Governors and Viceroys

Governors-General

This position was created by Lord North’s Regulating Act (1773), which also set up a four- member governing council. 1774 - Warren Hastings - (1732 - 1818) 1785 The first man to hold the position of Governor-General of India was Warren Hastings. He became a clerk by the East India Company in 1750 and soon became manager of a trading post in Bengal. After the British recapture of the Calcutta in 1757, he was made British resident at Murshidabad. In 1761 Hastings was appointed to the Calcutta council. He returned to England in1764 disgusted with administrative corruption in Bengal. In 1769 Hastings went back to India as a member of the Madras council and became governor of Bengal 1772 where he carried out judicial and financial reform, law codification, and the suppression of banditry, set up a civil service, dismissed native tax-collectors and appointed British collectors who were strictly forbidden to take bribes, and measures that laid the foundation of direct British rule in India. Hastings was a patron of Indian learning and was keenly interested in Indian literature and philosopy. In 1774, he was appointed Governor- General of India. In the succeeding years Hastings was greatly hampered by opposition in the council. He resigned his position in India in 1784 and returned to Britain where he was impeached in Parliament for the acts of extortion and other charges pertaining to his conduct of Indian affairs. His prosecution lasted ten years and although he was vindicated he was financially ruined. 1785 - Sir John MacPherson - (c1745 - 1821) 1886 From Sleat, Isle of Skye, Scotland, Sir John MacPherson (1st baronet) was appointed as an Acting Governor-General. He later became a member of the British Parliament for Horsham from 1796 to 1802. 1786 - Charles Cornwallis – 2nd Earl Cornwallis (1738-1805) 1795 Cornwallis joined the army 1757 as an Ensign in the 1st Foot Guards as Ensign. In 1760 he became a Member of Parliament for Wye in Kent. Two years later he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl Cornwallis. Over the next years he served the British Army in Germany, as a staff officer to Lord Granby and was assigned to the 85th Regiment of Foot then the 11th Foot. At the Battle of Villinghausen in 1771 he was noted for his gallantry. Cornwallis was a British general during the American War of Independence. His defeat in 1781 at the Siege of Yorktown is considered the end of the war as the majority of British soldiers surrendered then although minor skirmishes continued for a further two years. In 1786 Cornwallis was appointed Governor General and Command in Chief in India. He instituted land reforms and reorganised the British army and administration. He defeated the Sultan of Mysore in 1792, the same year he was given the title of Marquis. He returned to England in 1793. Cornwallis was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland just before the outbreak of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. The execution of prisoners of war after the Battle of Ballinamuck in Ballinalee for which he gained notoriety that remains to this day. 1795 - Sir John Shore – (1751-1834) 1798 Shore joined the East India company in 1768 as a writer in Kolkata. For a time he worked with Warren Hastings in the Secret Political Department where he learnt Persian and Bangla. He was principal revenue adviser during Hastings’ tenure are Governor General. He married an Indian woman and had an immense knowledge of Bengal revenue affairs, institutions, customs and habits, which influenced the Court of Directors to appoint him as a member of the Council of the Governor General in 1787. In 1793 Shore was appointed Governor General of India. His policy was to consolidate and govern well without indulging in avoidable foreign adventures. Shore was renowned for his absolute honesty at a time when company officials were generally corrupt and the norm was making quick fortunes by plundering. Shore was honoured with a baronet in 1792. His tenure lasted until 1798. His love of oriental culture saw him appointed president of the Asiatic Society in 1794. In 1798 he was made an Irish Peer. 1798 - Richard Colley Wellesley – Marquess Wellesley (1760-1842) 1805 He was born at Dangan Castle, Ireland on 20 June 1760, eldest son of the 1st Earl of Mornington. His younger brother was the 1st Duke of Wellington. In 1781 Richard Wellesley became the 2nd Earl of Mornington. He entered the English House of Commons in 1784 and was made Lord of the Treasury in 1786. In April 1798 in arrived in India as Governor-General. He expanded British power in India by annexation and sub alliances with native princes, often against the orders of the East India Company. Intense criticism in England of Wellelsey’s policy forced his resignation in 1805. Several attempts, which failed, were made to impeach Wellelsey. During 1809 he was ambassador to Spain and in 1821 he became lord lieutenant of Ireland. Wellesley died at Kingston House, Brompton, England, on 26 September 1842 and was buried in the Eton College Chapel. 