James Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth, (17 August 1876 – 15 December 1951), was a British politician and diplomat who was the first Secretary-General of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1933.
He succeeded in building an effective international staff but failed to resolve major international disputes, because of pressure from Britain and France, the most powerful League members. He moved on to become British Ambassador to Italy (1933–1939) and then the chief adviser on foreign publicity in the Ministry of Information (1939–1940). In 1946, he became deputy leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords.
Early life and career
Family Drummond was born into the Scottish nobility, the Chiefs of Clan Drummond. His father was James David Drummond, 10th Viscount Strathallan (1839–1893), an army officer of Machany in Perthshire who had three children with his second wife, Margaret Smythe, the daughter of William Smythe of Methven Castle in Perthshire. James Eric Drummond was the eldest and the only son but Drummond had two half-sisters and one half-brother, William Huntley Drummond, from his father's first marriage to Ellen Thornhill.Lorna Lloyd. Drummond, (James) Eric, seventh earl of Perth (1876–1951), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2011 accessed 7 October 2014
Drummond's brother William succeeded their father as Viscount Strathallan in 1893 and, in 1902, succeeded their seventh-cousin-twice-removed, George Drummond, 5th Earl of Perth, to become the 6th Earl of Perth.*The Tatler*, no. 454, 9 Mar 1910, p. 475. Retrieved 13 Nov 2025 from https://archive.org/details/the-tatler-1901-1929/1910-1919/1910/The%20Tatler%20%230454v035%20%281910-03-09%29%20%28BNA%29/mode/2up In 1910 William sold the ancestral Strathmore Estates at Strathallan, Tullibardine, and Machany, which comprised 7,322 acres to industrialist Sir James Roberts, 1st Baronet.“The History.” Strathallan Castle, accessed 13 Nov 2025. http://www.strathallancastle.co.uk/the-history/“Sale of Perthshire Estates.” The Perthshire Advertiser, etc., 10 Aug 1910, p. 7. Newspapers.com. Retrieved 13 Nov 2025 from https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-perthshire-advertiser-etc-sale-of/184853977/
Following William's death on 20 August 1937, Eric Drummond succeeded as 7th Earl of Perth and 12th Viscount Strathallan; he also inherited the titles Lord Drummond of Cargill and Stobhall, Lord Maderty, Lord Drummond of Cromlix, Hereditary thegn of Lennox, Hereditary Steward of Menteith and Strathearn and Chief of Clan Drummond.
He was raised in a Presbyterian family but converted to Catholicism in 1903. That became a hindrance during his career when Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald vetoed his appointment as ambassador at Washington in 1933.Barros (1979), p. 15. His conversion was most likely caused by his wish to marry a Catholic, the Hon. Angela Mary Constable-Maxwell (1877–1965), the daughter of Marmaduke Constable-Maxwell, 11th Lord Herries of Terregles and Hon. Angela Mary Charlotte Fitzalan-Howard (daughter of the 1st Baron Howard of Glossop), which he did on 20 April 1904. They had four children: Lady Margaret Gwendolyn Mary (1905) John David Drummond, Viscount Strathallan (1907), inherited his father's titles Lady Angela Alice Maryel Drummond (1912) Lady Gillian Mary Drummond (1920).
Education and early career Drummond was educated at Eton College, where he graduated in 1895. There, he learned French, which later would become an important tool in his diplomatic career. His upbringing in the British establishment helped to pave the way into the diplomatic world as a civil servant.Barros (1979), p. 20.
Drummond is best known for his 13 years as secretary-general in the League of Nations. Before accepting that prestigious position, however, he had served mainly as a private secretary for various British politicians and diplomats, including the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith.
On 20 April 1900, Drummond entered the British Foreign Office as a clerk.
From 1906 to 1908, he was the private secretary of the under-secretary to Lord Fitzmaurice. Between 1908 and 1910, he occupied two functions: précis writer of the foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey and the private secretary of the parliamentary under-secretary, Thomas McKinnon Wood. From 1912 to 1918, Drummond worked as the private secretary of respectively: the prime minister, H. H. Asquith, and the foreign secretaries, Sir Edward Grey and Arthur Balfour. In April to May 1917 he was a member of the Balfour Mission, which was intended to promote cooperation between the British and the Americans during the First World War.
League of Nations career Between 1918 and 1919, he was a member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, where he was engaged in the drafting of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
In 1919 he accepted the position of the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, on the recommendation of Lord Robert Cecil.
Before the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 much work had been put into finding a suitable candidate for secretary-general of the newly established League of Nations.
