Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton
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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 in British 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 playing polo 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 appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India, a post which he held between 1920 and 1922. He was also made a Privy Counsellor in 1919. After this, he was posted as Governor 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 2 books, 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 and Elephants, published in 1942. He was made a Knight 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 between Japan and China. The commission's Lytton 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 the Second World War, both predeceased him. On his death in October 1947, aged 71, the titles passed to his younger brother Neville Bulwer-Lytton.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lord Sinha |
Under-Secretary of State for India 1920–1922 |
Succeeded by Earl Winterton |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by Earl of Ronaldshay |
Governor of Fort William 1922–1927 |
Succeeded by Sir Stanley Jackson |
| Preceded by The Earl of Reading |
Viceroy of India 1925 |
Succeeded by The Lord Irwin |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Robert Bulwer-Lytton |
Earl of Lytton 1891–1947 |
Succeeded by Neville Bulwer-Lytton |
