Lionel Curtis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 7 March 1872 (1872-03-07) The Outwoods, Derby |
| Died | 25 November 1955(1955-11-25) (aged 83) |
| Education | Haileybury College |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Occupations | Professor, fellow ofAll Souls College |
| Known for | FoundingChatham House and theRound Table |
Lionel George CurtisCH (1872–1955) was a British internationalist and author. He was the inspiration for the foundation ofChatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) as well as the USCouncil On Foreign Relations at theParis Peace Conference in 1919. He was a leading member ofRound Table movement. His writings and influence caused the evolution of the former British nations into theCommonwealth.[1]
Curtis was born in 1872 at The Outwoods, Derby, his mother's family home,[2] and later moved toCoddington, Herefordshire, the youngest of the four children of George James Curtis, Anglicanrector of the parish, and his wife Frances Carr, daughter of the Rev. John Edmund Carr.[3][4] He was educated atHaileybury College and then atNew College, Oxford, where he read law. He fought in theSecond Boer War with theCity Imperial Volunteers.
Curtis served as secretary toLord Milner (a position that had also been held by adventure-novelistJohn Buchan), during which time he dedicated himself to working for a united self-governing South Africa. He, with a group of bright young men there, who would later make their mark in international roles, were calledMilner's Kindergarten. Following Milner's death in 1925, Curtis became the second leader ofMilner's Kindergarten until his own death in 1955.[5]
Curtis was an original founding member with Lord Milner of theRound Table Movement.
Curtis was also a founder (1910) the international quarterlyThe Round Table.
He was appointed (1912) Beit lecturer in colonial history at theUniversity of Oxford, and a Fellow ofAll Souls College.
In 1919 Curtis made a proposal to the British and American delegates attending theParis Peace Conference at a meeting on 30 May 1919 at theHotel Majestic. Curtis addressed the meeting and strongly believed that the conference had illustrated the pressing need for the formation of an informed international research body for expert analysis of foreign affairs that could have advised on the matters the delegates had had before them and had been required to decide upon. Curtis's proposal to the meeting was that an Anglo-American "Institute of International Affairs" should be founded with offices in Britain and the US and this was warmly accepted by the British and United States delegates.
However in the end it actually resulted in the formation of two sister organisations with the foundation of a British Institute, later theRoyal Institute of International Affairs regularly now known asChatham House, on 5 July 1920 in London and theCouncil on Foreign Relations in New York one year later on July 29, 1921.[2][6]
In a revealing letter written 1932,Whitney Shepardson, a US delegate at the Peace Conference, a participant at the meeting at the Hotel Majestic and a founding member of the US Council on Foreign Relations wrote toIvison Macadam at Chatham House about Curtis,
" He's like the Hound of Heaven. Or Jacob wrestling the angel. There was some talk at Council [on Foreign Relations] Directors' meeting today about Chatham House and its resources. Craveth said that Chatham House had been lucky in having one or two 'angels' to give it money. I said, 'Yes, but what's more important they had a Jacob in the shape of Lionel Curtis to wrestle with these angels saying "I will not let thee go until thou bless me!"'[7]
Curtis remained a driving force within Chatham House and in international movements and conferences around the world until very late in his life but preferred to give credit to others.
Curtis was largely the creator of the idea ofCommonwealth as former British territories would transition into self governing nations (originally the British Commonwealth and now expanded as the Commonwealth of Nations)
Curtis had earlier advocatedBritish Empire Federalism[8][9] and, late in life, aworld state.
His experience led him to conceptualise his early version of aFederal World Government.
His ideas concerningdyarchy were important in the development of theGovernment of India Act 1919.
He was involved in 1921-1922 the creation ofThe Irish Free State Treaty.[10]
In 1947, Curtis was nominated for theNobel Peace Prize; in 1949, he was appointed aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour, on the thirtieth anniversary of the founding ofChatham House.[11][12][13]
Curtis' most important works were:
