A Fitting TributeThe debate over the memorial to

Viscount Grey of Fallodon

AFittingTribute

Thedebateoverthememorialto

ViscountGreyofFallodon

RichardSmithFCOHistorians

2015

Edward Grey (1862–1933), Viscount Grey ofFallodonbyGeorgeFiddesWatt(1873–1960)©PalaceofWestminsterCollection

Sir Edward Grey is Britain’s longestcontinuously serving Foreign Secretary,havingheldthesealsofofficefromNovember1905 to November 1916. Created ViscountGrey of Fallodon in 1916, he died on 7September1933.DuringhisfinalmonthsGreywasvisitedinhisnursinghomebySirWalfordSelby,whohadbeenajuniordiplomatduringhis time as Foreign Secretary. On the day ofSelby’s departure for Vienna to take up thepostofambassador,hewenttosaygoodbyeand took Grey a large bunch of sweet peas.‘My last recollection of him was his headburied in the peas inhaling their fragrance. Ineversawhimagain’.FollowingGrey’sdeathLord Tyrrell, his former private secretary,

wrotetoSelby:‘Ourgreatfriendhasfoundhisrelease.Wecannotgrudgeithimbuttousheleaves the sorrow of his loss, though as alegacy a wonderful memory of greatstatesmanshipanduniquefriendship.’The following year a committeewas formedto devise a fitting public memorial to keepaliveViscountGrey’smemoryasastatesmanandpublicfigure.ItwasheadedbythePrimeMinister, RamsayMacDonald, and containeda distinguished list of politicians, academics,diplomats and writers, reflecting the manydifferent aspects of Grey’s career andcharacter. Luminaries included the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, Sir James Barrie,Stanley Baldwin, Lord Halifax, Winston

Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, J.A. Spender,LordTyrrell,H.A.L.Fisher,G.M.TrevelyanandtheVice-ChancellorofOxfordUniversity.Thecommitteewantedtoerectamemorial,intheform either of a bust or tablet, in theprecinctsofeitherWestminsterAbbeyorthePalace of Westminster. However their taskwould not prove straightforward. Whatfollowedwasanadministrativewrangleovera suitable form of memorial between thecommittee, theForeignOfficeand theOfficeof Works, the government departmentresponsible for overseeing the erection ofpublicmemorialsinLondon.The committee were thwarted almostimmediately by the recent introduction of a

ten-year rule,whichpreventedconsiderationof any proposal of this kind until ten yearsafter the death of a person. It wasunfortunate, noted the committee’schairman, Lord Buxton, that Grey’s was thefirst case to fall under this new resolution.Buxton then enquired whether the banextendedtogovernmentbuildingsand,ifnot,whether the government would consider amemorial in the Foreign Office. The ForeignSecretary, Sir John Simon,warmlywelcomedtheproposalandbelievedtherewouldbenodifficultyinfinding‘asuitableniche’forabusteitheratthecorneroftheGrandStaircaseorby substituting the bust of the formerPermanentUnder-Secretary, LordHammond,which faced the staircase at the bottom. He

was less enthusiastic about the idea of atablet. However the First Commissioner ofWorks, William Ormsby Gore, thought thecommitteemightfeelthatthebustwouldbe‘buried’ in the Foreign Office where fewpeople would see it. His reservation was toprovewellfounded.The committee did indeed want an outdoorsite for the memorial where it would bevisible to all. The Office of Works warnedthere was a dearth of suitable sites. InNovember 1934 Lord Tyrrell and H.J. ‘Jack’Tennant, the Liberal politician and fishingfriendofGrey,metSirPatrickDuff,Secretaryof theOfficeofWorks, topress foraplaquewith a bas-relief on the St James’s Park

frontageoftheForeignOffice.Duffthoughtitwould look ‘lamentably insignificant’ giventhe size of the building and the distance oftheForeignOfficefromtheroad.Aftergoingout into the street to inspect the site theyagreed and instead accepted a niche at theheadof the first flightof stairson theGrandStaircase. They thought they would almostcertainlycarrythecommitteewiththem.Howeverthiswasnotthecaseassixmonthslater, in May 1935, the noted architect SirEdwin Lutyens submitted, on behalf of thecommittee, drawings to the Office ofWorksfor an outdoor memorial. It consisted of abust of Grey, in Italian stone, within anarchitectural surround of Portland stone. It

