Power and Passion in Egypt : a Life of Sir Eldon Gorst 1861-1911
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Power and Passion in Egypt For Paul and Karen By the same author: Kitchener’s Sword-Arm: The Life and Campaigns of General Sir Archibald Hunter A Life of Sir John Gorst: Disraeli’s Awkward Disciple Wellington’s Scapegoat: The Tragedy of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Bevan Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © Archie Hunter, 2007 The right of Archie Hunter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. International Library of Colonial History 7 isbn 978 1 84511 364 3 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Typeset in Garamond Premier Pro by Steve Tribe, Andover Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd Contents List of Illustrations vii Preface and Acknowledgements ix Chapter 1 Childhood 1 Chapter 2 Eton and Cambridge 6 Chapter 3 Choosing a Career 13 Chapter 4 Egypt: Insolvency and Occupation 20 Chapter 5 Climbing the Ladder 35 Chapter 6 Jessica Sykes 52 Chapter 7 Adviser to the Ministry of the Interior 68 Chapter 8 Romaine Turnure 83 Chapter 9 Financial Adviser: A Summit Achieved 98 Chapter 10 Financial Adviser: Place Assured 113 Chapter 11 Marriage at Last 124 Chapter 12 Negotiating the Anglo-French Entente, 1904 133 Chapter 13 Interlude: At the Foreign Office 146 Chapter 14 Succeeding Lord Cromer and the Rise of Nationalism 160 Chapter 15 The Liberal Experiment Begins 174 Chapter 16 Political and Administrative Reforms 186 Chapter 17 Law and Order in the Sudan 202 vi Power and passion in egypt Chapter 18 The Suez Canal Concession and the Assassination of Boutros Ghali Pasha 212 Chapter 19 The Final Year 231 Chapter 20 Reflections 242 Notes 251 Bibliography 267 Index 271 illustrations 1. Eldon Gorst and his toys: Gorst is depicted as the puppet- master controlling the Egyptian Cabinet (Cairo Punch) xii 2. Eldon Gorst as a boy (Paul Lysley) 8 3. Eldon Gorst as a young man (Paul Lysley) 16 4. Riaz Pasha, Premier of Egypt, 1879–1882, 1888–1891 and 1893–1894 (Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, USA) 27 5. Sir Evelyn Baring, later Lord Cromer, Agent and Consul- General in Egypt, 1883–1907 (Durham University Library) 38 6. Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive of Egypt, 1892–1914 (Prince Abbas Hilmi) 49 7. Princess Nazli (Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, USA) 55 8. Jessica Sykes (Sir Tatton Sykes, Bt.) 64 9. Nubar Pasha, Premier of Egypt, 1878–1879, 1884–1888 and 1894–1895 (Paul Lysley) 73 10. Sir John Gorst, Eldon Gorst’s father, Minister of Education, 1895–1902 (Sir John Gorst) 79 11. Romaine Turnure (Prudence de Lotbinière) 85 12. Hylda Hunter, Eldon Gorst’s sister, and her elder son (author) 89 13. Eva Gorst, Eldon Gorst’s sister (Paul Lysley) 122 14. Evelyn (Doll) Gorst, Eldon Gorst’s wife (Paul Lysley) 131 15. Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, 1905–1916 (Imperial War Museum: Q42035) 153 viii Power and passion in egypt 16. The Gorsts arrive in Cairo, April 1907 (Bystander) 163 17. Eldon Gorst as Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, 1907 (Paul Lysley) 171 18. Eldon Gorst the High Wire Artist: Gorst is shown walking a tightrope between the Khedive’s Abdin Palace and the British Agency (Paul Lysley: original provenance unknown) 177 19. Boutros Ghali Pasha, Premier of Egypt, 1908–1910 (Houghton Mifflin, Co, Boston, USA) 193 20. Sir William Garstin, irrigation engineer and administrator (Durham University Library) 214 Preface and Acknowledgements t the time of King Edward VII’s Coronation in 1902, the great British Apublic suddenly found that there were two Sir John Eldon Gorsts to contend with. Ever since, and not entirely surprisingly, the two men have often been confused. One was John Gorst, the Conservative politician and social reformer who, aged 72, was just stepping down after a long stint as Minister of Education, and the other was his son, aged 41, a member of the Diplomatic Service and a fast-rising star in the Egyptian Administration. It is the younger Gorst, known as Jack, who is the subject of this book. In the 30 years prior to the First World War, three British proconsuls were effectively the rulers of Egypt: Cromer, Kitchener and Gorst. The first two were household names and are still well remembered. For many, however, Jack Gorst has been a rather shadowy figure, his tenure of office of just four years being sandwiched between the two titans. Although Robert Tignor and Peter Mansfield had chapters on Gorst in books on British rule in Egypt