith, and Baldwin.

John Albert Bright

The Birmingham Conservatives and Lord Randolph Churchill came under pressure from the party’s Chief Whip at Westminster Aretas Akers-Douglas and from Arthur Balfour, who was closely associated with Churchill.

Percy Scott

In September 1915, following a Zeppelin raid on London, Scott was tasked by the First Lord, Arthur Balfour to establish the London Air Defence Area to defend London from the increasing threat of air attack.

Sackville Street Building

Construction of the building for the Manchester School of Technology began in 1895 on a site formerly occupied by Sir Joseph Whitworth's engineering works; it was opened in 1902 by the then Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour.

Walton Heath Golf Club

Walton Heath has had a long association with royalty and politics, with Edward, Prince of Wales having been the club's first captain in 1935, and former United Kingdom Prime Ministers David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Andrew Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour all having been members.