Lord Curzon - statue in London

My name is George Nathaniel Curzon,
I am a most superior person.
My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek,
I dine at Blenheim once a week.

Hard to summarise the career of George Nathaniel Curzon, British Conservative statesman, Viceroy of India and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, but who was passed over as Prime Minister in 1923 in favour of Stanley Baldwin.

In many ways the classic imperialist British statesman, educated at Eton and Balliol, Oxford. where he was President of the Union. He entered Parliament and travelled extensively around the world: Russia and Central Asia (1888-9), a long tour of Persia (September 1889-January 1890), Siam, French Indochina and Korea (1892), and a daring expedition into Afghanistan (1894)

He published books describing central and eastern Asia and related foreign policy issues. A compulsive traveller, fascinated by oriental life and geography, he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his exploration of the source of the Oxus. His journeys allowed him to study the people's and politics of Asia and their implications for British India. Curzon believed Russia to be the most likely threat to India in the late 19th Century.

He was a controversial Viceroy of India between 1899 and 1905, presiding over the highly controversial partition of Bengal, an appalling famine with millions of deaths, a bitter personal clash with Lord Kitchener as C in C India and the restoration of the Taj Mahal.

He joined Asquith's coalition War Cabinet in 1915 and remained part of Lloyd George's War Cabinet. In 1919 he became Foreign Secretary in the continuing Coalition Government and remained in office, when the Coalition fell. He played a major part in the post war settlement of Poland and the Near East.

When Bonar Law resigned in 1923 he expected to be appointed Prime Minister and reportedly burst into tears when told by the King's Private Secretary that Stanley Baldwin was to have the job. It was felt in a democratic age that the PM could not sit in the House of Lords.

Curzon produced extreme emotions of loyalty or displace in those he encountered.