wasproposedtopositionthememorialinthewalloftheDowningStreetGardenfacingtheForeignOffice. The plans came as a surprisetoDuffbuthewasnotunsympathetic totheproposal. The First Commissioner, however,was unhappy. The Downing Street Wallalready had a memorial to Lord Kitcheneralong it, facing onto Horseguards’, which hethought was ‘frankly ridiculous’ and he wasopposed to any further ‘Denkmalisation’ ofthe wall. Ormsby Gore much preferred theidea of a bust in the Foreign Office. Hesuggested to Tyrrell and Tennant that atemporary home for a memorial might befound in the ForeignOffice beforemoving itto the Houses of Parliament, once the ten-year limit had expired, so it could be ‘in

companywith the statesmenof his day’ andwhere itwouldbe ‘muchmoreappropriatelyplaced.’FollowingthemeetingOrmsbyGorewrotetoLord Tyrrell to give him his personal view.After conducting a recce with Duff and hischief architect to ‘spy out the land’ he hadreturned determined to oppose vigorouslyanymemorialon theDowningStreetwalls—‘The fullhorrorofKitcheneragain impresseditselfuponmymindthismorning’,hewrote.Anything therewould lookoutofplacebotharchitecturally and aesthetically. Instead helaid out three options: (i) If it was a bust, itcouldonlybeinsidetheForeignOffice;(ii)Ifitwas a statue, it could have temporary locus

Drawingoftheill-fateddesignbySirEdwinLutyens(CrownCopyright)

undercoverbeforebeingeventuallyremovedto the Houses of Parliament; (iii) Or it couldbeastatueaspartofaschemetoreworktheDowning Street steps. However this wouldtake more money to defray the cost ofrebuildingthesteps.But the Office of Works quickly changed itsmind. The ten year rule was designed‘expresslyforthepurposeofresistingprojectsframed in theenthusiasmof themoment’. Itwouldbewrongtogivetheimpressionthatastatue was safe to go to Parliament in tenyears’ time when ‘there may be othercandidates for vacant places’ or ‘the light ofhistory made readjustments in the nationalestimate of statesmen.’ They now proposed

either:(i)abustintheForeignOffice;or(ii)amedallion in the wall of the Foreign OfficeoppositethefootoftheDowningStreetsteps‘besidethesidedoorwhichLordGreyalwaysusedtouse,’whereitwould,‘meettheeyeofeverypersonwhopasseddowntheDowningStreet steps’. This could include ‘theheadofLord Grey in low relief’ aswell as a suitableinscription;or (iii) a statue, at thebottomofthe Downing Street steps but the cost toprepare the site would be £3,000, over andabove what any statue would cost. Also asthat end of Downing Street was an‘architectural muddle’ and future alterationsmight be made, they were not confident astatue placed here ‘could be regarded as apermanency.’

TotheannoyanceoftheOfficeofWorks,thecommitteecontinuedtopresstheideaoftheDowning Street garden wall site. The FirstCommissioner resolved to send the proposaltotheRoyalFineArtCommissioninthehopethat they would turn it down. If not, heagreed to seek the approval of the Cabinet.Ormsby Gore did not want to turn theproposal down flat because Tennant was aLiberal ‘party’ man and refusal might beattributedtopartybias.The Commission did not, in principle, objecttothebustinthewall(‘mostaggravatingly’inthe words of Duff) but were reluctant toendorse it in lightof theobjections fromtheFirst Commissioner. At the same time they

had reservations about the wall medallioncommenting that ‘the heavily rusticatedbackground and the very restricted spacewouldpresentdifficultieswhich couldhardlybe overcome by the closest collaborationbetween the Sculptor and the Architect’.Instead they plumped for the only othersuggestionintheletter,thatofabustontheForeignOfficestaircase.InJuly1935theFirstCommissionercirculatedapapertoCabinetoutliningoptionsincludingthebustintheForeignOffice,amedalliononthe Foreign Office wall, and the Lutyensscheme. He spoke out against the latterstatingthatwhiletheDowningStreetgardenwallmightnotbeanobjectofbeauty itwas

TheKitchenerMemorialsoderidedbytheFirstCommissionerofWorks(WikimediaCommons)

