Hugh Richard Heathcote Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood PC (14 October 1869 – 10 December 1956), styled Lord Hugh Cecil until 1941, was a British Conservative Party politician.[1]
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Cecil was the eighth and youngest child of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, by Georgina, daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson. He was the brother of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, Lord William Cecil, Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood and Lord Edward Cecil and a first cousin of Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. He was educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, and was a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, from 1891 to 1936.[2]
After his graduation, Cecil was Assistant Private Secretary to his father from 1891 to 1892, in the latter's role as Foreign Secretary[2] and entered the Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich in 1895, a seat he held until 1906.[3] During the early 20th century, Cecil (known to his friends as "Linky") was the eponymous leader of the Hughligans, a group of privileged young Tory Members of Parliament critical of their own party's leadership. Modelled after Lord Randolph Churchill's Fourth Party, the Hughligans included Cecil, F. E. Smith, Arthur Stanley, Ian Malcolm, and, until 1904, Winston Churchill. In 1908, Cecil was the best man at Churchill's wedding. In 1910 he became MP for Oxford University, which he represented for the next twenty-seven years.[4] In 1916 he was part of the Mesopotamia Commission of Inquiry. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1918.[5]
Apart from his political career Cecil served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He left the House of Commons in 1937 to become Provost of Eton College, a post he retained until 1944.[2] He was raised to the peerage as Baron Quickswood, of Clothall in the County of Hertford, in 1941.[6]
Lord Quickswood never married. He died in December 1956, aged 87, when the barony became extinct.[2]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Thomas Boord |
Member of Parliament for Greenwich 1895 – 1906 |
Succeeded by Richard Jackson |
| Preceded by Sir William Anson, Bt John Gilbert Talbot |
Member of Parliament for Oxford University Jan. 1910 – 1937 With: Sir William Anson, Bt 1910–1914 Rowland Prothero 1914–1919 Sir Charles Oman 1919–1935 Sir A. P. Herbert 1935–1937 |
Succeeded by Sir A. P. Herbert Sir Arthur Salter |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by M. R. James |
Provost of Eton 1936–1944 |
Succeeded by Henry Marten |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Quickswood 1941 – 1956 |
Extinct |