[2nd Earl]. English politician, educated at Winchester and University College, Oxford, where he took a first class in history. In 1883, being then Viscount Wolmer, he married Lady Beatrix Cecil, 3rd daughter of the 3rd marquess of Salisbury. He served a political apprenticeship as assistant private secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer (Mr. Childers) from 1882 to 1885, when he was elected Liberal member of parliament for East Hampshire. Like his father, he became a Liberal Unionist when in 1886 Mr. Gladstone proposed Home Rule for Ireland, and he retained his seat till 1892, when he was elected for West Edinburgh. From 1895 to 1900 he was under-secretary for the colonies, having Mr. Chamberlain as his chief, and during the difficult period before the outbreak of the South African War he came rapidly to the front. In 1900 he entered the cabinet as first lord of the admiralty, and held this office till 1905, when he succeeded Lord Milner as high commissioner for South Africa and governor of the Transvaal and Orange River colonies. He assumed office at Pretoria in May of that year. He had gone out with the intention of guiding the destinies of South Africa during a period when the ex-Boer republics would be in a transitional state between crown colony government and self-government, and letters patent were issued granting the Transvaal representative institutions. But the Liberal party came into office in England in the December following, before the new constitution had been actually established, and the decision was now taken to give both the Transvaal and Orange River colonies self-government without delay. Lord Selborne loyally accepted the changed situation, and it was due in considerable measure to his moderation, common sense, administrative gifts and appreciation of the Boers’ standpoint, that the experiment proved successful. He ceased to be governor of the Orange River Colony on its assumption of self-government in June 1907, but retained his other posts until May 1910, retiring on the eve of the establishment of the Union of South Africa. No one had done more to effect that union. The despatch, dated January 7th, 1907, in which he reviewed the situation in its economic and political aspects, was a masterly and comprehensive statement of the dangers inherent in the existing system and of the advantages likely to attend union. The force of its appeal had a marked influence on the course of events, while the loyalty with which Lord Selborne cooperated with the Botha administration was an additional factor in reconciling the Dutch and British communities. He returned to England with his reputation as a statesman enhanced by the respect of all parties, and with a practical experience, second only to that of Lord Milner, of British imperialism in successful operation. This experience made him a valuable ally in the movement among the Unionist party at home for Tariff Reform and Colonial Preference, to which he could now give his wholehearted support.
On his return from the governorship of South Africa he resumed his prominent position in the House of Lords. He took an active share in defending the House against Liberal attack, and was one of the leading “Die-hards” who maintained an uncompromising resistance to the Parliament bill. In regard to Irish Home Rule, he constantly pressed for a referendum to the people. As a former First Lord of the Admiralty, he contributed decisively to the condemnation passed by the House on the Declaration of London. When the World War came he was largely occupied with his military duties with the 3rd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment; but he joined the first Coalition Ministry as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. As minister he appointed a committee of technical experts and practical agriculturists, under the chairmanship of Lord Milner, to report on the means of maintaining and increasing food production in England and Wales; but, fortified by the opinion of a Scottish committee appointed for the same purpose, he and the Government rejected the English committee’s recommendation to guarantee farmers a minimum price of 45s. a quarter for the four years following the harvest of 1916. He preferred a plan for organization and cooperation through the county councils and the Board of Agriculture. In June of the following year he resigned his office because he disapproved of the Irish policy accepted by Mr. Asquith’s Government as a result of Mr. Lloyd George’s negotiations with Irish leaders. He did not join Mr. Lloyd George’s Ministry, and after the war he was mainly conspicuous in ecclesiastical matters; he was forward in promoting the movement for self-government in the Church which culminated in the Church Enabling Act of 1919. His elder son, Roundell, Cecil, Visct. Wolmer (1887–1971), entered Parliament in 1910, and proved an active member of the Unionist party. A younger son was killed in the war.
