Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury - Definition and Overview

Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury KG (August 27, 1893-February 23, 1972) was a grandson of the great 3rd Marquess. Nicknamed "Bobbety", the 5th Marquess was elected to the House of Commons in 1929, and then called up to the House of Lords by a writ in acceleration in 1941, before he succeeded his father as Marquess of Salisbury in 1947.

Lord Salisbury was a prominent Tory politician in the 1940s and 1950s, serving in the governments of Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, and Harold Macmillan. He was known as a hardline imperialist, and was a staunch defender of the white-dominated regime in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the 1960s, and a fierce opponent of attempts to reform the House of Lords, yet he created what is known as the Salisbury Convention. He was succeeded by his son in 1972.

Lord Salisbury was married to Elizabeth Vere Cavendish, a cousin of the 10th Duke of Devonshire and a great-granddaughter of the 7th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, herself a granddaughter of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. They had three sons, of whom only the eldest survived the Second World War.