1805 Charles Cornwallis – 2nd Earl Cornwallis (1738-1805) Cornwallis was appointed Governor-General of India for a second term in 1805 at the age of 67. His task was to put an end to "this most unprofitable and ruinous warfare" between rival native factions. He was not long in India when he was stricken by fever. On October 5, 1805, Cornwallis died at Ghazipore on the Ganges River where his grave and monument are still maintained by the Indian government. 1805 - Sir George Hilaro Barlow (1762-1847) 1807 He was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service in 1778, and in 1788 was responsible for the permanent settlement of British in Bengal. In 1803 he was created a baronet. When the Marquess of Cornwallis died in 1805, Barlow was nominated provisional governor-general but his nomination was rejected in England. The appointment went instead to the 1st Earl of Minto. Barlow was created governor of Madras, where his lack of tact caused a mutiny of officers in 1809. In 1812 he was recalled to England and lived in retirement until his death in February 1847. 1807 - Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound – 1st Earl of Minto 1813 (1751-1814) Born Gilbert Elliot in Edinburgh, Scotland on 23 April 1751.He entered the law profession after leaving university. In 1771 he became an independent Whig MP for Morpeth. He was appointed to govern Corsica in 1794. In 1797 he assumed the additional names of Murray-Kynynmound and was created Baron Minto. He had only been a member of the Board of Control for a few months when he was appointed Governor-General of India at the end of 1806. During his time in India the British consolidated their power in the subcontinent and extended their influence into South East Asia. He governed with great success until 1813. In that year he was created Viscount Melgund and Earl of Minto. He died at Stevenage, England on 21 June 1814 and was buried in Westminster Abby. 1813 - Francis Rawdon-Hastings – 1st Marquess of Hastings and 1823 2nd Earl of Moira (1754-1826) He joined the British army in 1771 and served in the American Revolutionary War. In 1793 he succeeded his father as the 2nd Earl of Moira. He entered the British parliament in 1806 as a Whig but resigned the following year. He was appointed Governor-General of India in 1813. His time there was noted for his overseeing the victory in the Gurkha War (1814-1816), the conquest of the Marathas in 1818 and the purchase of the island of Singapore in 1819. He was raised to the rank of Marquess of Hastings in 1817. Although his tenure in India was largely successful it ended 1823 when he was removed from office for refusing to lower the field pay of offices in the Bengal Army during peacetime. In 1824 he was appointed Governor-General of Malta. He died at sea off Naples two years later. 1823 John Adam He was acting Governor-General in 1823, filling in during the period between when Francis Rawdon-Hastings was removed from office until William Pitt Amherst took up his appointment to Governor-General. 1823 - William Pitt Amherst – 1st Earl Amherst (1773-1857) 1828 He was the nephew of Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst and succeeded to his title in 1797. In 1816 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the court of China’s Qing Dynasty with a view of establishing better trading relations between China and Britain. He was unable to enter Perking(Beijing) because he refused to kowtow to the Chinese Emperor with the consequence that his mission to China was unsuccessful. He was appointed Governor-General when Francis Rawdon-Hastings was removed from that office in 1823. He was created Earl of Amherst, of Arracan in the East Indies, and Viscount Holmesdale, in the County of Kent, in 1826. He was an inexperienced governor heavily influenced by senior military officers in Bengal. He ordered troops to the Anglo-Burmese border over a territorial dispute that developed into a war that lasted two years, cost 13 million, contributed to an economic crisis in India and saw 15,000 British soldiers killed. Powerful friends ensured he was not recalled in disgrace. He was replaced in 1828. On his return to England he lived in retirement till his death in March 1857. 1828- Lord William Bentinck – (1774-1839) 1835 He joined the army and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1803 he was nominated governor of Madras, but quarrelled with the chief justice and members of his council. The sepoy mutiny at Vellore in 1807 led to his recall. He had been considered for the post of Governor-General at that time but it was awarded to Lord Minto instead. He was appointed twenty years later, in 1827, when he succeeded Lord Amherst to the position. His tenure was notable for the suppression of the Thugs, the abolition of suttee and for making the English language the basis of education in India. He allowed the appointment of Indians as subordinate judges, enhanced their salaries and increased their jurisdiction. He allowed the use English in the higher courts and local languages in the lower courts, which made the justice system accessible to all kinds of people. His administration was mostly peaceful, progressive and successful. He died at Paris on 17 June 1839. 