rose from humble origins to become Bishop of Durham, wrote in his memoirs: "My
election to a fellowship, against all probability, and certainly against all expectation, had
decisive influence on my subsequent career. It brought me within the knowledge of the
late Lord Salisbury, who subsequently recommended me to the Crown for appointment to
a Canonry of Westminister.... It is to All Souls College that all the 'success' [!] of my
career is mainly due." (2)
It would appear that the College of All Souls is largely influenced not by the
illustrious persons whose names we have listed above (since they are generally busy
elsewhere) but by another group within the college. This appears when we realize that
the Fellows whose fellowships are renewed for one appointment after another are not
generally the ones with famous names. The realization is increased when we see that
these persons with the power to obtain renewing appointments are members of a shadowy
group with common undergraduate associations, close personal relationships, similar
interests and ideas, and surprisingly similar biographical experience. It is this shadowy
group which includes the All Souls members of the Milner Group.
In the nineteenth century, Lord Salisbury made little effort to influence All Souls,
although it was a period when influence (especially in elections to fellowships) was more
important than later. He contented himself with recruiting proteges from the college and
apparently left the wielding of influence to others, especially to Sir William Anson. In the
twentieth century, the Milner Group has recruited from and influenced All Souls. This
influence has not extended to the elections to the twenty-one competitive fellowships.
There, merit has unquestionably been the decisive factor. But it has been exercised in
regard to the seventeen ex-officio fellowships, the ten Distinguished Persons fellowships,
and the twelve re-elective fellowships. And it has also been important in contributing to
the general direction and policy of the college.
This does not mean that the Milner Group is identical with All Souls, but merely that
it is the chief, if not the controlling, influence in it, especially in recent years. Many
members of the Milner Group are not members of All Souls, and many members of All
Souls are not members of the Milner Group.
The fact that All Souls is influenced by some outside power has been recognized by
others, but no one so far as I know has succeeded in identifying this influence. The erratic
Christopher Hobhouse, in his recent book on Oxford, has come closer than most when he
wrote: "The senior common room at All Souls is distinguished above all others by the
great brains which meet there and by the singular unfruitfulness of their collaboration....
But it is not these who make the running. Rather is it the Editor of The Times and his
circle of associates—men whom the public voice has called to no office and entrusted
with no responsibility. These individuals elect to consider themselves the powers behind
the scenes. The duty of purveying honest news is elevated in their eyes into the
prerogative of dictating opinion. It is at All Souls that they meet to decide just how little
they will let their readers know; and their newspaper has been called the All Souls Parish
Magazine."(3) The inaccuracy and bitterness of this statement is caused by the scorn
which a devotee of the humanities feels toward the practitioners of the social sciences,
but the writer was shrewd enough to see that an outside group dominates All Souls. He
was also able to see the link between All Souls and The Times, although quite mistaken in
his conclusion that the latter controls the former. As we shall see, the Milner Group
dominates both.
In the present chapter we are concerned only with the relationship between the Cecil
Bloc and All Souls and shall reserve our consideration of the relationships between the
Milner Group and the college to a later chapter. The former relationship can be observed
in the following list of names, a list which is by no means complete:
Name College Fellow of All Souls
C. A. Alington, 1872- Trinity, Oxford 1891-1895 1896-1903
W. R. Anson, 1843-1914 Balliol 1862-1866 1867-1914;
Warden 1881-1914
G. N. Curzon, 1859-1925 Balliol 1878-1822 1883-1890
A. H. Hardinge, 1859-1933 Balliol 1878-1881 1881-
A. C. Headlam, 1862- New College 1881-1885 1885-1897, 1924-
H. H. Henson, 1863- Non-Collegiate 1881-1884 1884-1891,
1896-1903; 1939
C. G. Lang, 1864-1945 Balliol 1882-1886 1888-1928
F. W. Pember, 1862- Balliol 1880-1884 1884-1910-
Warden, 1914-1932
W. G. F. Phillimore, Christ Church 18683-1867 1867-
1845-1929
R. E. Prothero, 1852-1937 Balliol 1871-1875 1875-1891
E. Ridley, 1843-1928 Corpus Christi 1862-1866 1866-1882
M. W. Ridley, 1842-1904 Balliol 1861-1865 1865-1874
J. Simon, 1873- Wadham 1892-1896 1897-
F. J. N. Thesiger, Magdalen 1887-1891 1892-1899,
1868-1933 1929-1933
The Reverend Cyril A. Alington married Hester Lyttelton, daughter of the fourth
Baron Lyttelton and sister of the famous eight brothers whom we have mentioned. He
was Headmaster of Eton (1916-1933) in succession to his brother-in-law Edward
Lyttelton, and at the same time chaplain to King George V (1921-1933). Since 1933 he
has been Dean of Durham.
Sir William Anson can best be discussed later. He, Lord Goschen, and H. A. L. Fisher
were the chief instruments by which the Milner Group entered into All Souls.
George Nathaniel Curzon (Lord Curzon after 1898, 1859-1925) studied at Eton and
Balliol (1872-1882). At the latter he was intimate with the future Lords Midleton,
Selborne, and Salisbury. On graduating, he went on a trip to the Near East with Edward
Lyttelton. Elected a Fellow of All Souls in 1883, he became assistant private secretary to
Lord Salisbury two years later. This set his future career. As Harold Nicolson says of him
in the Dictionary of National Biography, "His activities centered from that moment on
obedience to Lord Salisbury, an intense interest in foreign and colonial policy, and the
enjoyment of the social amenities." A Member of Parliament from 1886 to 1898, he
traveled widely, chiefly in Asia (1887-1894), financing his trips by writing for The Times.
He was Under Secretary in the India Office (1891-1892), Under Secretary in the Foreign
Office (1895-1898), and Viceroy of India (1899-1905) by Lord Salisbury's appointment.
In the last-named post he had many controversies with the "Balfour-Brodrick
combination" (as Nicolson calls it), and his career was more difficult thereafter, for,
although he did achieve high office again, he failed to obtain the premiership, and the
offices he did obtain always gave him the appearance rather than the reality of power.
These offices included Lord Privy Seal (1915-1916, 1924-1925), Leader in Lords (1916-
1924), Lord President of the Council (1916-1919), member of the Imperial War Cabinet
(1916-1918), and Foreign Secretary (1919-1924). Throughout this later period, he was
generally in opposition to what was being supported by the Cecil Bloc and the Milner
Group, but his desire for high office led him to make constant compromises with his