John, Viscount Morley of Blackburn O.M., P.C.,F.R.S.,F.B.A.

Morley was a British Liberal statesman, writer, and newspaper editor. He was initially a journalist but was elected a Member of Parliament in 1883. He was born in 1838 in Blackburn and died in London in 1923. He was a Gladstonian Liberal; shortly after being elected to Parliament he described himself as a cautious Whig by temperament, a Liberal by training, and a thorough Radical by observation and experience. He was ennobled in 1908. From 1910 until the outbreak of the war he was Lord President of the Council. When war loomed, he was nor alarmed by a German invasion of Belgium, but was especially hostile to Russia and he felt he could not be part of a war alongside Russia against Germany. Accordingly, he resigned his government position.

RCC8000 Memorandum on Resignation August 1914 (Morley of Blackburn)