In what years was George Macaulay Trevelyan Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom?

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Clarification of Question by radiowaves-ga on 12 Mar 2006 13:25 PST

I have found a Dutch text that mentioned Robert Trevelyan as being
brother of 'the well-known historian and Minister of Foreign Affairs
in the period 19....' (the period was not filled in). I wanted to know
who was this brother and when he was minister. Being a well known
historian it has to be George Macaulay Trevelyan. However he doesn't
seem to have been minister / secretary of state. His father was in
politics, but not a minister. His brother was in politics, but not
minister either. So where does this information come from?

Well it certainly wasn't G M Trevelyan, who was never in Parliament.
But are you sure Sir George Otto Trevelyan (1838 - 1928) - the father
of G M and George Trevelyan - was never a Minister? According to the
Encyclopedia Britannica, he was a Liberal MP for 32 years (1862 - 97),
served in various government capacities under Gladstone; and was
particularly active on the thorny question of Irish Home Rule. It
seems not unlikely that at some time he was a Foreign Office Minister;
and that the writer of your Dutch text has got mixed up between the
various eminent Trevelyans.

Sorry, I meant to say that Sir G O Trevelyan was the father of G M and
ROBERT Trevelyan - I'm also getting confused between them!

Yes, the mixing up theory is possible: my grandmother was 81 years old
when she wrote this part of her memoirs. Her aunt was Elizabeth van
der Hoeven, wife of Trevelyan, "brother of the well-known historian
and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the period .... "

However George Otto Trevelyan does not figure in the lists of
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (that I found). Furthermore,
this office is quite important, so should be expected to figure
explicitly in biographical articles of the person in question. Also,
G.O. Trevelyan's political activity was more focused on national
affairs, as opposed to foreign affairs.

Charles Philips Trevelyan, the eldest brother of Robert Calverley and
G.M., is also a possibility: he was MP as well, although much less
prominent than his father. I have found no indication however that he
was Secretary of State.