1835 - Charles Theophilus Metcalfe – Baron Metcalfe (1785-1846) 1836 Charles Metcalfe, born in Calcutta in 1785, was the second son of Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, a major in the Bengal Army who later became a director of the East India Company, and was created a baronet in 1802. Charles Theophilis Metcalfe was educated at Eton and returned to India in 1800 as a writer in the service of the East India Company. In 1813 Metcalfe was made Resident at Delhi, and from 1820 Resident at the Court of the Nizam until 1825 when he returned to his post in Delhi. He succeeded his brother to the baronetcy in 1822. He later became the first governor of the new Presidency of Agra. In March 1835 he became Governor-General of India. He tenure lasted only one year. He was a popular Governor but his relationship with the directors of the East India Company in London was complicated and he resigned in 1836. The following year he was Governor of Jamaica but resigned because of his health and returned to England in 1842. Six months later he was appointed Governor- General of Canada. He was rewarded with a peerage on his return to England in 1845. Metcalfe died at Malshanger, near Basingstoke on 5 September 1846. 1836 - George Eden – 1st Earl of Auckland (1784-1849) 1842 After the death of his father, the 1st Baron Auckland, and his elder brother he became the 2nd Baron Auckland. In 1809 he was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn and entitled to practice as a Barrister-at-Law. In 1830 he was made president of the Board of Trade and master of the Mint and in 1835 he was appointed Governor-General of India. He was a laborious legislator and was devoted to the improvement of native schools and the expansion of commercial industry. In 1838, during the early success of the war with Afghanistan, he received the title of Earl of Auckland and 1st Baron Eden, of Norwood, Surrey. However, in later campaigns the British troops suffered severe disasters. In 1841 he was succeeded in office by Lord Ellenborough and returned to England the following year. In 1846 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, which he retained until 1 January 1849 when he died of a stroke. He never married so the earldom of Auckland the Barony of Eden became extinct but the Barony he had inherited from his father passed to his brother Robert. 1842 - Edward Law – 1st Earl of Ellenborough (1790–1871) 1844 He held a seat in the House of Commons until his father’s death in 1818 gave him a seat in the House of Lords. Ellenborough was appointed to succeed Lord Auckland as Governor-General of India. His administration lasted two and a half years and from beginning to end was subject to hostile criticism. Ellenborough went to India intending to restore peace to Asia but the whole of his term of office was occupied in war. During his tenure he annexed Sind and subjugated Gwalior. Often criticised as vain and theatrical, Ellenborough’s despatches to England were haughty and disrespectful and the directors of the Board of Control had no control over Ellenborough and his policies. In June 1844 they exercised their power by recalling him. On his return to England he was created an earl and received thanks from parliament. In 1846 he became First Lord of the Admiralty. In 1846 he took on the office of President of the Board of control for the fourth time. However he wrote a caustic despatch censuring Lord Canning that was published in The Times , which resulted in Ellenborough resigning. He never held office again. He died at Southam House, near Chelthenham in 1871. 1844 - Charles Stewart Hardinge – 2nd Viscount Hardinge of 1848 Lurran (1822-1894) Hardinge lost his left hand in the Napoleonic wars. He became a Tory MP in 1820 and served a Secretary at War from 1828 to 1830 and again from 1841 to 1844. He was appointed Governor- General of India in 1844. The first Sikh war was fought during his tenure. He served in that position until 1848. In 1855 he was made a Field Marshall. Lord Hardinge – Viscount Hardinge (1785-1856) In 1844 Hardinge succeeded his brother-in-law Lord Ellenborough who had been recalled. He had been a professional solider before his assignment in India. During his tenure he promoted the plans for the railway system in India and for the Ganges Canal. He continued Bentinck’s initiative to suppress sati, infanticide and human sacrifices, which Hindus still practised, particularly in the hilly areas of Orissa. He established schools and introduced Sunday as the weekly holiday for government offices. The first Sikh war (1845-46), which ended with the Treaty of Lahore, occurred during his tenure, and after which he was made a Viscount. Hardinge retired from the position of Governor-General of India in 1848. In 1852 he succeeded the Duke of Wellington as commander-in-chief of the British Army, which he did much to improve and modernise. He died on 24 September 1856 and a statue of him was erected in Calcutta. 