written some 35 years ago, Gorst has tended to be neglected by historians, despite the availability for research of his diaries and remarkable autobiographical notes. But in 1977 Peter Mellini published in the USA, as a contribution to the Hoover Institution’s programme of African colonial studies, a revealing and timely biography of Gorst entitled Sir Eldon Gorst: The Overshadowed Proconsul. Since then, more information about Gorst, notably about his private life, has emerged. My aim in this book is to bring Power and passion in egypt Gorst, who was my great uncle, to the attention of the general public on this side of the Atlantic, as well as to academics and students of history, at a time when the affairs of the Middle East continue to preoccupy the world. acknowledgements I am grateful to the following for allowing me to use and quote from documents including unpublished copyright material in their hands: the Syndics of Cambridge University Library (Hardinge Papers); Mr Martin Dane (Wingate Papers); East Riding of Yorkshire Council Archives, Beverley (Strickland – Constable Papers); Mr Paul Lysley (Gorst Papers); National Archives, Kew (Cromer, Grey, Foreign Office and Cabinet Office Papers); the Librarian, New College, Oxford (Milner Papers); News International (Moberly Bell Papers); the Master and Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge (Storrs Papers); and the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge (Trinity College records). I should like to thank for their help the staff of the following libraries and institutions: the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Cambridge University Library; Crewkerne Library; Durham University Library; Eton College Library; the Archives Section at County Hall Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire Council; Exeter Central Reference Library; the Middle East Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford; the National Archives, Kew; and Trinity College Library, Cambridge. For their much appreciated help in various ways I owe a special debt of gratitude both to my cousin Paul Lysley and to my brother David Hunter. I am also particularly indebted to Professor Peter Mellini, who generously gave me access to his research papers and material on Gorst; to Henry Keown-Boyd and Sir John Gorst who both read my typescript and made valuable suggestions about it; to Prudence de Lotbinière, who helped me with Chapter 8 on her grandmother; and to Damian Bettles for his professional contribution regarding the illustrations. Others who helped in a variety of ways and whom I also thank were: Prince Abbas Hilmi, Patricia Aske, Vanessa Bell, Hugo von Dumreicher, Colin Harris, Professor Robert Harrison, Penelope Hatfield, Jane Hogan, Karen Lysley, Russell McGuirk, Derek and Hamish Mountain, Michael Richards, Pen Rudd, Robert Shearer, Roy Smart, John Smith, Jonathan Smith, Andrew Stuart, Sir Tatton Sykes and Debbie Usher. I also wish to acknowledge the guidance I received from Dr Lester Crook and Liz Friend-Smith at I.B.Tauris, and from Steve Tribe. preface and acknowledgements i My text was typed up by Sigrún Hólmsteinsdóttir Appleby, who produced with zeal and patience an immaculate typescript from my often difficult manuscript. I am most grateful to her. The last word goes to my wife Mirabel who, as always, provided continuous back-up and unstinting support in all phases of this enterprise. 1. Eldon Gorst and His Toys: Gorst is depicted as the puppet-master controlling the Egyptian Cabinet. Chapter 1 Childhood The task of removing a family from Auckland to the heart of the Waikato country [80 miles away], now accomplished by railway in a few hours, was then a work of difficulty: there were chairs and tables, pots and pans, to be bought for the house, and stores to last as long as possible in the remote bush. An honest Scotchman with a wife and a little girl of twelve, who had come out on the Red Jacket [a famous clipper], agreed to go as servants. A young lady, engaged to be married to a captain in the army, begged to come with us as company for my wife Mary; and Mr. Marsden Clarke, the clerk and interpreter, was to live with us till his own house was ready. Having got our baggage and servants packed off … we turned our attention to the removal of my infant son Jack, which proved a very arduous business, occupying a whole week … We were favoured with beautiful weather … The first day’s journey was very easy and pleasant, as we drove along a good road in a dog-cart, and the second in a spring cart through the Hunua forest was not so very bad.