Grey of Fallodon, Edward Grey, 1st Viscount

Grey of Fallodon, Edward Grey, 1st Viscount (făl`ədən), 1862–1933, British statesman. He entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1885 and became (1905) foreign secretary in the difficult period preceding World War I. Coming to office in the middle of the Moroccan crisis (see Morocco), Grey continued the policy of support of France initiated by the 5th marquess of Lansdowne and authorized secret military conversations with France. In 1907 he concluded the Anglo-Russian entente, thus completing the so-called Triple Entente against Germany (see Triple Alliance and Triple Entente). He again stood firmly in support of France during the Agadir crisis (1911). Having successfully convened a conference of the Great Powers during the Balkan Wars, Grey attempted the same course after the assassination (1914) of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria. This time he failed, however, and World War I began. Remaining as foreign secretary until 1916, Grey maintained good relations with the United States and concluded the secret Treaty of London (1915), which brought Italy into the war. He was created a peer in 1916. Grey was president of the League of Nations Union from 1918 and served (1919–20) as a special ambassador to the United States. His chief publications are Twenty-five Years, 1892–1916 (1926), Fallodon Papers (1926), and Speeches on Foreign Affairs, 1904–1914 (1931).

Bibliography

See biographies by G. M. Trevelyan (1937) and K. Robbins (1971).