Baron Arthur Ponsonby Ponsonby

Born in 1871 into a well-connected political family, Arthur Ponsonby grew up close to the center of British public life; his father served as Private Secretary to Queen Victoria. He was a Page of Honour to the Queen as a boy, later studied at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and began his career in the diplomatic service.

Ponsonby went on to become a prominent public figure in his own right: a politician, writer, and social activist who eventually entered the peerage as the 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede. He is especially associated with pacifist politics and with his criticism of the ways governments shape public opinion in wartime.

For many readers, his lasting reputation rests on the clear, skeptical voice of his books and essays. Best known today for Falsehood in War-Time, he wrote with the authority of someone who knew official institutions from the inside and was willing to question them in plain, forceful language.