Updated April 2021One hundred years before 2022, when I will be in my Presidential year, the President of the GA had rather more letters after his name, and titles before it than I have. There's time yet though....
Lord Robert Cecil was an MP and held other roles of importance in his long career. He had an extraordinary, and long, life with a huge variety of contributions to different parts of society.
Like Gilbert Murray before him, he was linked with the work of the League of Nations.
This association was to end with him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
In 1920, a message that Lord Robert Cecil had sent to the GA regarding the establishment of the League of Nations was included in 'The Geographical Teacher'. This perhaps brought him to the attention of the Association, and he was earmarked for a future role.
He was known as 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. He was born in London, son of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who had been Prime Minister three times, so from a background of political involvement and high standing within London society. He attended Eton College.
He studied Law at University College, Oxford and was then called to the Inner Temple.
In 1906, he became the Conservative MP for Marylebone East, serving for 4 years, before unsuccessfully contesting the seats at Blackburn and Wisbech.
Lord Robert Cecil was an MP and held other roles of importance in his long career. He had an extraordinary, and long, life with a huge variety of contributions to different parts of society.
Like Gilbert Murray before him, he was linked with the work of the League of Nations.
This association was to end with him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
In 1920, a message that Lord Robert Cecil had sent to the GA regarding the establishment of the League of Nations was included in 'The Geographical Teacher'. This perhaps brought him to the attention of the Association, and he was earmarked for a future role.
He was known as 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. He was born in London, son of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, who had been Prime Minister three times, so from a background of political involvement and high standing within London society. He attended Eton College.
He studied Law at University College, Oxford and was then called to the Inner Temple.
In 1906, he became the Conservative MP for Marylebone East, serving for 4 years, before unsuccessfully contesting the seats at Blackburn and Wisbech.
He later served as Independent Conservative MP for Hitchin between 1911 and 1923, so he was an MP when he was the President of the GA. He served as a Government minister during the First World War, as he was 50 and too old for Military service. He was also a Government minister later on in his career. He had earlier been vocal in seeking peace and avoiding the conflict that was to come.
He was apparently very concerned about the increasing social problems and public dangers associated with growing car ownership, and became the first President of the Pedestrians Association in 1929.
This is still in existence and is now known as Living Streets. The UK Charity for Everyday Walking. It is celebrating its 90th birthday this year.
He had earlier drawn the GA members attention to the role of the League of Nations, in 1921, as mentioned before:
He was announced as President in this piece from 'The Geographical Teacher' in 1921
He was apparently very concerned about the increasing social problems and public dangers associated with growing car ownership, and became the first President of the Pedestrians Association in 1929.
This is still in existence and is now known as Living Streets. The UK Charity for Everyday Walking. It is celebrating its 90th birthday this year.
He had earlier drawn the GA members attention to the role of the League of Nations, in 1921, as mentioned before:
He was announced as President in this piece from 'The Geographical Teacher' in 1921
Source: “Editorial.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 11, no. 3, 1921, pp. 131–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555625. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.
His Presidential Address was, unsurprisingly called "Geography and Peace", and was delivered at Birkbeck College on January 5th, 1922.
He started by saying "Geography, when I was young, was of all the subjects of my education the least inspired and the least inspiring", which I'm sure got the room on his side, especially when he continued to talk about its "devastating dullness".
However, "nowadays, Geography is a very different thing (he went on to say). He referred to the conflict that had recently ended, and areas such as Poland, Silesia and Albania. He described the need for the League of Nations.
"Peace is not only the first of British interests, it is the greatest interest of all other countries as well."
Following his earlier work, the 1930s were taken up with efforts to develop the League's work to secure peace in Europe.
The Wikipedia entry provides a lot of details on his efforts at appeasement, following Hitler becoming the Chancellor of Germany. These discussions occupied him for another decade, but not without reward.
In 1937, Cecil was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
This is one of the most remarkable of the 'hidden' stories of past GA Presidents.
A Nobel Prize has to be the pinnacle of achievement for a life lived in the service of others.
Cecil lived to see the birth of the United Nations.
Following his long public service, he served for many years in the House of Lords.
Hansard can be searched to find the contributions he made to debates.
Lord Home paid tribute to him in the House of Commons a few days after his death.