1848 - James Andrew Broun-Ramsay Dalhousie – 10th Earl and 1st Marquis of 1856 Dalhousie (1812–1860) He was the third son of the 9th Earl of Dalhousie. He was a member of Parliament for Haddingtonshire until his father’s death in 1838 when he succeeded to the title of 10th Earl of Dalhousie. He was Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856. He was considered a very arrogant man and it was his action that precipitated the Sepoy rebillion. He ruled India energetically, annexed territory, developed the resources, communication and transportation lines. He returned to Britain because of his health, received the thanks of parliament, and was elevated to Marquis of Dalhousie. He died in 1860. Viceroys

In 1858 the administration of India was transferred from the Honourable East India Company to the British crown. From that date the head of the British administration in India had the title of Viceroy. The wife of a Viceroy was called a Vicerine. 1858 - Charles John Canning – 2nd Viscount Canning and 1st Earl Canning (1822- 1862 1862) He took his seat at Viscount Canning in the House of Lords in 1837. Was undersecretary for foreign affairs from 1841 to 1846 and Postmaster General from 1853 to 1855. In 1856 he was appointed Governor-General of India. He became known as “Clemency Canning” for his efforts to restrain revenge against Indians during the Indian Mutiny. In 1858 when the government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the British crown, Canning became the first Viceroy of India. He was created Earl Canning in 1859. Due to impaired health and the effects on him of the death of his wife he retired from office in 1862 and returned to England, dying just a few months later on 17 June 1862. 1862 - James Bruce – 8th Earl of Elgin (1811-1863) 1863 Bruce served as Governor of Jamaica from 1842 to 1846 and in 1847 was appointed Governor-General of Canada where he put into operations Durham’s proposals for responsible government, improved education and helped the Canadian economy. After negotiating the reciprocity treaty of 1854 with the United States, he returned to England. During the period of 1857 to 1860 Bruce negotiated British trade agreements with China and Japan. He was appointed as Viceroy of India in 1862 but shortly afterwards died in office in 1863. 1864 - Sir John Laird Lawrence – Baron Lawrence of the Punjab (1811-1879) 1869 Lawrence joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1830. Several of his brothers were in the British Indian services. He and his brother, Sir Henry Lawrence, were members of the Board of Commissioners set up to oversee the settlement of the Punjab after its annexation in 1849. The two brothers quarrelled over how the settlement was to be done and the Dalhousie administration asked the elder brother, Sir Henry Lawrence who had been president of the Commission to resign. John Lawrence took over the responsibility for the Punjab settlement, for which he received a great deal of credit. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1859. On the death of the Earl of Elgin Lawrence was appointed Viceroy of India in January 1864. Under Lawrence’s administration there was a focus on improved health and sanitation, irrigation, local self-government and the development of the railways. His Municipal Act of 1864 inaugurated the system of representative local government in Bengal. He retired in January 1869 and was Baron Lawrence of the Punjab. Lawrence died in 1879 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 1869 - Richard Bourke – 6th Earl of Mayo (1822-1872) 1872 Born in Dublin, Ireland he was an Irish statesman and a member of the British Conservative Party. He was appointed three times as Chief Secretary for Ireland – in 1852, 1858 and 1866. In 1869 he became Viceroy of India. He consolidated the frontiers of India, reorganised the country’s finances, promoted irrigation, railways, forests and other public works. He was assassinated while visiting the convict settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman islands by Sher Ali, a convict. 1872 - Thomas George Baring Northbrook – 2nd Baron Northbrook (1826-1904) 1876 Lord Northbrook’s grandfather, Baring, was a director of the East India Company and many of his family had lived and worked in India since the 1780s. Northbrook was appointed as Viceroy of India in May 1872. He believed in free trade and abolished all export duties except those on rice, oil, indigo and lac. Although pressed to also abolish import tax he only reduced it to 5%. He disagreed with the Home Government about their policies for checking Russian influence in Afghan. Early in 1876 the India Office directed that Northbrook abolish import duties altogether, which resulted in him resigning, arguing that such a decision would harm the Indian economy. 