The Marquess of Lothian

Philip Henry Kerr (1882–1940), the eleventh Marquess of Lothian, studied modern history at New College, Oxford, and entered the South African civil service in 1905. He belonged to the circle around Alfred Milner that promoted imperial reform and South African union. Returning to Britain, he became editor of The Round Table in 1910. As Lloyd George’s private secretary from 1916, he advised on foreign affairs and helped control the flow of people and information to the prime minister during the Paris peace negotiations. ¹

After leaving government, Kerr worked in newspaper management and became secretary of the Rhodes Trust in 1925. He succeeded to the marquessate in 1930 and served in the India Office under the National Government. His advocacy of closer association among nations coexisted with a liberal imperial outlook. During the 1930s he supported accommodation with Hitler and defended Germany’s reoccupation of the Rhineland. Once war began, he used his American ambassadorship to seek support for Britain. ^{1, 2}

On 2 September 1940 Lothian exchanged notes with Secretary of State Cordell Hull establishing the destroyers-for-bases arrangement. Britain offered the United States long leases for naval and air bases in the Caribbean and British Guiana in return for military equipment; bases in Newfoundland and Bermuda were granted without consideration. Hull’s reply committed the United States to transfer fifty destroyers. ^{3, 4}

As Britain exhausted the funds needed to buy American supplies, Lothian publicly appealed for financial help. At an impromptu New York press conference on 23 November 1940, he told reporters that Britain could no longer finance its needs. Churchill questioned the tact of the announcement, but followed it with a direct appeal to Roosevelt. Lothian died in Washington on 12 December, before the Lend-Lease program became law in March 1941. ^{5, 1}

Lothian also worked to preserve country houses. He supported the National Trust Act of 1937 and helped develop the Country Houses Scheme, enabling estates to pass to the Trust instead of being broken up to meet death duties. He left Blickling to the National Trust and had commissioned Norah Lindsay to reshape its gardens. ²