CREWE-MILNES, 1ST MARQUESS OF (1858— ), English statesman and writer, born Jan. 12, 1858, being the son of Lord Houghton (q.v.), and was educated at Harrow and Trinity, Cam bridge. He inherited his father's literary tastes, and published Stray Verses in 189o, besides other miscellaneous literary work. A Liberal in politics, he became private secretary to Lord Gran ville when secretary of State for foreign affairs (1883-84), and in 1886 was made a lord-in-waiting. In the Liberal administration of 1892-95 he was lord-lieutenant for Ireland, having John (afterwards Lord) Morley as chief secretary. In 1895 he was created 1st earl of Crewe, his maternal grandfather, the 2nd Baron Crewe, having left him his heir. In 19o5 he became lord president of the council in the Liberal government; and in 1908, in the Asquith cabinet, he became secretary of State for the colonies and he acted as Liberal leader in the Lords until Dec. 1916.
He succeeded Lord Morley at the India Office in Nov. 191o, and attended, as secretary of State, the King and Queen on their visit to India in the winter of 1911-12. He was responsible for the high acts of policy announced at the Delhi durbar; the re moval of the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi, and the reunion of the two Bengals under a governor-in-council. At the coronation of King George he was created a marquess. In the first Coalition Government he was Lord President of the Council, but he followed Asquith in declining to take office under Lloyd George and continued for six years to lead the independent Liberal opposition in the Lords. In Nov. 1922 he quitted active party politics, accepting from Bonar Law the post of British ambassador in Paris. In the anxious period of Poincare's Ministry and the Ruhr expedition, when British and French policy became seriously divergent, his tactful diplomacy helped to prevent any actual breach of the Entente ; and he acquired considerable authority in the Ambassadors' Conference. He resigned the ambassadorship in 1928. He was secretary of state for war in 1931.