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McNeill, Ronald John, 1861-1934

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Ronald John McNeill, 1st Baron Cushendun, PC (30 April 1861 – 12 October 1934) was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician.

Background & Family Life

Born in Ulster, the son of Edmund McNeill DL, JP - the High Sheriff of County Antrim. Lord Cushendun was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1886. After being called to the bar in 1888, he worked as editor of the St James's Gazette (1900-1904) as well as assistant editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1906-1910).

Lord Cushendun married Elizabeth Maud Bolitho (d. 1925) and had three daughters; Esther Rose, Loveday Violet and Mary Morvenna Bolitho (married Major Philip Le Grand Gribble).

Parliamentary Career

Having unsuccessfully contested the seats of West Aberdeenshire (1906), Aberdeen South (1907 and 1910), and Kirkcudbrightshire (1910), McNeill was elected as Unionist Member of Parliament for the St Augustine's division of Kent in 1911. Seven years later he became representative for Canterbury, and in 1922 was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a post he held, with a short interval, until 1925.

After serving as Financial Secretary to the Treasury for two years, McNeill was in 1927 made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with a seat in the Cabinet. He was also that year created Baron Cushendun, of Cushendun in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, taking his title from the village he had designed by Clough Williams-Ellis in memory of his Cornish wife, Maud, who died in 1925.

Acting Foreign Secretary in 1928 and twice chief British representative to the League of Nations, it was Lord Cushendun who signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact in August that year. He retired from office in 1929, and died five years later in Cushendun.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
Preceded by
Aretas Akers-Douglas
Member of Parliament for St Augustine's
1911–1918
Succeeded by
(constituency abolished)
Preceded by
George Knox Anderson
Member of Parliament for Canterbury
1918–1927
Succeeded by
William Wayland
Political offices
Preceded by
Cecil Harmsworth
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1922–1924
Succeeded by
Arthur Ponsonby
Preceded by
Arthur Ponsonby
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
1924–1925
Succeeded by
Godfrey Locker-Lampson
Preceded by
Walter Guinness
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
1925–1927
Succeeded by
Arthur Samuel
Preceded by
The Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1927–1929
Succeeded by
Sir Oswald Mosley
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
New Creation
Baron Cushendun Succeeded by
Extinct

This biographical information was gathered from the Ronald_John_McNeill page, courtesy of the Wikipedia project.

Books

Ulster's Stand For Union

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