Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930): British statesman and Conservative prime minister (1902-05); created 1st Earl of Balfour in 1922.
Balfour was born at Whittingehame, East Lothian, the eldest son of James Maitland Balfour and Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil, and succeeded to the family estate in 1856. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. Among his seven siblings was Francis Maitland Balfour (1851-1882), Cambridge University’s celebrated embryologist, who took a leading part in founding the Cambridge school of natural science. Francis was appointed to a special chair of Animal Morphology in 1882, and was one of Bateson’s teachers as an undergraduate (1879-1881).
In 1874 Arthur Balfour entered Parliament as Conservative MP for Hertford. His distinguished parliamentary career included appointments as Secretary for Scotland (1886), Chief Secretary for Ireland (1887), First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons (1891), Prime Minister (1902-05); Conservative Party Leader (until 1911); First Lord of the Admiralty (1915); Foreign Secretary (1916); Lord President of the Council (1919),(1925).
Balfour was elected to the Royal Society in 1888 and he served on its council during 1907-8 and (as Vice President) in 1912-14. He was President of the British Association in 1904. Balfour was a supporter of biological research, and of Bateson’s Mendelian genetics. When he learnt of Bateson’s appointment at JIHI Balfour wrote: ‘Though I cannot but regret the loss which Cambridge will sustain by your departure I rejoice that an opportunity of such value for the advancement of the study of genetics has been afforded.’ Between 1909 and 1911 Balfour used his political connections to secure funds for the endowment of a permanent Chair of Genetics at Cambridge University. He was elected the first President of the new Genetical Society in 1919.
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Balfour
Donald L. Opitz, ‘”No doubtful or uncertain enterprise”: Balfour, Bateson, and Britain’s first Chair of Genetics at Cambridge, 1894-1914’, Paper presented at the HSS meeting, Minneapolis, November 2005 [Permission to quote needed]