He was one of the first people, perhaps, in the modern world...to foresee the absolute need for nations to meet round the table in discussion of their national affairs in the interests of peace. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations. And your Lordships will recall the unflagging enthusiasm with which he pursued the cause of peace wherever he went. His vision of a world disarmed, where conciliation would hold the day, was time and again disappointed...all since have been convinced of the rightness of his ideal, although the world has not proved itself yet great enough to match his great conception. In the United Nations, which was the successor of the League of Nations, there is many a living monument to Lord Cecil. Many of the committees which do great work in the international field were the result of his conception and are daily drawing people closer and closer together in interdependence. I, myself, because my father was very keen and with him did much in the League of Nations field, remember Lord Robert Cecil coming to stay at home; and many a time at dinner, when I was a comparatively young man, I would watch him, with his long figure, slide more and more under the table, until only the distinguished head was left above his plate, and he would tell us of all his plans for the future peace of the world. Ever since then I have felt that so long as he was alive there was one among us who, however bitter the strife and however blind the world, never despaired of finding peace in our time
He left no heirs sadly, and his Viscountcy became extinct.
References
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cecil,_1st_Viscount_Cecil_of_Chelwood - also the source of the image. This is a detailed and lengthy entry.
I edited the Wikipedia article to add the fact that he had served as the President of the GA, as I have done with each President.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1937. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Sun. 16 Jun 2019
As always, if anyone has further information relating to this President, please get in touch.
He started by saying "Geography, when I was young, was of all the subjects of my education the least inspired and the least inspiring", which I'm sure got the room on his side, especially when he continued to talk about its "devastating dullness".
However, "nowadays, Geography is a very different thing (he went on to say). He referred to the conflict that had recently ended, and areas such as Poland, Silesia and Albania. He described the need for the League of Nations.
"Peace is not only the first of British interests, it is the greatest interest of all other countries as well."
Following his earlier work, the 1930s were taken up with efforts to develop the League's work to secure peace in Europe.
The Wikipedia entry provides a lot of details on his efforts at appeasement, following Hitler becoming the Chancellor of Germany. These discussions occupied him for another decade, but not without reward.
In 1937, Cecil was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
This is one of the most remarkable of the 'hidden' stories of past GA Presidents.
A Nobel Prize has to be the pinnacle of achievement for a life lived in the service of others.
Cecil lived to see the birth of the United Nations.
Following his long public service, he served for many years in the House of Lords.
Hansard can be searched to find the contributions he made to debates.
Lord Home paid tribute to him in the House of Commons a few days after his death.
He was one of the first people, perhaps, in the modern world...to foresee the absolute need for nations to meet round the table in discussion of their national affairs in the interests of peace. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations. And your Lordships will recall the unflagging enthusiasm with which he pursued the cause of peace wherever he went. His vision of a world disarmed, where conciliation would hold the day, was time and again disappointed...all since have been convinced of the rightness of his ideal, although the world has not proved itself yet great enough to match his great conception. In the United Nations, which was the successor of the League of Nations, there is many a living monument to Lord Cecil. Many of the committees which do great work in the international field were the result of his conception and are daily drawing people closer and closer together in interdependence. I, myself, because my father was very keen and with him did much in the League of Nations field, remember Lord Robert Cecil coming to stay at home; and many a time at dinner, when I was a comparatively young man, I would watch him, with his long figure, slide more and more under the table, until only the distinguished head was left above his plate, and he would tell us of all his plans for the future peace of the world. Ever since then I have felt that so long as he was alive there was one among us who, however bitter the strife and however blind the world, never despaired of finding peace in our time
He left no heirs sadly, and his Viscountcy became extinct.
References
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cecil,_1st_Viscount_Cecil_of_Chelwood - also the source of the image. This is a detailed and lengthy entry.
I edited the Wikipedia article to add the fact that he had served as the President of the GA, as I have done with each President.
The Nobel Peace Prize 1937. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Sun. 16 Jun 2019
Citation:
The British politician, diplomat and peace activist Lord Robert Cecil came of an aristocratic family from which had sprung as many as four prime ministers. After reading law at Oxford, he worked for a number of years as a lawyer, before being elected to Parliament in 1906 as a Conservative.
During World War I he was Minister of Blockade, and at the Versailles peace conference he played a leading part in the formulation of the rules of the League of Nations. In 1919 he participated in the founding of the League of Nations Union (LNU), which in the inter-war years became Britain's most important extra-parliamentary pressure group in the field of foreign policy.
In 1937 Lord Cecil spearheaded a nationwide signature campaign demanding that the League of Nations adopt economic and military penal sanctions against violators of the peace. He was also among the leaders of the International Peace Campaign (IPC), which worked for disarmament and collective security through the League of Nations.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1937/summary
Search Hansard for his speeches here:
e.g.
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1958/nov/26/the-late-viscount-cecil-of-chelwood has the 1958 speeches remembering his involvement
Search Hansard for his speeches here:
e.g.
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1958/nov/26/the-late-viscount-cecil-of-chelwood has the 1958 speeches remembering his involvement
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1937/chelwood/facts/
As always, if anyone has further information relating to this President, please get in touch.
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