Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who was the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War.
A proponent of social reform who adhered to the "New Liberalism", he served as Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, the longest continuous tenure of any holder of that office. He renewed the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1911. The centrepiece of his policy was the defence of France against German aggression, while avoiding a binding alliance with Paris. He supported France in the Moroccan crises of 1905 and 1911. Another major achievement was the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. He resolved an outstanding conflict with Germany over the Baghdad railway in 1913. His most important action came in the July Crisis in 1914, when he led Britain into World War I against Germany. He convinced the Liberal cabinet that Britain had an obligation and was honour-bound to defend France, and prevent Germany from controlling Western Europe. Once the war began, there was little role for his diplomacy; he lost office in December 1916. By 1919 he was a leading British supporter of the League of Nations.
Grey is remembered for his "the lamps are going out" remark on 3 August 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War. He signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement on 16 May 1916. He was ennobled in 1916, prior to which he was the 3rd Baronet Grey of Fallodon, and was Ambassador to the United States between 1919 and 1920 and Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords between 1923 and 1924.
Background, education and early life
Grey was the eldest of the seven children of Colonel George Henry Grey and Harriet Jane Pearson, daughter of Charles Pearson. His grandfather Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet of Fallodon, was also a prominent Liberal politician, while his great-grandfather Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet of Fallodon, was the third son of Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey, and the younger brother of Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. He was also a cousin of two later British Foreign Secretaries: Anthony Eden and Lord Halifax. Grey attended Temple Grove School from 1873 until 1876. His father died unexpectedly in December 1874, and his grandfather assumed responsibility for his education, sending him to Winchester College.
Grey went on to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1880 to read Literae Humaniores. Apparently an indolent student, he was tutored by Mandell Creighton during the vacations and managed a second class in Honour Moderations. He subsequently became more idle, using his time to become university champion at real tennis. In 1882 his grandfather died and he inherited a baronet's title, an estate of about 2,000 acres (8.1 km2), and a private income. Returning to Oxford in the autumn of 1883, Grey switched to studying jurisprudence (law) in the belief that it would be an easier option, but by January 1884 he had been sent down but allowed to return to sit his final examination. Grey returned in the summer and achieved Third Class honours in Jurisprudence. Though he was entitled to receive a BA, he never received one. He would receive an honorary doctorate of law from Oxford in 1907.
Grey left university with no clear career plan and in the summer of 1884 he asked a neighbour and relative, Lord Northbrook, at the time First Lord of the Admiralty, to find him "serious and unpaid employment." Northbrook recommended him as a private secretary to his kinsman Sir Evelyn Baring, the British consul general to Egypt, who was attending a conference in London. Grey had shown no particular interest in politics whilst at university, but by the summer of 1884 Northbrook found him "very keen on politics," and after the Egyptian conference had ended found him a position as an unpaid assistant private secretary to Hugh Childers, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In 1898 Grey became a director of the North Eastern Railway, later becoming Chairman (1904-5; curtailed by his appointment as Foreign Secretary). In Twenty-Five Years (see Works, below) Grey later wrote that '...the year 1905 was one of the happiest of my life; the work of Chairman of the Railway was agreeable and interesting...'. After leaving the Foreign Office Grey resumed his directorship of the NER in 1917, and when the North Eastern Railway became part of the London and North Eastern Railway he became a director of that company, remaining in this position until 1933. At the Railway Centenary celebrations in July 1925, Grey accompanied the Duke and Duchess of York and presented them with silver models of the engine Locomotion and the passenger carriage Experiment.
Two of Grey's brothers were killed by wild animals in Africa: George was mauled by a lion in 1911, and Charles was felled by a buffalo in 1928. His other brother, Alexander, was a vicar in Trinidad and died there aged 48 from the after-effects of a childhood cricket injury.
Grey was selected as the Liberal Party candidate for Berwick-upon-Tweed where his Conservative opponent was Earl Percy. He was duly elected in November 1885 and, at 23, became the youngest MP (Baby of the House) in the new House of Commons. He was not called in the Home Rule debate, but was nonetheless convinced by William Ewart Gladstone and John Morley of the rightness of the cause. A year later Grey summoned up the courage to make a maiden speech, at a similar period to Asquith. During the debate over the 1888 Land Purchase Bill he began "an association and friendship" with R. B. Haldane, which was "thus strengthened as years went on". The nascent imperialists voted against "this passing exception". On a previous occasion he had met Neville Lyttelton, later a knight and general, who would become his closest friend.
Grey retained his seat in the 1892 election with a majority of 442 votes and to his surprise was made Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs by Gladstone (albeit after his son Herbert had refused the post) under the Foreign Secretary, Lord Rosebery. Grey would later claim that at this point he had had no special training nor paid special attention to foreign affairs. The new Under-Secretary prepared the policy for making Uganda a new colony, proposing to build a railway from Cairo through East Africa, though later limiting government funds being used to build it. There was continuity in presentation and preparation during the Scramble for Africa; foreign policy was not an election issue. The Liberals continued to incline towards the Triple Alliance, causing the press to write of a "Quadruple Alliance".
Grey later dated his first suspicions of future Anglo-German disagreements to his early days in office, after Germany had sought commercial concessions from Britain in the Ottoman Empire; in return they would promise support for the British position in Egypt. "It was the abrupt and rough peremptoriness of the German action that gave me an unpleasant impression"; not, he added, that the German position was at all "unreasonable," rather that the "method... was not that of a friend." With hindsight, he argued in his autobiography, "the whole policy of the years from 1886 to 1904 [might] be criticized as having played into the hands of Germany."
1895 statement on French expansion in Africa
Prior to the Foreign Office vote on 28 March 1895, Grey asked Lord Kimberley, the new Foreign Secretary, for direction as to how he should answer any question about French activities in West Africa. According to Grey, Kimberley suggested "pretty firm language." In fact, West Africa was not mentioned, but when pressed on possible French activities in the Nile Valley Grey stated that a French expedition "would be an unfriendly act and would be so viewed by England." According to Grey the subsequent row both in Paris and in the Cabinet was made worse by the failure of Hansard to record that his statement referred explicitly to the Nile Valley and not to Africa in general. The statement was made before the dispatch of the Marchand Mission—indeed, he believed it might have actually provoked it—and as Grey admits did much to damage future Anglo-French relations.