suspension of his own functions as high commissioner and their devolution upon Sir Henry McMahon—an interval during which Turkey, the sovereign of Egypt, took up arms against the Allies. Moreover, all the difficulties of establishing a war-time protectorate and of governing under unprecedented circumstances had to be met. He became the link between civil and military powers, and counsellor of all in perplexity. The temper of Egypt, and particularly of Cairo, was less certain in 1914-1915 than later, when large military forces were at hand; and expectation of attacks from the East by the Turks, and from the West by the Senussis, added to the internal danger. Cecil’s confidence, however, never deserted him. When Sir Henry McMahon took over the high commissionership, he remained the ‘power behind the throne’; but with the succession of Sir Reginald Wingate in 1917 his position became less satisfactory, and, feeling himself no longer necessary, he grew anxious to do war service at home. In 1918 his functions were delegated, and he left Egypt. Shortly after his return to England, however, he was stricken without warning by a fatal illness. He met it with his habitual resolution and composure, and died at Leysin, Switzerland, 14 December 1918.
Cecil was a notable and inspiring figure of the British occupation of Egypt—a civil servant of sympathy and insight and a polished gentleman. He was a generous almsgiver, a brilliant talker, and a witty writer, as is seen in the pages of The Leisure of an Egyptian Official (published after his death in 1921), his single contribution to literature.
Cecil married in 1894 Violet Georgina, younger daughter of Admiral Frederick Augustus Maxse [q.v.], by whom he had one son and one daughter.
[Official records; private information; personal knowledge.]
CHAMBERLAIN, JOSEPH (1836–1914), statesman, was born at Camberwell Grove, London, 8 July 1836. His father, Joseph Chamberlain, was the master of the Cordwainers’ Company, with which his family had been connected for four generations, carrying on the business of wholesale boot and shoe manufacturers in the same house and under the same name for one hundred and twenty years. His mother was Caroline, daughter of Henry Harben, a provision merchant in London. In 1850 Joseph, who was their eldest son, was sent to University College School; but after a short stay, during which he showed no little promise, he was put into his father’s business at the age of sixteen. Two years later an opening occurred to expand the business of Mr. Nettlefold, screw-manufacturer, the brother-in-law of Mr. Chamberlain senior, at Birmingham, and Joseph was sent there to represent his father’s interests. He remained an active member of the firm for twenty years, displaying such business capacity that he was able to retire at the early age of thirty-eight with a substantial income. His relations with his employees were always of a most friendly character; and when a charge of ruthlessness was afterwards made by a political opponent regarding his dealings with the smaller manufacturers, the accuser, after careful inquiry, acknowledged the complete untruth of his allegations.
Chamberlain’s apprenticeship in public speaking was served in the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society. He became in 1869 a member of the city council, and in 1870 of the first school board. Politics appealed to him from the first. An intimate friend has asserted that, at the outset, it was uncertain whether foreign policy would make him a tory, or home affairs a radical; and at the election of 1859 he canvassed on behalf of the opponent of John Bright, because he was opposed to Bright’s pacificism. But very soon the impulse of social reform drove him to radicalism. It was on the subject of education that his interest was first excited. He became chairman of the National Education League of Birmingham in 1868. At the time education in Birmingham was at a low ebb; and both by agitation and by practical experiment Chamberlain sought to find a remedy. He started classes at his own works, and taught history, French, and arithmetic in connexion with a Unitarian Sunday school; whilst, simultaneously, he flung himself into the campaign for a national system of education. He held the Church of England to be the enemy; and, when Mr. W. E. Forster’s Bill of 1870 was found to contain provisions which seemed to encourage the maintenance of the denominational system, he attacked it with great bitterness. He had become, in March 1870, the chairman of the National Education League, and voiced with extreme vigour the case of the nonconformists.
But education was only one plank in the platform of social reform, and there were other questions, less controversial,
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