Arthur James balfor

Balfour, Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of (1848-1930), British prime minister and Conservative party leader, born in East Lothian, Scotland, on July 25, 1848. Entering politics as a Unionist (Conservative), he represented first Hertford (1874-1885) and then Manchester (1886-1905) in the House of Commons. He was made first lord of the Treasury and government leader in the House of Commons in 1891, and upon the retirement of his uncle, the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, in July 1902 he became prime minister. Dissensions within the Unionist party finally led to Balfour's resignation in December 1905, and in the general election the following month, the Unionists suffered a crushing defeat, Balfour himself losing his Manchester seat. He soon re-entered Parliament, however, as member for the City of London.

With other Unionist leaders he discarded party differences at the outbreak of World War I, and he joined the first coalition Cabinet of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith in 1915 as first lord of the Admiralty. When David Lloyd George became prime minister in December 1916, Balfour was transferred to the Foreign Office, where he was employed in enlisting the support of the United States for the Allied powers: in 1917 he headed the British War Mission to the United States. In November of that year he issued the so-called Balfour Declaration, a statement to the effect that Britain would support the creation in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. After World War I he attended the peace conference (1919) at Versailles as a British representative. Later that year he resigned as foreign secretary, remaining in the Cabinet as lord president of the council.

In 1920 he represented his country at the first assembly of the League of Nations, and in 1921 he was a British delegate at the Washington Conference. From 1925 until 1929 he was again lord president of the council. In recognition of his services Balfour was appointed chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1919. In 1922 he was created 1st Earl of Balfour and Viscount Traprain of Whittingehame. He died at Woking, Surrey, on March 19, 1930. Balfour's writings display the questioning philosophical bent of his mind. Among his works are Essays and Addresses (1893), The Foundations of Belief (1895), Theism and Humanism (1915), and Theism and Thought (1923).