CECIL, LORD HUGH RICHARD HEATHCOTE ), English politician, youngest son of the 3rd Mar quess of Salisbury, the prime minister, was born on Oct. 14, 1869, and was educated at Eton and University college, Oxford, where he obtained a first class in modern history in 1891, and was elected a fellow of Hertford college. He became one of his father's secre taries. He sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist for Green wich (1895-1906), and for Oxford university from 1910 onward. He took a keen interest in church matters and was remarkable in debate for his oratorical powers and the loftiness of his ideals. In the stormy debates on the Balfour Education bill of 1902 he maintained that the only possible basis of general agreement was that every child should be brought up in the belief of its parents. He and Winston Churchill gathered round them, in the early years of the 2oth century, a small group of young and able Con servative members, whose independent proceedings attracted some attention. He took a decided part in resisting tariff reform, and had no seat in the House between 1906 and 1910. He threw himself immediately and with passion into the struggle over the proposed curtailment of the powers of the House of Lords, and was active in resistance to the Parliament bill.
During the World War he joined the Flying Corps; he also served as a member of the commission that enquired into the Mesopotamia expedition. After the war he took a less active part in politics, but generally found himself in agreement with his brother, Lord Robert (later Lord Cecil of Chelwood), in adopting a more independent attitude toward the Coalition Government. With him, too, he supported the Enabling bill, and he became a prominent member of the Church Assembly set up in accordance with its provisions. In the conflict which arose over the Prayer Book Measure in 1928 he gave energetic support to the new proposals, both inside and out of the House of Commons. In 1936 he was appointed Provost of Eton, and his resignation of his parliamentary seat followed in consequence.