‘homely and unaffected’ and ‘simple andappropriate’for itspurposeasagardenwall,notasarepositoryformemorials.TheviewoftheForeignOfficewasthatamedallionwouldbe unsuitable. Sir Stephen Gaselee, theForeign Office Librarian, thought tablets ‘amean and usually ugly form of com-memoration’. The Cabinet considered thematter and took Ormsby Gore’s advice;rejecting the Downing Street wall plans andagreeingthatthemostappropriatememorialwouldbeabustintheForeignOffice.However the proposal still did notmeet theapproval of the committee who now castaround for other suitable public sites nearParliament, such as Victoria Tower Gardens.

At the ForeignOffice Charles Howard Smith,an assistant under-secretary, thought therewasspaceforastatueonthegrassplotbytheForeignOffice garden door onHorse GuardsParade. He thought it would need to be animposingstatue like thatofCliveoutside theIndiaOffice.‘Imposing’soundedexpensivetoSirStephenGaselee,whereasthePermanentUnder-Secretary, Sir Robert Vansittartdeclared that he hated statues out of doorsand especially one right outside his officewindow. ‘Efforts in this particular genre toperpetuate the ephemeral seem to be quiteoutofkeepingwithourage’henoted,andhehoped ‘they will not continue the lastcentury’s habit of plastering the streetswithmonuments.’ The Foreign Office’s collective

view was that the best place for a statue(after the Foreign Office) would be near theHouse of Commons ‘inwhich LordGrey alsoplayed a large part’— ‘but I don’twant anybust in any public park!’ added the ForeignSecretary,nowSirSamuelHoare.One possible site was in Victoria TowerGardens, opposite the circular shrubberyoccupied by a statue of the suffragette,MrsPankhurst.Officials thought the fact that thesuffragettes had smashed the windows ofLord Grey’s house in Queen Anne’s Gateduring their agitation for the votemight add‘a certain piquancy’ to the situation. Therewere also vacant sites in Parliament Square,but these commemoratedPrimeMinisters, a

post that Grey had never held. Increases intrafficalsomeantthattheSquaremighthavetoberedesignedsoon. ‘Itseemstomemostunfortunate thatMrs Pankhurst should havebeen put where she is’, commented Duff,‘thus “pegging” the shrubbery forming herbackground, which would be much betteraway’. Another statue here, he thought,wouldberegrettable.Duffthoughtthatifthecommittee rejected what the Cabinet hadoffered,andalternativepossibilitieshadbeenexploredwithoutsuccess,theywereundernoobligation to find another site. This was theanswer that was eventually given to thecommittee.

InJanuary1936anappealforfundswasmadeby the Prime Minister, the Archbishop ofCanterbury, Lord Crewe, Professor G.M.Trevelyan and the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor ofOxfordUniversity. A three-foldmemorial was planned: a statue or bust inCentralLondon,thepurchaseofoneofGrey’sfavourite viewpoints, ‘Ros Castle’, (a smallhill-top inNorthumberland), for preservationby the National Trust; and the developmentof the work of the British Trust forOrnithology at Oxford to form a permanentinstituteofbirdstudies,towhichGrey’snamewouldbeattached.Theappealstated: ‘Ifthestrength, integrity, and simplicity of hischaractermadehimfor11years thenotablerepresentative of his country before the

worldasForeignSecretary,andhelpedtogiveto the British Empire and her Alliesconfidenceandunityatthesupremecrisisoffate, these qualities were drawn from thesame well-springs of old English rural lifewhich inspired him as a countryman, anaturalist,andanauthor.’At thesametimethecommitteereturnedtotheOfficeofWorks to indicate that the ideaofamedallionatthesidedooroftheForeignOfficewould,afterall,beacceptabletothem.TherewassomeconfusionintheOfficeastowhether this option had already beenrejected by the Cabinet. (In fact they hadremained silent on the point.) However theFirst Commissioner had no objections and

wrote to thePrimeMinister and the ForeignSecretary,nowAnthonyEden,torecommendtheproposedsolution.EdengreatlyregrettedtherejectionofthebustfortheForeignOfficeand described himself strongly opposed tothe idea of a medallion, which he thoughtwould be unsatisfactory from an aestheticpointofview.Thesite,hesaid,wasnotidealfor displaying themedallion and itwould dolittle to enhance the appearance of theForeign Office wall. He pressed again for abust in a niche on the Grand Staircase,opposite the statues of Lord Clarendon andLordSalisbury,whereitwouldbeseenbythegreatmajorityofvisitorstotheForeignOfficeandwhereGreywouldbe‘ingoodcompany’.SirStephenGaseleeofferedupasuggestion