1876 - Edward Robert Lytton – 1st Earl of Lytton (1831-1891) 1880 Edward Robert Lytton was a noted as an eloquent speaker and was a member of the diplomatic corps. He was appointed Viceroy of India from 1876 to 1880. For the first two years of his tenure famine raged over most of Madras, Bombay, Hyderbad, Mysore, Central India and the Punjab causing a heavy loss of life. In 1877 Lytton celebrated Queen Victoria’s assumption to the title of Empress of India with a magnificent Dunbar. During Lytton’s administration duty of salt was made uniform, income tax was introduced, and duty on cotton cloth abolished, which helped English textile mills but was detrimental to the cotton industry in India. He established the Statutory Civil Service in 1879, which opened the Indian civil service to everyone, in accordance with the Charter Act of 1853. Lytton resigned in 1880 due to criticism of the heavy loss of lives during the famine, his Vernacular Press Act which allowed magistrates to suppress what the press could publish was unpopular and abolished during his successor’s administration, and his war on Afghanistan in 1878, which was expensive and cost many lives. He was made an Earl in 1880 and served as ambassador to Frame from 1887 to 1891. Lytton died in Paris in 1891.s 1880 - George Frederick Samuel Ripon – 1st Earl of Ripon (1827-1909) 1884 He was a member of parliament from 1852 to 1879 during which time he held several posts including Under Secretary for India from 1861 to 1863 and Secretary of State for India in 1866. These were not his only connection with India. He had also twice held high posts in the India Office. He was made a Marquess in 1871. In June 1880 he became Viceroy of India. He ended the Anglo-Afghan war and entered into a peace treaty with the Afghan Amir. Ripon also changed the system of nominating people to local government to an election system. Opposition by British civilians meant his electoral system was not fully implemented so local committees held both nominated and elected members. Ripon’s high priority given to education meant a new education policy and seeing primary and collegiate schools established. He met with resistance when he repealed the controversial Vernacular Press Act (1878) put in place by Lytton’s administration by Anglo-Indians who opposed the idea of granting freedom of the press to Indians. They also opposed the Ilbert Bill which banned the protected status of the Europeans and sort equality for all citizens. Ripon ended his tenure as Viceroy in December 1884; popular with the native Indians and detested by the Anglo Indian community. 1884 - Frederick Hamilton-Blackwood - 1st Viscount of Dufferin (1826-1902) 1888 Dufferin had held diplomatic posts in Syria, Turkey and Russia and been Governor General of Canada before being appointed Viceroy of India in 1884. More a diplomat than an administrator, Dufferin’s major preoccupation was external affairs dealing successfully with the troubles in Afghanstan in 1885 and annexing Upper Burma in 1886. He carefully and cautiously approved the newly formed Indian National Congress and raised a para-military force called Imperial Service Corps, which was officered by Indians and only inspected by British commanders. This corps was the beginning of the modern Indian army. He enacted the Bengal Tenancy Act (1885) that improved landlord/tenant relations. His Dufferin Report on the conditions of Indian peasant and works was used by nationalist to counter the Anglo-India belief that the conditions of ordinary people in India had improved under British rule. After his retirement in 1888 Dufferin became President of the British Geographical Society, Rector of Edinburgh and St Andrew’s universities and published several intellectual works. Dufferin died on 12 February 1902. 1888 - Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice - 5th Marquis of Lansdowne (1845-1927) 1894 He was appointed Viceroy of India in 1888, having already served as Governor General of Canada, Foreign Secretary of Great Britain and deputy leader of the Conservative Party. Lansdowne’s administration was a period of peace, progress and some development work. Railway and irrigation works were extended, China recognised the British conquest of Burma, the kingdom of Sikim was brought under British protection in 1888 and its boundary with Tibet and the India-Afghan border (the Durand Line) were demarcated. Lansdowne retired from the post of Viceroy in 1894 and was appointed Britain’s secretary of war in 1895, which he held until 1900. 