Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC (14 January 1845 – 3 June 1927) was a British statesman who served successively as Governor General of Canada, Viceroy of India, Secretary of State for War, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1917, during the First World War, he wrote the "Lansdowne Letter" advocating, in vain, a compromise peace. A millionaire, he has the distinction of having held senior positions in Liberal and Conservative Party governments. Early years, 1845–1882 A great-grandson of the British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne (later 1st Marquess of Lansdowne), and the eldest son of Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne, and his wife, Emily, 8th Lady Nairne (née de Flahaut), Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice was born in London in 1845. He held the courtesy title Viscount Clanmaurice from birth until 1863 and then the courtesy title Earl of Kerry until he succeeded to the marquessate in 1866. Upon his mother's death in 1895 he succeeded her as the 9th Lord Nairne in the Peerage of Scotland. After studying at Eton and Oxford he succeeded his father as 5th Marquess of Lansdowne (in the Peerage of the United Kingdom) and 6th Earl of Kerry (in the Peerage of Ireland) at the relatively early age of 21 on 5 June 1866. He inherited to a vast estate (including Bowood House, a Wiltshire estate of over 121,000 acres) and also great wealth. At one of his inherited properties, Derreen House (Lauragh, County Kerry, in the present-day Republic of Ireland), Lord Lansdowne started to develop a great garden from 1871 onwards. For most of the rest of his life he spent three months every year at Derreen. Lord Lansdowne entered the House of Lords as a member of the Liberal Party in 1866. He served in William Gladstone's government as a Lord of the Treasury from 1869 to 1872 and as Under-Secretary of State for War from 1872 to 1874. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for India in 1880, and, having gained experience in overseas administration, was appointed Governor General of Canada in 1883. The present-day town of Lansdowne in Uttarakhand, India, was established in 1887 and named after him. Governor General of Canada, 1883–1888 Lord Lansdowne was Governor General during turbulent times in Canada. His Irish connections made him unpopular with the Catholic Irish element.[1] Sir John A. Macdonald's government was in its second term and facing allegations of scandal over the building of the railway (the Pacific Scandal), and the economy was once again sliding into recession. The North-West Rebellion of 1885 and the controversy caused by its leader, Louis Riel, posed a serious threat to the equilibrium of Canadian politics.[2] To calm the situation he travelled extensively throughout western Canada in 1885, meeting many of Canada's First Nations peoples. His experiences in western Canada gave Lansdowne a great love of the Canadian outdoors and the physical beauty of Canada. He was an avid fisherman, and was also intensely interested in winter sports. His love of the wilderness and Canadian countryside led him to purchase a second residence (first was Cascapedia House built in 1880 later renamed Lorne Cottage and in 1884 New Dereen Camp[3]) on the Cascapédia River in Quebec.[2] Lansdowne proved himself an adept statesman in helping to negotiate a settlement of a dispute between Canada and the United States in 1886–87 over fishing rights.[2] He was also a supporter of scientific development, presiding over the inaugural session of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1884. Lord Lansdowne departed Canada, "with its clear skies, its exhilarating sports, and within the bright fire of Gatineau logs, with our children and friends gathered round us" to his regret.[2] He gave his wife a great deal of the credit for his success in Canada. One of her happiest and most successful endeavours while at Rideau Hall was a party she threw for 400 Sunday school children. Lady Lansdowne was decorated with the Order of Victoria and Albert and the Imperial Order of the Crown of India. Lord Lansdowne's military secretary, Lord Melgund, later became Lord Minto and served as Governor General between 1898 and 1904. Viceroy of India, 1888–1894 Lord Lansdowne was appointed Viceroy of India in the same year he left Canada. The office, which he held from 1888 to 1894, was offered to him by the Conservative prime minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, and marked the pinnacle of his career. He worked to reform the army, police, local government and the mint.
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