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British politician From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Algernon George Percy, Earl Percy (21 January 1871 – 30 December 1909), sometimes styled as Lord Percy or, until 1899, Lord Warkworth, was a British Conservative politician from the Percy family. He held political office under Arthur Balfour as Under-Secretary of State for India and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs before his early death in 1909.[1]
Earl Percy | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Earl Percy, photographed by Sir John Benjamin Stone | |
| Under-Secretary of State for India | |
| In office 18 August 1902 – 9 October 1903 | |
| Monarch | Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | Arthur Balfour |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Hardwicke |
| Succeeded by | Vacant |
| Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 9 October 1903 – 4 December 1905 | |
| Monarch | Edward VII |
| Prime Minister | Arthur Balfour |
| Preceded by | Viscount Cranborne |
| Succeeded by | Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 January 1871 Mayfair, London |
| Died | 30 December 1909 (aged 38) Paris, France |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Parent(s) | Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland Lady Edith Campbell |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Percy was born at 25 Grosvenor Square in Mayfair,[2] the eldest son of Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland, and his wife Lady Edith, daughter of George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll. Alan Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland, and Eustace Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Newcastle, were his younger brothers.[3]
He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.[3]
Percy was returned to Parliament for Kensington South in a November 1895 by-election, replacing the ennobled Sir Algernon Borthwick.[4] In August 1902 he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for India in the Conservative administration of Arthur Balfour,[5] a post he held until 1903, and was then Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under Balfour from 1903 to 1905.
Lord Percy died in Paris in December 1909, aged 38, from pleurisy caused by pneumonia. The Paris correspondent for The Times reported:
Lord Percy, who had arrived in Paris shortly before Christmas, contracted a chill a few days ago, which ultimately developed into an attack of pneumonia. He had rallied to some extent yesterday afternoon, and it was hoped that a change for the better had set in, but early this morning a fresh crisis took place, to which he succumbed.
— The Times, 31 December 1909
His brother Lord William Percy and sister Lady Victoria Percy, who had traveled to Paris when they learned of their brother's condition, were with him when he died.[1]
However, as the wealthy Lord Percy had been staying at the cheap Hotel du Buffet-Nord at the Gare du Nord, under the name Mr. Percy, his sudden death resulted in a conspiracy theory that he had been mortally wounded in a duel.[6] A decade later, unfounded rumours circulated that he had been murdered on the orders of Winston Churchill, who was unpopular at the time because of his role as mastermind of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign during the First World War, when he served as First Lord of the Admiralty.[7]
Rumours alleged that Percy had been the lover of Clementine Hozier, whom Churchill married in 1908. Churchill's mild-mannered brother Jack was whispered to have been the unlikely perpetrator of this act,[8] because Winston was "too cowardly" to do the deed himself.[9]
Percy was unmarried. He died intestate and with property worth more than £210,000 (equivalent to £27,078,000 in 2023), which was left to the administration of his father.[10] His brother Alan became heir to their father in the dukedom.[1]
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