Viscount Edward Grey Grey of Fallodon

Born in London on 25 April 1862, Edward Grey inherited his baronetcy while still young and later became 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon. Educated at Winchester and Balliol College, Oxford, he entered Parliament as a Liberal and rose to become one of the most important British statesmen of his generation.

Grey served as Foreign Secretary from 1905 to 1916, one of the longest uninterrupted tenures in that office. He played a central role in shaping British foreign policy in the years leading up to the First World War and is often remembered for the melancholy line about the lamps going out in Europe at the outbreak of war.

Away from politics, he was passionately interested in birds, fishing, and the countryside around Fallodon in Northumberland. That side of his life appears in books such as The Charm of Birds, which helped preserve his reputation not only as a public figure but also as a graceful writer on nature. He died on 7 September 1933.