Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

His support for Irish independence led to imprisonment in 1888 for chairing an anti-eviction meeting in County Galway that had been banned by the Chief Secretary, Arthur Balfour."[17] Here, Elizabeth Longford wrote, "Blunt stood Rudyard Kipling's familiar concept on its head, arguing that the imperialists' burden is not their moral responsibility for the colonised peoples, but their urge to make money out of them.Always struggling with financial concerns and chemical dependency issues[clarification needed], Wilfrid sold off numerous horses to pay debts and constantly attempted to obtain additional assets.Lady Anne left the management of her properties to Judith and spent many months of each year in Egypt at the Sheykh Obeyd estate, moving there permanently in 1915.Father and daughter briefly were reconciled shortly before Wilfrid Scawen Blunt's death in 1922, but his promise to rewrite his will to restore Judith's inheritance was not kept.It is untrue that "he was sent to notify Sir Edward Malet, the British agent, of Egyptian public opinion about the recent changes in government and development policies."However, Malet, Colvin, Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer), and other British officials dismissed Blunt as a romantic idealist of a quixotic type.Blunt remained vigorously opposed to colonial expansion in Africa, writing three books outlining his views: The Secret History of the English Occupation of Egypt... (1907), Gordon at Khartoum (1911), and My Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events, 1888–1914 (2 vols.Historian Robert O. Collins wrote, "The most vigorous English advocate of Egyptian nationalism, Blunt was both arrogant and irascible, his works scathing, discursive, and at times utterly ridiculous.Immature and unfair, both he and his writings must be used with caution, but even the dullest of men will come away stimulated if not aroused and with fresh insights to challenge the sometimes smug attitudes of British officials in Whitehall and Cairo.Blunt made strenuous efforts to free his staff, much to the embarrassment of the British army officers and civil servants involved.
Blunt in his 20s
Blunt caricatured by Ape in Vanity Fair , 1885
Wilfrid Jasper Walter BluntPetworthArabian horseAnne Blunt, 15th Baroness WentworthJudith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness WentworthLady Anne BluntCrabbet Arabian Studpolemicsanti-imperialistPetworth HouseBaron LeconfieldDiplomatic ServiceCatholicTwyford SchoolStonyhurstSt Mary's College, OscottLord Alfred DouglasVanity FairLady Anne NoelEarl of LovelaceAda LovelaceLord ByronSyrian DesertArabian horsesSheykh Obeydatheistal-AfghaniVincent McNabbSir William Henry GregoryUrabi PashaArthur BalfourKilmainham GaolParliamentCamberwell NorthLiberalKidderminsterDeptfordKiplingesqueElizabeth LongfordRudyard KiplingEdward SaidOrientalistCatherine "Skittles" WaltersJane MorrisWilliam MorrisMary WyndhamWinston ChurchillLord Randolph Churchill1882 Anglo-Egyptian WarSir Edward MaletAhmed 'UrabiEgyptian cultureMuhammad AbduhEgyptian nationalistAuckland ColvinEvelyn Baring (Lord Cromer)stud farmThe Future of IslamGordonNew International EncyclopediaOxford Dictionary of National BiographyGeorge Robinson, 1st Marquess of RiponJournal of Victorian CultureThe Earl of LyttonMartin KramerWikisourceProject GutenbergInternet ArchiveLibriVox