Right: The view from Ros Castle in Northumberland,oneofGrey’sfavouritespots,andabove:theinscriptionon the memorial placed at the summit (WikimediaCommons:AndrewCurtis&RichardWebbrespectively)

from committee member and formerdiplomat, Lord Howard of Penrith, whowondered if a statue of Grey could beaccommodated in the Foreign Office untilsuchtimeasitcouldbemovedtoParliamentbut the idea came up against Vansittart’saversiontostatues.When the First Commissioner met thecommittee on 5 February 1936 they hadbeforethemaletterfromthePrimeMinisteracquiescing in the scheme and a letter fromthe Foreign Secretary strongly opposing it.The committee themselves did not seemunited. Lord Howard agreed strongly withEden that the site was not appropriate andthat a bust in the Foreign Office was more

suitable, but another member urged that ifthepublicwerebeingaskedtosubscribetoamemorial theymusthaveachance to see it.Howard returned a month later to say thecommitteenowwantedabust,notaplaque,forwhichSirWilliamReidDickhadprovidedadesign,tobeplacedbythesidedoor.Butthecommittee were not unanimous. Howardthought this proposal was even worse butothermemberswere‘sotiredofthestruggle’that they were prepared to agree to it, andthey were irritated with Howard for hisresistance.LordHowardwastoldthatasthisproposal was new the committee had tosubmititinwriting.

Inanattempttobridgetheimpassebetweenhimself,thecommittee,andthegovernment,Howard returned again to the idea that thememorialmight beworked-in as part of theimprovements contemplated for the end ofDowning Street. The bust could sit under acanopy of architectural design. Rather thanwaiting for the scheme to widen the stepsleadingfromDowningStreettoStJamesPark,the canopy could be placed ‘in the ratherragged grass plot which at present sounworthily ends Downing Street’ to beworkedlaterintoanyfinalimprovement.ThememorialwouldgiveDowningStreetamore‘dignified termination’ and greatly improve aspot‘soabsurdlyunworthyastobealmostalaughing stock’. The Chief Architect took

another look at the site and thought thatremodellingthesteps,inawaythatenhancedthe area, would cost £10,000. Duff thoughtsucha commitmentwasnotpossiblemerely‘to restore unanimity to the Grey MemorialCommittee’.OrmsbyGoreagreedthatabustby the side door would look absurd, andsufferfromweathering,andthattheDowningStreetstepsschemewouldbeveryexpensive.The Office of Works replied to Howard thatwhilst they had ‘every desire to help theMemorialCommitteeintheirdifficulties’theyrejected the proposition. They accepted thatthe end of Downing Street was ‘not par-ticularly creditable as it stands’ but theExchequerwasunlikely togive funding.Theycould not give an assurance as towhen any

improvement might be put in place, and toput down any bust temporarily was not a‘happy solution.’ They also rejected the bustbythesidedoorasimpracticalandreiteratedthe two available options: a bust in theForeign Office or a plaque by the side door.Clearly dejected, Howard was ready topropose to the committee that they give upthe idea of putting up anymemorial for thetimebeing.HoweverthefollowingmonththecommitteewrotetotheOfficeofWorksstatingthattheyacceptedthesidedoorsite,buthaddroppedthe idea of a bust, and had instructed SirWilliam Reid Dick to prepare plans for aplaque.TheOfficefeltthattheyhadtodefer

to this choice as the Prime Minister hadagreed that the committeemight be offeredthis alternative site. It was one of the lastpieces of business to come before OrmsbyGore before he left to become Secretary ofState for theColonies. TheForeignSecretarywasinformedoftheirdecision.ThispromptedHoward Smith to meet the new FirstCommissioner,LordStanhope,toprotest.ButStanhope was clear that, although it wasregrettable that the sitehadbeenoffered, itwas impossibletowithdrawtheoffernow. Itmight be possible to review the situation ifthe Royal Fine Art Commission found SirWilliam’s scheme ‘hopelessly unacceptable’but not otherwise. ‘Most regrettable—butwith a faint ray of hope’, was Vansittart’s

