Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, was born on January 12, 1858, in London, England.

He was a British Liberal politician and writer. He was educated at Harrow School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge (1880). In 1883, he became Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1886, he was made a Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria. After the death of his first wife in 1887, he travelled to Egypt, where he wrote the "Stray Verses" (1890) as a mournful lament at his great loss. From 1892 to 1895, he served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1895, he was created Earl of Crewe in the County Palatine of Chester. He served as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1908-1910), Secretary of State for India (1911-1915), President of the Board of Education (1916), Lord Privy Seal (1908-1915), Lord President of the Council (1905-1908, 1915-1916), and Leader of the House of Lords (1908-1916). In 1911, he was created Earl of Madeley and Marquess of Crewe. As an Ambassador to France (1922-1928), he launched a fund to create a British Institute in Paris (now the University of London Institute in Paris). He briefly acted as Secretary of State for War in 1931. From 1936 and throughout the Second World War, Crewe was a leader of the Independent Liberals in the House of Lords. He was the author of his father-in-law's biography "Lord Rosebery" (2 vols., 1931).

In 1880, he married Sibyl Marcia Graham (1857–1887), and in 1899, he remarried Lady Margaret Etrenne Hannah Primrose (1881-1967). He died on June 20, 1945, in London, England.