Arthur James Balfour

Born in Scotland in 1848, Arthur James Balfour was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and went on to become one of the leading Conservative politicians of his era. He served in Parliament for many years and held several senior offices before succeeding his uncle, Lord Salisbury, as prime minister in 1902.

Balfour led the United Kingdom until 1905 and remained an influential voice in government afterward. He later served as foreign secretary during the First World War, and his name became permanently linked with the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the British statement supporting the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Often described as thoughtful and philosophical as well as politically skilled, Balfour combined aristocratic ease with long experience at the center of power. He died in 1930, but he remains an important and controversial figure in the history of modern Britain and the modern Middle East.