Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian
Milner Group editor, secretary of the Rhodes Trust, wartime ambassador to the U.S. (1882-1940)
Also known as: Lothian, Lord Lothian, Philip Kerr, Kerr
Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian (1882-1940), was a member of Milner's Kindergarten and founding editor of The Round Table journal. He served as private secretary to Lloyd George (1916-1921), as secretary of the Rhodes Trust (1925-1939), and finally as British Ambassador to the United States (1939-1940). Quigley names him as 'leader' of the The Milner Group between 1925 and his death in 1940 — the longest single-figure tenure in the Group's history outside Milner's own.
Life
Born in 1882 into a Scottish Catholic noble family, Kerr was educated at the Oratory School and New College, Oxford (1897-1901), where he overlapped with Curtis, Brand, Patrick Duncan, Dougal Malcolm, and Waldorf Astor — the New-College cohort that Milner would recruit into his administration of the conquered Boer republics. After Oxford, Kerr went to South Africa as a Kindergarten member, becoming editor of The State, the federation-advocating periodical financed by Sir Abe Bailey, and co-author with Curtis of the famous Selborne Memorandum that argued for South African union (T&H 151). He returned to London in 1910 to edit the new Round Table journal — 'secretary to the Round Table Group in London and editor of The Round Table from 1910 to 1916' (AAE 52).
The Round Table and Lloyd George
When Lloyd George replaced Asquith as Prime Minister in December 1916, Milner arranged that 'Kerr (Lothian), Grigg (Lord Altrincham), W. G. S. Adams (Fellow of All Souls College), and Astor' — four of his closest associates — should staff the new Prime Minister's secretariat (T&H 158). Kerr served as Lloyd George's principal private secretary through 1921 and accompanied him to Versailles. Quigley underlines the role: 'the agenda for the meetings of the Council of Four were drawn up by Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), while the minutes of the Council of Four, from which we get the record of those demands, were taken down by Sir Maurice Hankey (as secretary to the Supreme Council, a position obtained through Lord Esher). It was Kerr (Lothian) who served as British member of the Committee of Five which drew up the answer to the Germans' protest of May, 1919' (T&H 596). After 1921 he served briefly as manager of the Daily Chronicle and from 1925 as secretary of the Rhodes Trust.
Leader of the Group, 1925-1940
Quigley dates the third leadership transition of the Group to 1925: 'From 1925 to 1940, Kerr was leader, and since his death in 1940 this role has probably been played by Robert Henry Brand (now Lord Brand)' (AAE 4). In 1930 he succeeded a distant cousin as the 11th Marquess of Lothian, taking his seat in the Lords. As secretary of the Rhodes Trust he controlled the scholarship pipeline that brought hundreds of Americans, Australians, Canadians, and South Africans through Oxford. Quigley treats the 1930s as the decade in which Lothian's circle drove the appeasement consensus through The Times (under Dawson), The Round Table, and the country-house weekend at Cliveden (the Cliveden Set). 'These people, and others, through The Times, The Round Table, The Observer, Chatham House, and other conduits, became the chief source of ideas on colonial' policy (T&H 162). Lothian visited Hitler in January 1935 and 'had been pushing this seven-point program in The Times, in The Round Table, at Chatham House and All Souls, and with Lord Halifax' (T&H 634).
Ambassador to the United States
Lothian was appointed Ambassador to Washington in August 1939, two weeks before the German invasion of Poland. Quigley treats this assignment as the culminating moment of the Group's Anglo-American project: an inner-circle Milner-Group man, with thirty years of Rhodes-Trust contacts on the American side and personal access to Roosevelt's entourage, placed at the embassy precisely when the question of Anglo-American alignment became urgent. Lothian died at the embassy of uremic poisoning on 12 December 1940, refusing on Christian Scientist grounds the medical treatment that would have saved him. 'When Lord Lothian died in Washington in 1940, Curtis published a volume of his speeches and included the obituary which Grigg had written for The Round Table' (T&H 160).
Quigley's assessment
Quigley reviewed J. R. M. Butler's biography Lord Lothian (Philip Kerr), 1882-1940 in the American Historical Review (1960-61). He noted that the biography drew on 'the Milner Papers at New College (used only scantily), some of the Round Table papers (here used for historical research for the first time), materials from the Rhodes Trust (including Frank Aydelotte's files), and a collection of biographical materials' (Book Reviews, 159). His overall judgment was that 'Lothian's ideas are well presented, except for those on tropical Africa, which go back to his report to the Transvaal Indigency Commission of 1908. The ways in which he and his friends functioned and the fact that they devoted most of their lives to' the imperial-federation project deserved more analytical attention than Butler had given them (Book Reviews, 160).
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 4 Quigley
From 1902 to 1925, Milner was leader, while Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian) and Lionel Curtis were probably the most important members. From 1925 to 1940, Kerr was leader, and since his death in 1940 this role has probably been played by Robert Henry Brand (now Lord Brand).
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 6 Quigley
The fourth period, from about 1922 to the present, could be called the All Souls period and centers about Lord Lothian, Lord Brand, and Lionel Curtis.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 52 Quigley
He was secretary to the Round Table Group in London and editor of The Round Table from 1910 to 1916, leaving the post to become secretary to Lloyd George (1916-1922), manager of the Daily Chronicle (1921), and secretary to the Rhodes Trust (1925-1939).
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 158 Quigley
At the same time he gave the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, a secretariat from the Round Table, consisting of Kerr (Lothian), Grigg (Lord Altrincham), W. G. S. Adams (Fellow of All Souls College), and Astor.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 596 Quigley
the agenda for the meetings of the Council of Four were drawn up by Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), while the minutes of the Council of Four, from which we get the record of those demands, were taken down by Sir Maurice Hankey.
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 634 Quigley
Lothian had been pushing this seven-point program in The Times, in The Round Table, at Chatham House and All Souls, and with Lord Halifax.
- book-reviews · p. 159 Quigley
The biography of Lord Lothian is based largely on manuscript materials including Lothian's own papers, many private letters provided by his associates, the Milner Papers at New College (used only scantily), some of the Round Table papers (here used for historical research for the first time), materials from the Rhodes Trust.