Editing Arthur Balfour (section)

==Background and early life==
[[File:Lord Balfour's childhood home.JPG|thumb|upright|left|Whittingehame House]]
Arthur Balfour was born at [[Whittingehame House]], East Lothian, Scotland, the eldest son of [[James Maitland Balfour]] and Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil. His father was a Scottish MP, as was his grandfather [[James Balfour (died 1845)|James]]; his mother, a member of the [[Marquess of Salisbury|Cecil family]] descended from [[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury]], was the daughter of the [[2nd Marquess of Salisbury]] and his first wife, Mary Frances Gascoyne (born 1802; m. 1821; died 1839),<ref>[[Carola Oman]], ''The Gascoyne Heiress: The Life and Diaries of Frances Mary Gascoyne-Cecil 1802–39''. Hodder & Stoughton 1968. p. n1.</ref> and she was a sister of the [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|3rd Marquess]], the future prime minister.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=250}} Arthur's godfather was the [[Duke of Wellington]], after whom he was named.<ref name=Tuch46>{{cite book|author-link=Barbara Tuchman|first=Barbara |last=Tuchman |title=The Proud Tower|title-link=The Proud Tower|page=[https://archive.org/details/proudtowerportr00tuch/page/46 46]|date=1966|publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers and three sisters. Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange Preparatory School at [[Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire]] (1859–1861), and [[Eton College]] (1861–1866), where he studied with the influential master, [[William Johnson Cory]]. He then went up to the [[University of Cambridge]], where he read [[moral sciences]] at [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]] (1866–1869),<ref>{{acad|id=BLFR866AJ|name=Balfour, Arthur}}</ref> graduating with a [[British undergraduate degree classification|second-class honours]] degree.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|date=21 March 1930|title=Obituary: Lord Balfour|page=14|work=[[The Times]]|issue=45467|publication-place=London}}</ref> His younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist [[Francis Maitland Balfour]] (1851–1882).<ref>[http://www.burkespeerage.com/records.php www.burkespeerage.com]</ref>