George Wyndham

George Wyndham was born on 29 Aug 1863, the son of the Hon Percy Wyndham and grandson of 1st Baron Leconfield. His mother was Madeleine Campbell, a descendant of the Irish Republican Lord Edward FitzGerald. He was educated at Eton and went on to RMA Sandhurst before being commissioned as a lieutenant into the Coldstream Guards on 10 March 1883. He served with the 1st Battalion in the Sudan in 1885 and fought at the action at Hasheen near Tofrek on 24 Mar and the destruction of Temai. He resigned his regular commission in the Guards in 1887 and was a lieutenant in the Cheshire Yeomanry on 18 April 1888. His promotion in the Yeomanry was: captain 10 Feb 1894, major 10 Feb 1906, and lieutenant-colonel commandant 19 Oct 1910. He was commandant until his death on 8 June 1913
George Wyndham had a distinguished political career which started in 1887 after he left the Coldstream Guards. He was private secretary to Arthur Balfour who at that time was Chief Secretary for Ireland, and was MP for Dover from 1889 to 1913. He founded a magazine ‘The Outlook’ in 1898 a publication supported by Cecil Rhodes, promoting imperialism. In this year he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War, until 1900 when he was switched to the job of Chief Secretary for Ireland by Lord Salisbury. In 1902 he was a cabinet minister and on the Privy Council. He was instrumental in bringing the 1903 Irish Land Act into law, a radical and important change for the people of Ireland. He also brought forward a devolution scheme to deal with the Home Rule question. He, along with the Unionist government resigned in May 1905.
He was married in 1887 to Sibell the widow of Victor, Earl Grosvenor. She was 8 years older than George. They lived at Clouds House in Wiltshire, designed for his father by Philip Webb. His father died in 1911 so that he inherited the estate and was more involved in the management of the land. George, himself, died on 8 June 1913 while he was in Paris. There had been speculation that he may have been the natural father of Anthony Eden as he was very close to Sybil, Lady Eden.

Regimental Details | Cheshire Yeomanry Lieutenant-Colonel Commandants