1894 - Victor Alexander Bruce – 9th Earl of Elgin and 13th Earl of Kincardine (1849- 1899 1917) Bruce was born in Canada during his father’s tenure there as Governor-General. He was known to be a modest and retiring man but was persuaded to take the position of Viceroy of India. He served from 1894 to 1899 during a particularly troubled period in India’s history and consequently his tenure was not viewed as successful. He later was Chairman of the Royal Commission that investigated the conduct of the Boer War (1902-03) and was Colonial Secretary from 1905 until 1908. Bruce was given the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh in 1893 and appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1899. He died in Dunfermline, Scotland. 1899 - George Nathanial Curzon – 1st Marquess Curzon of 1905 Kedleston (1859-1925) Very few people ever felt neutral about Curzon. He was either liked or disliked with equal intensity. A spinal injury while horseback riding left Curzon in lifelong pain for which he wore a metal corset under his clothes. It gave the impression of stiffness and arrogance. He entered Parliament as the member for the Southport division of south-west Lancashire. He served as Under-Secretary of State for India during 1891 and 1892 and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1895 to 1898. He became the most travelled man who ever sat in a British cabinet and wrote several books describing central and eastern Asia and related policy issues. He was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society for his exploration of the source of the Oxus. On his appointment to Viceroy of India in January 1899 Curzon was created a Peer of Ireland as Baron Curzon of Kedleston, in the County of Derby. He was the last person to be created a Peer of Ireland. In India Curzon inaugurated a new province known as the North West Frontier. He sent a military expedition into Tibet led by Francis Younghusband to forestall a Russian advance. He held a number of commissions of inquiry into Indian education, police and other branches of administration on which legislation during his second term was based. In 1904 he was reappointed Governor-General for a second term and presided over the partition of Bengal, which was revoked in 1912 because of the bitterness it caused in the province. Curzon is still criticised for having done little to fight a major famine that occurred over large part of India during his time as viceroy, which affected and killed millions. He also undertook the restoration of the Taj Mahal. He resigned his position as Viceroy of India in August 1905 because of a difference of opinion with Lord Kitchener, the British military Commander-in-Chief in India. In 1919 Curzon was appointed Foreign Secretary for Britain and remained in that position until 1924. He died on 20 March 1925. 1904 Arthur Oliver Villiers Russell - 2nd Baron Ampthill (1869-1935) Appointed Viceroy during Lord Curzon's absence in 1904. Although he performed his responsibility creditably nothing remarkable happened during his tenure to test his capabilities. 1905 - Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound – 4th Earl of 1910 Minto (1845-1914) He joined the army in 1867 and served in the Scots Fusilier Guards, had a racing career between 1869 and 1876, was a newspaper correspondent in several countries, participated in the Second Afghan War of 1878 and in 1884 became military secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who at that time was Governor- General of Canada. Minto succeeded to his father’s titles in 1886. Minto served as Governor General of Canada from 1898 to 1904. His tenure in Canada was marked by controversy and political strife. He was inexperienced in government and was critical and distrusting of politicians. He promoted sport, protected Canada’s miners and native peoples from the neglect and mismanagement of government and attempted to forge a closer relationship between French and English Canadians. In 1905 he was appointed Viceroy of India until 1910. He worked with John Morely to produce the Morely-Minto reforms of 1909, which increased native membership on the advisory legislative councils of the viceroy and began India’s advance to self-rule. He was then appointed Viceroy of India from 1905 to 1910. He worked with John Morely to produce the Morely-Minto reforms of 1909, which increased native membership on the advisory legislative councils of the viceroy and began India’s advance to self-rule. 1910 - Charles Hardinge – 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858-1944) 1916 He was the second son of the 2nd Viscount Hardinge who had been Governor-General of India from 1844 to 1848. Hardinge entered the diplomatic service in 1880 and served in Teheran in 1896 and St Petersburg in 1898. From 1906 until 1910 he was Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In that role he accompanied King Edward VII on his foreign visits. