Item 065 - Letter to William Osler, May 8, 1919

George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon was born on January 11, 1859, in Kedleston, Derbyshire, England.

He was a British statesman. He was educated at Wixenford School, Eton College, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union and made a Fellow of All Souls College in 1883. He became Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Salisbury in 1885, and in 1886, he entered Parliament as Member for Southport, Lancashire. He served as Under-Secretary of State for India in 1891–1892 and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1895–1898. Curzon travelled extensively around the world: Russia and Central Asia (1888–1889), Persia (1889 –1890), Siam, French Indochina, Korea (1892), Afghanistan, and the Pamirs (1894). He published several books describing central and eastern Asia and was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his exploration of the source of the river Amu Darya. In 1899, he was appointed Viceroy of India and was created a Peer of Ireland as Baron Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby. During his tenure, Curzon ordered the restoration of the Taj Mahal and took a personal interest in India’s artistic and cultural heritage. He resigned in 1905 and upon his return to England, he became Chancellor of the University of Oxford. After the death of his wife in 1906, he temporarily retired from politics and indulged in his passion for the collection of art treasures and old buildings. He returned to politics as President of the Air Board (1916-1917), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1919-1924), Lord President of the Council (1924-1925), and Leader of the House (1916-1925). Curzon Hall, the home of the faculty of science at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is named after him. Several parks, gates, and roads in various cities in India are named in his honour.

In 1895, he married Mary Victoria Leiter (1871–1906), and in 1917, he remarried Grace Elvina Hinds (1879–1958). He died on March 20, 1925, in London, England.