Arthur Hamilton Lee, 1st Viscount Lee of Fareham, (8 November 1868 – 21 July 1947), was an English soldier, diplomat, politician, philanthropist and patron of the arts. After military postings and an assignment to the British Embassy in Washington, he retired from the military in 1900. He entered politics, was first elected in 1900, and later served as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and First Lord of the Admiralty following the First World War. He donated his country house, Chequers, to the nation as a retreat for the Prime Minister, and co-founded the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Early life and family
Arthur Hamilton Lee was born at The Rectory, Bridport, Dorset in 1868. His father, Rev. Melville Lauriston Lee was rector of the town's Anglican St. Mary's Church. He was a grandson of Sir John Theophilus Lee, who as a midshipman was present at the Battle of the Nile.
Education and early military career
After attending Cheltenham College, Lee entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 17 February 1888. He was posted to the Far East, China, as Adjutant of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (the Volunteers). He was promoted lieutenant on 18 February 1891. He returned to England in 1891, and was stationed on the Isle of Wight for the next two years.
Professor at Royal Military College of Canada
On 18 August 1893, at the age of 24, Lee became a professor of Strategy and Tactics, at the Royal Military College of Canada, in Kingston, Ontario, with the local rank of captain. Since only 11 to 30 cadets annually entered the College in those days, Lee would have instructed about 140 cadets in his five years at the college (1893–1898), consisting of cadet numbers 320 to 457. Cadet No. 433, future Major General Thomas Victor Anderson, D.S.O., a future Chief of Staff of the Canadian Army, recalled that Lee was known around the Royal Military College as 'The Nipper', which the cadets christened him because he used to sing George Grossmith's songs with gusto. He enjoyed riding and walking in winter across the ice to Wolfe Island, and to town. He was a regular attendant at St. George's Cathedral (Kingston, Ontario) to hear the dean Buxton Smith. When Colonel Gerald Kitson, K.R.R.C., became RMC Commandant in 1897, Captain Lee came to live with the Kitsons in the Commandant's residence. In 1894, Lee initiated a Military Survey of the Canadian Frontier, and supervised its progress until its completion in 1896. During the summer of 1897 he was a Special Correspondent for the London Daily Chronicle, covering the earlier stages of the Klondike Gold Rush, based on his travels to Alaska and the Yukon. In 1900, when Lee resigned as British Military Attaché in Washington, D.C., Colonel Kitson resigned as Commandant of RMC to take over the Washington post vacated by Lee.
Diplomatic postings
He did not receive substantive promotion until the completion of his RMC appointment on 18 April 1898. He became the British military attaché with the United States Army in Cuba during the Spanish–American War, later in 1898. He received the U.S. campaign medal, was made an honorary member of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry—the famous Roosevelt's "Rough Riders"—and met Theodore Roosevelt. On 28 January 1899 Lee, who was still not 30 years old, was appointed military attaché at the British Embassy in Washington, with the temporary rank of Lieutenant Colonel (for the duration of his appointment). Although he would have preferred to have been on active service in South Africa, since the Boer War had just started, Lee enjoyed the challenging diplomatic assignment and became a regular correspondent of Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt wrote of Lee: "The military attachés came out to look on-English, German, Russian, French and Japanese. With the Englishman, Captain Arthur Lee, a capital fellow, we soon struck up an especially close friendship; and we saw much of him throughout the campaign." Roosevelt also wrote:"Captain Lee, the British attaché, spent some time with us; we had begun to regard him as almost a member of the regiment." Later in life Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Rudyard Kipling and told him not to share the contents of the letter with anyone, "except Arthur Lee, to whom you are entirely at liberty to show it."