By 1876, Elgin was serving as Deputy Lieutenant and as a magistrate for
Fife. In 1886, he was also appointed as
Lord-lieutenant of Fife. While caused by drought, the
famine occurred mostly in areas under British control, in which Elgin reportedly admitted that up to 4.5 million people died.
Elgin Commission Elgin returned to England in 1899 and was made a
Knight of the Garter. From 1902 to 1903, Elgin was made chairman of the commission that investigated the conduct of the
Second Boer War. He was appointed
Honorary Colonel of the 1st Fifeshire
Volunteer Artillery Corps on 26 March 1902. The Elgin Committee discussed cavalry in spring 1903. Many mounted infantry units had been raised during the Boer War, some from scratch and some by converting infantry units. All were agreed that cavalry should be trained to fight dismounted with firearms, but traditionalists wanted cavalry still to be trained as the
arme blanche, charging with lance and
sabre. Although the traditional view appears absurd with hindsight, at the time matters were less clearcut.
General French stressed the importance of morale, after the success of his cavalry charges at Elandslaagte and Kimberley. That view was by no means extreme: Maj-Gen J.P. Brabazon thought sword and lance were suitable only for "Latin" cavalry, and that "Anglo-Saxons" should instead be equipped with "a light battleaxe or tomahawk". After
Wolseley,
Evelyn Wood and
Roberts (all of whom had seen the future of cavalry as being for use as mounted infantry only) had retired, the traditional view was reestablished as French and his protégé Major-General
Haig rose to the top of the Army. The recommendations of the Commission were never fully implemented. The Esher Report into the future of the Army overshadowed its findings, and the Army came to be dominated by the High Tory reorganisation of the War Office.
Colonial Secretary When the Liberals returned to power in 1905, Elgin became
Secretary of State for the Colonies (with
Winston Churchill as his Under-Secretary). As colonial secretary, he pursued a conservative policy and opposed the generous settlement of the South African question proposed by Prime Minister
Campbell-Bannerman, which was enacted more in spite of the Colonial Secretary's opposition than because of his efforts. After being dropped from the next government by the next prime minister,
Asquith, Elgin retired from public life in 1908. ==Honours==