It was an uncommon man who became His Majesty's First Lord of the Admiralty in October 1911; his illustrious ancestry and his father's short but brilliant career were well known in Britain at the time, as was the fact that he had fought with great distinction as a young officer in India, the Sudan and South Africa, that he was a brilliant speaker and a talented writer, and that he had already spent an eventful decade in politics as Conservative, then Liberal Member of Parliament, Colonial Under-Secretary, President of the Board of Trade and Home Secretary.