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1904 and G. C. M. G. in 1905. Sir Charles Hardinge he was ambassador to Russia from 1904 to 1906. In 1910 Hardinge was appointed Viceroy of India and raised to the peerage with the title of 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst. In December 1922, while entering the city of Delhi in state a bomb was thrown at him causing serious injuries and killing an attendant. His wife, the Hon Winifred Selina Sturt, daughter of the 1st Baron of Alington, escaped unhurt. She did much during her stay in India to further the medical training of Indian women. During his tenure King George V visited India and the capital of India was moved from Calcutta to New Delhi. Because of Hardinge’s efforts elations between the British administration and the Indian nationalists improved, which enabled Britian to deploy nearly all of its troops in India as well as many Indian troops to areas outside of India during World War One. In 1916 Hardinge returned to England and once again appointed Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office. From 1920 to 1922 he was ambassador to France. He retired in 1922 and died at Penshurst, Kent in August 1944. 1916 - Frederic John Napier Thesiger – 1st Viscount Chelmsford (1868-1933) 1921 He served as governor in Australia in Queensland from 1905 to 1909 and New South Wales from 1909-1913. In 1916 he was appointed Viceroy of India. His tenure began with the defeat of the British army in Mesopotamia and Indian discontent as World War One progressed. In return for Indian loyalty to British war-efforts, Chelmsford began work on promised reforms, which were incorporated in the Government of India Act of 1919, recommended limited representative government and a divided control in the administration of the provinces (known as a diarchy). The proposed reforms, which came into operation in 1921, did not appease the Indian nationalist leaders and widespread unrest resulted. This situation was worsened by the Rawlatt Act of 1919 which empowered judges to try political cases without the assistance of juries and gave provincial government powers to arrest for political offences. The government instigated martial law in several places including the Punjab where the Lieutenant Governor and others committed severe atrocities; a crowd attending a peaceful political meeting was mown down with machine-guns and elsewhere people were subjected to public flogging and crawling in the dust under the hot sun. Chelmsford did nothing to stop these atrocities, repress the offenders or redress the cruelties committed. Chelmsford was recalled to England in 1921. That same year he was created a Viscount and in 1924 he was made First Lord of the Admiralty. He died on 1 April 1933. 1921 - Rufus Daniel Isaacs – 1st Marquess of Reading (1860-1935) 1926 He was the son of a Jewish fruit merchant at Spittlefields, London and entered the family business when he was fifteen. He later served as a ships-boy, then jobber on the stock exchange and eventually became a prosperous lawyer. Isaacs was the Liberal Party MP for the Reading constituency from 1904 until 1913. During this period he served as Solicitor-General and Attorney-General. He was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Reading in 1914, Viscount Reading in 1916 then Viscount Erleigh and Earl Reading in 1917. In 1918 and 1919 he was Ambassador to the United States while retaining his position as Lord Chief Justice. In 1921 he resigned as Lord Chief Justice to become Viceroy of India. Although he took a conciliatory stance he used forced on several occasions and imprisoned Mahatma Gandhi in 1922. His tenure as Viceroy of India ended in 1926, the same year he became Marquess of Reading. This is the highest rank in the Peerage reached by a Jew in British history. He changed his surname to Rufus Isaacs, which is still used by his descendants. The Reading Power Station in Tel-Aviv, Israel was named in honour of him. 1926 - Edward Frederick Lindley Wood – 1st Earl of Halifax (1881-1959) 1931 He was born with a withered arm and no left hand. He was Member of Parliament for Ripon from 1910 to 1925. He was created Baron Irwin in 1925 and appointed Viceroy of India in 1926. He was considered the right choice to deal with Mahatma Gandhi. His tenure in India was a period of political turmoil. The exclusion of Indians from the Commission studying the country’s readiness for self-government provoked violence and Irwin was forced into concessions that were not well received in London. Irwin had all member of the Indian National Congress imprisoned before negotiations with Gandhi, which were stymied because London refused to make concessions. Irwin resorted to using his emergency powers to arrest Gandhi, crush opposition and ban public meetings. Gandhi’s detention only made matters worse. Ultimately Irwin signed the Delhi Pac in 1931, which ended civil disobedience and the boycott of British goods and the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, after which the Civil Disobedience Movement was suspended. In April 1931 Irwin retired and left India. In 1934 he inherited the title of Viscount Halifax from his father. He was the Foreign Secretary at the time of the Munich Agreement in 1938. He was later appointed Ambassador to the USA but asked to retire from the position in 1942 when his second son died in combat. He wrote an autobiography in 1957 and for a time was Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and Chairman of the BBC. He died just before Christmas in 1959. 