verdict. ‘A wretched business’ was Eden’smore forceful verdict. He thought it absurdthat the Foreign Office had no power tocontrol memorials ‘about its walls’. HowardSmithwrotetoconveytheForeignSecretary’sdisapointment, his fear that the Commissionwouldnotbedeterred,andhishopethatLordStanhope would do everything possible topreventtheerectionoftheplaque.In July 1936 Lutyens submitted a schemeconsisting of a portrait panel set into themasonry at the side of the Foreign Officedoorway at the end of Downing Street,withan inscriptioncut into the stonebasebelow.TheOfficeofWorksforwardedtheschemetothe Royal Fine Art Commission in the hope

thattheircommentsmightprovideanexcuseto cancel the offer of this site. Just tomakesureDuff rang theCommission fora ‘privateword’ to say that the more hostile theircriticisms were the better. However theCommissionrepliedpositivelystatingthatthearrangement of the plaque and inscriptionshowed ‘a skilful handling of an awkwardproblem.’PrivatelytheCommissionconveyedto Duff that the schememade the best of abad job but as Lutyens and Reid Dick wereboth members it could not be expressed insuchterms.The Office of Works contacted the ForeignSecretary to say that as the letter from theCommission provided no ammunition, they

hadnooptionbuttoletitgoahead.TheonlyhopeofstoppingtheschemewastogetLordTyrrell to mobilise opposition on theMemorialCommittee itself,but theythoughtthat the committee were probably inagreement on the matter. At the ForeignOffice Gaselee thought Lord Howard wouldbe willing to take some form of action andalong with Lord Tyrrell ought to pull a gooddeal of weight on the committee. HoweverEden thought that this had been tried somany times it seemed hardly worthwhilereturning to the charge. He felt he could nolonger stand out against the proposal. Edenthen left for a Four-Power Conference inGenevaanditwasNovemberbeforehefinally

repliedtoStanhopedroppingallobjectionstotheproposal.

*****OnTuesday 27April 1937 thememorialwasunveiled in frontof a distinguished companyofintimatefriendsandadmirersofLordGrey.Over 1,000 people had subscribed to thefund, raising over £4,000 for the threememorial projects. Lord Cottesloe presidedover the event, the Prime Minister, StanleyBaldwinmadeaspeechintributetoGrey,andLordCreweproposedavoteofthanks.Right: Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin waits tounveil the memorial in 1937 (The Times/NewsSyndication)

TheplaqueconsistedofaclassicalportraitofGrey, in relief, surrounded by a circularinscription: ‘Secretary of State for ForeignAffairs,MCMV—MCMXVI’. Incisedinthewallbelow the plaque, after Grey’s name anddates, was the following tribute: ‘Byuprightness of character, wisdom in councilandfirmnessinaction,hewontheconfidenceofhiscountrymen,andhelpedtocarrythemthroughmanyandgreatdangers’.Thethree-yearstruggletofindasuitableformofmemorialforEdwardGreyinLondonwasatale of personalities, official procedure andpersonaltastes.Butdespitethedifferencesofopinionthechoiceofmemorialhasstoodthetest of time. The plaque’s location, to the

rightofthe‘Ambassador’sEntrance’,thedoorused for eleven years by Grey to enter theForeign Office, proved appropriate, eventhough Downing Street is now closed to thepublic.Butdecadesofweatheringeventuallytooktheir toll.Until recently itwas inapoorstate of repair, with parts of the inscriptionhardly legible. In 2014, the year of thecentenaryof theoutbreakof theFirstWorldWar, the Foreign and Commonwealth Officerestored thememorial to its former glory. Itnowformsanintrinsicpartofthefabricofthebuilding.

Sources: T[he] N[ational] A[rchives] WORK20/200; TNA FO 366/956; TNA FO 366/980;CAB 23/82/6, CAB 24/255/49;Walford SelbyMSS, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS.Eng.c.6599;BuxtonMSS,BritishLibrary,Add.MSS.87084;TheTimes.

Left: The memorial today (Crown Copyright)Back cover: Workmen washing the memorial in 1938 (Crown Copyright)