Lord Edward Cecil

"at Mafeking" Cecil as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, November 1899

On 3 July 1899, Colonel Baden-Powell was informed by Wolseley at the War Office that he should go immediately to Mafeking, taking Lord Edward Cecil as his Chief Staff Officer. They sailed on 8 July, Cecil taking Violet with him. When they landed at Cape Town, Cecil went to contractors Julius Weil & Co to order £500,000 worth of supplies for what Cecil correctly anticipated would be a long siege. As the Prime Minister's son, Cecil's signature carried weight with Weil & Co although, the Cecils expected parliament would approve the amount.

In October 1899, Cecil was serving with Colonel Baden-Powell, when besieged at Mafeking. 30 October was known as 'Mournful Monday' as three British columns surrendered; the situation became desperate. As second-in-command Cecil imposed the death penalty for spying, looting, trespassing, and loitering outside a women's laager at night. He was in charge of provisioning: when the food ran out the people had to eat dogs and horses, there was one reported case of cannibalism. 478 people died during the siege. Baden-Powell kept the Boers tied down for seven months, only to emerge later as a national hero. On 5 January, The Times reported that Cecil was in hospital in Mafeking with fever.[7]

Cecil set up the Mafeking Cadet Corps that led onto Baden-Powell founding the Scouts later on.[8] Cecil was chivalrous towards women, but it became clear that the English expected the blacks to starve first. When the siege was finally lifted on 17 May 1900, there was ecstatic rejoicing in London at the news.[9] Cecil had a poignant reunion with his wife at Mafeking on 29 June, and then rode out north into the Transvaal.[10] Lady Edward was staying at Groote Schuur and probably conducting an affair with Lord Milner. Frances teased the Prime Minister "Gainst death could wrestle with Gallant young Cecil!" When Lord Edward Cecil came home to a triumphant welcome at Hatfield House his father had written off his debts, and the whole town turned out to cheer as the celebrations began on 18 December.[11] The houses were decorated with bunting, the brewery men decked out in livery.[12] Lord Edward made a speech, and was formally thanked by Lord Salisbury. They lit a huge bonfire in the park with fireworks.[13]

The following day C-in-C, General Buller landed with an army at Cape Town. During the Second Boer War he was mentioned in despatches, made Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel, awarded the Queen's Medal, with two clasps. In February 1902, Cecil was appointed as Military Secretary to the Sirdar, Lord Kitchener travelling back to Egypt. The Cecils remained bullish and optimistic, but Kitchener estimated there were about 5,000 Boers left in the field.[14] Edward was the only son never to see his father at the death, he had embarked from Egypt three days before on 19 August 1903.[15]

Cecil was appointed Agent-General to the Government of Sudan and Director of Intelligence at Cairo for two years. Returning to Britain the new Liberal Government invited Lord Edward Cecil to be Under-Secretary of War in 1906. He was Under-Secretary of Finance from 1907 until 1913, and Financial Advisor to War Office from 1912 until the end of the Great War. In 1915 he was awarded Grand Cordon Order of the Nile. He spent most of the last year of his life receiving treatment for tuberculosis in Switzerland, where he died at midnight on the 13-14 September.[16]

Cecil was a tough but dissolute army officer, laden with gambling debts. He was a keen baccarat player, a charming fellow, and a well known raconteur. He was always tapping his father for money, demonstrable in the copious notes in the Cecil family correspondence but Lord Salisbury's patience ran out in 1891. In May 1891, he paid in £1,126.8s.6d, money originally intended for unmarried sister, Gwendolen. However, while fighting abroad, the mess bills continued to mount, and by May 1894 he owed another £2,000.

His book, The Leisure of an Egyptian Official, published posthumously in 1921, gives a detailed account of his role and interactions with the Egyptian politicians in nominal control of the country.

He married Violet Georgina Maxse, second daughter of Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse, a son of Baron Berkeley on 18 June 1894, at St Saviour's Church, Chelsea. The officiant was his brother Rev William Cecil. A wide range of society guests appeared at the wedding, Asquith, Morley and Chamberlain, as well as his cousin Balfour and father Salisbury, and liberal poets Blunt and Wilde. His mother, Lady Salisbury remarked: "It will be good for Nigs to have a clever wife and one accustomed to taking care of expenses and I hope will convert her. I don't believe in pious pagans - and my only real objection to the Souls, is their heathenry". His father warned him about her character; and settled a further £1,000 pa having settled his debts again. Lord Edward earned £200 pa in Army pay, but his wife's contribution was double that, making their life comfortable. Salisbury urged them to work on their relationship, but the marriage was unhappy.

Lady Edward Cecil was appointed Grand Dame of the Order of St John, and Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.[17] She and Lord Edward Cecil had a son and a daughter. George Edward Gascoyne-Cecil, born on 9 September 1895, became a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards and was killed in action on 1 September 1914, near Villers-Cotterets, France. Helen Mary Gascoyne-Cecil, born on 11 May 1901, became an author and married Alexander Hardinge, 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst. She died in 1979.

After Lord Edward's death, at Leysin, Switzerland on 13 December 1918, his widow remarried.[1] Her second husband was the first and last Viscount Milner (died 13 May 1925).

• The Leisure of an Egyptian Official. Reprinted, with a new Introduction by Julian Hardinge (Hardinge Simpole, 2008)

• Lord Edward Cecil Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

• Lord David Cecil, The Cecils of Hatfield House, 1973
• Philip Magnus, Kitchener 1958
• Keith Middlemas, The Life and Times of Edward VII, 1972
• George Plumptre, Edward VII, 1995
• Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999, ISBN 0-75381-091-3
• John Evelyn Wrench, Alfred Milner: The Man of No Illusions 1958

• Darrell Bates, The Fashoda Incident, 1898
• R G Brown, Fashoda Reconsidered, 1969
• Edward T Cook, The Rights and Wrongs of the Transvaal War, 1901
• Earl of Cromer, Modern Egypt, 2 vols, 1908
• Brian Gardner, Mafeking: The Making of a Victorian legend, 1966
• C.F Goodfellow, The Making of South African Confederation 1870-81, 1966
• Angus Hamilton, The Siege of Mafeking, 1900
• D M Scheuder, The Scramble for Southern Africa 1877-95, 1980
• Edward Spiers, The Late Victorian Army, 1992

• Ahmad Rafiuddin, "The battle of Omdurman and the Mussulman World," Nineteenth century, vol.cclx, October 1898
• Keith Surridge, "The Military Critique of the South African War 1899-1902," History, October 1997