Cecil, who played an important role in drafting the Covenant and organising the League, initially wanted a person with a background in politics for the post; but despite the existence of several candidates, none accepted his proposal. He believed that only somebody of the highest ability would be sufficient for this role. However, after the office would not be given as many powers as initially thought, Cecil reconsidered and sought to find somebody who was a well-trained civil servant and less known as a big political figure. He first approached Maurice Hankey, who for some time showed interest in the position but in the end rejected the offer only ten days prior to the Paris plenary session.Walters (1952), p. 11. In the event that Hankey would turn down the offer, Cecil and the American Edward M. House had developed a contingency plan to substitute Hankey with Sir Eric Drummond.
As early as 1915, Drummond expressed himself favourably towards the establishment of an international organisation.Walters (1952), p. 18. As such, Drummond was involved in negotiations regarding the establishment of the League of Nations. In addition, he was also a British national, which Cecil valued very highly. Drummond was an experienced diplomat and had earned a high reputation during his 19 years at the Foreign Office, which helped him to be considered the best choice available. After some initial doubt in which Drummond expressed anxiety about organising the League, he finally accepted the proposal. At the Paris Peace Conference's plenary session on 28 April 1919, the conference accepted the appointment of Drummond as the first secretary-general of the League of Nations.Walters (1952), p. 1.
Establishment of permanent secretariat (1919–1920)
One of the secretary-general's major deeds was the establishment of a permanent and strictly-international secretariat. No such thing had ever been attempted, and prewar secretariats had largely been confined to the national sphere in both the context of who supplied them and the civil servants who worked there. The creation of an international civil service was not without problems, and administrative leaders thought it unthinkable that such a body would ever be united, loyal or efficient.Walters (1952), pp. 75–76. By August 1920 the secretariat was fully established.Barros (1979), p. 84.
The personnel staffing the secretariat came from over 30 countries and differed in language, religion and training, all of whom were appointed by the League, not by national governments. That once again underscored the difference between the new international body and previous national secretariats. In total, the secretariat came to consist of seven sections: a Mandate Section, an Economic and Financial Section, a Section for Transit and Communication, a Social Section, a Political Section, a Legal Section and an International Bureau Section.Walters (1952), pp. 76–77.
In establishing the permanent secretariat, Drummond pushed back against ideas (promulgated by Sir Maurice Hankey) that great powers would bring their own national staff to the secretariat. Drummond wanted the secretariat to hire staff who owed their allegiance to the League.
Leadership style Drummond was not a major political figure and so did not seek to turn the office into a reflection of his personality.Barros (1979), p. 34.
Drummond set about creating the administrative divisions for the League. He chose to appoint only members who supported their nation's government and gave the positions only to members of leading states.
Drummond would read everything that came to his desk and would often call meetings regularly to discuss various issues. The meetings would often take place with various members of governments, which managed to established contact by his appointments to the League. Drummond thus became aware of sensitive information from various governments and nongovernmental organisations but became someone who could be trusted by various politicians worldwide.
He was believed to be highly political behind the scenes but was often forced to do so to appease various nations and because of often lacking support from many governments. One example was his 1920s dealings with Benito Mussolini's policies towards the Balkans, Africa and Europe. Drummond was unable to condemn any of Mussolini's policies publicly, as he did not have the backing of Britain and France. He wanted to maintain good relations with Italy, which helped to render him somewhat impotent.Barros (1979), p. 35.
Drummond took great care to maintain world peace, as was hoped during the creation of the League, but he also appeased nations, rather than keeping them in check against international law. Drummond became regarded as a central hub within the League of Nations for most issues, and he would often pick the ones that interested him the most and delegate the lesser issues to his staff.Barros (1979), p. 38.
Drummond helped to suppress anticolonial claims by indigenous groups.
National allegiance of League staff The ideal underpinning the secretariat and those working there was one much resembling a Weberian understanding of bureaucracy that was also seen in Protestant-secular rationalism, the idea of a non-political, neutral, effective and efficient bureaucrat.Dykmann, Klaas & Naumann, Katja, Changes from the "Margins": Non-European Actors, Ideas and Strategies in International Organizations, Leipzig, 2014, pp. 33–34; Barros (1979), pp. 60–61. Drummond admitted, "It is not always those who secure public praise to whom thanks are mainly due, and the work unknown to the public which is done behind the scenes is often a large factor in the success which has been obtained".Letter from Eric Drummond to Thanassis Aghnides, Genava, 12 December 1927 (LN Archives) – adapted from Dykmann, Klaas & Naumann, Katja, Changes from the "Margins": Non-European Actors, Ideas and Strategies in International Organizations, Leipzig, 2014, p. 34.
The ideal was not always upheld, and national preferences were never really abandoned. New under-secretaries-general who were appointed were more often than not of the same nationality, with candidates of smaller powers excluded. Drummond did not practice what he preached, which created small national islands from which the appointed officials conducted national, rather than international, politics.Barros (1979), pp. 68–69.