1931 - George Freeman-Thomas – 1st Marquess of Willingdon (1866-1941) 1936 He was a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for Hastings and Bodmin from 1900 to 1910. In 1910 he was raised to the peerage as a Baron, promoted to Viscount in 1924, Earl in 1931 and in 1931 was the last non-royal to be created a Marquess. Also in 1931 he was appointed Viceroy of India. He persuaded the Indian National Congress to join the second Round Table Conference, fizzled out the second Civil Disobedience Movement, helped shape the Government of India Bill (1935), and implemented the India Act of 1935. Just before the first election held under that Act his tenure and out and Lord Linlithgow inaugurated the elective system that Willingdon had devised. 1936 - Victor Alexander John Hope - 2nd Marquis of Linlithgow 1943 (1887-19--) Prior to his being appointed Viceroy of India in 1936 Linlithgow earned a reputation as a specialist in Indian politics. He oversaw the introduction of the India Act of 1935 and the first general elections in all the British provinces of India during 1937. Linlithgow made several constitutional and political changes of significance. Sind was separated from Bombay and became a separate province and Orissa was also made a new province. Burma was separated from India and given its own constitution. The eleven provinces of British India were made autonomous units of a federation, although not fully implemented having nearly been wrecked by differences between the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. Linlithgow’s belief in preserving and protecting the interests of minority communities ensured that they had representatives in all provincial governments and his reforms allowed for India to become fully independent without armed conflict. 1943 - Archibald Percival Wavell – 1st Earl Wavell (1883-1950) 1945 Wavell spent his childhood in India where his father was a major-general in the British Army. Wavell joined the Black Watch regiment in 1900 and fought in the Boer War. He transferred to the army in India in 1903 and in 1911 spent a year as a military observer with the Russian Army. In World War One he was wounded in the Battle of Ypres in 1915 and lost an eye. He remained in the British Army between the two world wars and just prior to the beginning of World War Two in 1939 he was appointed head of the Middle East Command. In 1941 Wavell was ordered to send troops to Greece and although he disagreed followed orders. The British were unable to defend Greece and were forced to withdraw to Crete with heavy losses. Wavell was replaced as Commander of the British forces and transferred to India as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army. After the loss of Singapore, Malaya and Burma to the Japanese Wavell was replaced, created a viscount and appointed Viceroy of India. He was instructed to main the status quo in India during the war. Wavell is considered the best Viceroy of India because understood the Indians and his presence in India prevented civic strife and tension. Although he requested several times to be removed from his post he did not step down until 1947 when the post was given to Viscount Mountbatten of Burma. He died in England in 1950. 1947 - Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten – 1st Earl 1950 Mountbatten of Burma (1900-1979) He was an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Louis Mountbatten served in the Royal Navy during World War One. He toured India with Edward, Prince of Wales in 1922. In World War Two he commanded a naval flotilla. His ship was HMS Kelly, which sank during the Crete Campaign. In 1942 Mountbatten was appointed Supreme Allied Commander of the South East Asia Theatre and held this post until that Command was disbanded in 1946. In 1947 he was appointed the last Viceroy of India overseeing the granting of independence to, and partition of, India and Pakistan. His relationship with the British monarchy helped when persuading most of the Indian princes to accede to the new states of India and Pakistan. At the signing of independence, Mountbatten became the last Viceroy of India and the first Governor-General of Independent India. He stepped down from the position in 1948. Mountbatten later became First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty and Chief of Defence Staff from 1959 to 1965. In 1974 Mountbatten was appointed first Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight, which he kept until his death. He was killed by a bomb planed in his boat by the Provisional IRA at Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland in 1979.