- Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton
Victor Alexander George Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC, DL (1876–1947), styled Viscount Knebworth until 1891, was a British politician.
He was a son of
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton and Edith Villiers. Lytton was born in Simla inBritish India , during the time when his father was Viceroy of that colony.He married Pamela Chichele-Plowden, an early flame of Sir
Winston Churchill , who had met her while playingpolo at Secunderabad. However, the relationship was amicably broken off in 1902 when she decided to marry Lytton instead. In 1905 he was President of the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club and gave the Toast to Sir Walter at the club's annual dinner.Apart from this, Lytton, who had studied at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, started off his official career by filling up various posts in the
Admiralty between 1916 and 1920, before being appointedParliamentary Under-Secretary of State forIndia , a post which he held between 1920 and 1922. He was also made a Privy Counsellor in 1919. After this, he was posted asGovernor of Bengal , remaining there until 1927. For a short while, when there was a vacancy caused by change in incumbents in 1925, he also functioned as Viceroy, his father's old post. After this he filled miscellaneous positions in various capacities, when matters concerning India came up. He wrote 2book s, the first being a life of Edward Buller, first Lord Lytton, while the other book dealt with his experiences in India and was called Pundits andElephants , published in 1942. He was made aKnight of the Garter in 1933.Lytton may be best known for his chairmanship of the
Lytton Commission , which was sent by the League of Nations on a fact-finding mission to determine who was to blame in the 1931 war betweenJapan andChina . The commission'sLytton Report , issued in 1933, caused Japan to withdraw from the League of Nations.Lytton's two sons,
Antony Bulwer-Lytton, Viscount Knebworth ,Member of Parliament for Hitchin, and Alexander Edward John Bulwer-Lytton, Viscount Knebworth, killed in theSecond World War , both predeceased him. On his death in October 1947, aged 71, the titles passed to his younger brother Neville Bulwer-Lytton.
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