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Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst

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His Excellency The Right Honourable
The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst
KG GCB GCSI GCMG GCIE GCVO ISO PC
Viceroy and Governor-General of India
In office
23 November 1910 – 4 April 1916
MonarchGeorge V
Preceded byThe Earl of Minto
Succeeded byThe Lord Chelmsford
Personal details
Born20 June 1858 (1858-06-20)
Died2 August 1944 (1944-08-03) (aged 86)
Penshurst, Kent
NationalityBritish
SpouseWinifred Sturt (m. 1890, died 1914)
Children3
Parent
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge

Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, KG, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, ISO, PC[1] (20 June 1858 – 2 August 1944) was a British diplomat and statesman who served as Viceroy and Governor-General of India from 1910 to 1916.

Background and education

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Hardinge was the second son of Charles Hardinge, 2nd Viscount Hardinge, and the grandson of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge, a former Governor-General of India. He was educated Cheam School, Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge.[2][3]

Career

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1912 assassination attempt on Lord Hardinge.
Statue of Lord Hardinge at Coronation Park, Delhi

Hardinge entered the diplomatic service in 1880, and was attached to the embassy in Constantinople, where he was private secretary to the ambassador Lord Dufferin. Afterwards he transferred successively to Berlin, Washington (where he was acting chargé d′affairs) for a time), Sofia and Constantinople again. As chargé d′affairs in Bucharest he was involved in negotiating a treaty and a trade marks convention between the Unibeted Kingdom and Romania. In 1893 he transferred to Paris, and in 1895 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). He was appointed the first secretary at Tehran in 1896, and the first secretary at Saint Petersburg in 1898, when he was promoted over the heads of seventeen of his seniors. While in Russia, he acted several times as chargé d'affaires in the ambassador's absence (including in late 1902). In early 1903, he was called back home and appointed Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Foreign Office.[4] He was appointed Ambassador to Russia in March 1904.[1]

In 1906 Hardinge was again recalled and promoted to the position of Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, where despite his own conservatism, he worked closely with Liberal Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. In 1907, he declined the post of Ambassador to the United States. In 1910, Hardinge was raised to the peerage as Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, in the County of Kent,[5] and appointed by the Asquith government as Viceroy of India.[citation needed]

Hardinge and his wife Winifred during his term as Viceroy of India, ca. 1910–1916.

His tenure was a memorable one and included the visit of King George V and the Delhi Durbar of 1911, as well as the move of the capital from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1911. Although Hardinge was the target of assassination attempts with bomb attack by the Indian nationalists Rash Behari Bose and Sachin Sanyal, his tenure included an improvement of relations between the British administration and the nationalists, as a consequence of the implementation of the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909, and of Hardinge's own admiration for Mohandas Gandhi and criticism of the South African government's anti-Indian immigration policies.[citation needed]. Hardinge founded the Dhamrai Hardinge High School and College in 1914. The Hardinge Railway Bridge, now in Bangladesh, was constructed and inaugurated (1915) in his tenure.[6] It has continued to serve a crucial a role in the country's railway network.

Hardinge's efforts paid off in 1914 during the First World War. Improved colonial relationships allowed Britain to deploy nearly all of the British troops in India as well as many native Indian troops to areas outside India. In particular, the British Indian Army played a significant (though initially mismanaged) role in the Mesopotamian campaign.[7]

In 1916, Hardinge returned to his former post in England as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office,[1] serving with Arthur Balfour. In 1920, he became ambassador to France before his retirement in 1922.[citation needed]

Honours

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As well as the distinction of being awarded six British knighthoods, he also gained foreign awards:[1]

Personal life

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Hardinge family members in ox-cart in Hyderabad State (1911, attending the coronation of Asaf Jah VII)

He married his first cousin Winifred Selina Sturt on 17 April 1890, over the objections of her family, due to the couple's consanguinity[8] and Hardinge's financial status.[9] She was the second daughter of Henry Gerard Sturt, first Baron Alington, by his first wife Lady Augusta Bingham, who was the first daughter of George Charles Bingham, third Earl of Lucan. The couple had a daughter, Diamond Hardinge (1900–1927), and two sons, Edward and Alexander[1] (1894–1960), who succeeded him as Baron Hardinge of Penshurst.

The first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst is commemorated at St John the Baptist, Penshurst. His eldest son, The Hon. Edward Hardinge, died 18 December 1914, aged 22, from wounds while serving as a Lieutenant with the 15th (The King's) Hussars in France. He was also the godson of Alexandra of Denmark.[10] Diamond Hardinge was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince Albert, Duke of York, and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on 3 May 1923.[11]

Styles and honours

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Shield of Arms of Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, KG, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, ISO, PC, DL

Hardinge had the unusual distinction of being a non-royal recipient of six British knighthoods.[12]

  • June 1858 – July 1895: The Honourable Charles Hardinge
  • July 1895 – April 1903: The Honourable Charles Hardinge CB[13]
  • April 1903 – 7 March 1904: The Honourable Charles Hardinge CB CVO[14]
  • 7–26 March 1904: The Right Honourable Charles Hardinge CB CVO[15]
  • 26 March – 28 April 1904: The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge KCMG CB CVO[16]
  • 28 April – 10 May 1904: His Excellency The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge KCMG CB CVO[17]
  • 10 May 1904 – 2 January 1905: His Excellency The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge KCMG KCVO CB[18]
  • 2 January – 9 November 1905: His Excellency The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge GCMG KCVO CB[19]
  • 9 November 1905 – June 1906: The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge GCMG GCVO CB
  • June 1906 – 23 June 1910: The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge GCMG GCVO CB ISO[20]
  • 23 June – 2 August 1910: The Right Honourable Sir Charles Hardinge GCB GCMG GCVO ISO[21]
  • 2 August – 23 November 1910: The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst GCB GCMG GCVO ISO PC[5]
  • 23 November 1910 – 24 March 1916: His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst GCB GCSI GCMG GCIE GCVO ISO PC Viceroy & Governor-General of India
  • 24 March – 4 April 1916: His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst KG GCB GCSI GCMG GCIE GCVO ISO PC Viceroy & Governor-General of India[22]
  • 4 April 1916 – 27 November 1920: The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst KG GCB GCSI GCMG GCIE GCVO ISO PC
  • 27 November 1920 – 1 February 1923: His Excellency The Right Honourable the Lord Hardinge of Penshurst KG GCB GCSI GCMG GCIE GCVO ISO PC HM Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary to the French Republic[23]
  • 1 February 1923 – 2 August 1944: The Right Honourable The Lord Hardinge of Penshurst KG GCB GCSI GCMG GCIE GCVO ISO PC

Books written

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  • Old Diplomacy[24]
  • My Indian Years covers (1910–16) [25]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e (Hesilrige 1921, p. 444)
  2. ^ photo at Harrow Photos Archived 17 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine and cf List of Old Harrovians
  3. ^ "Hardinge, the Hon. Charles (HRDN876C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. ^ "The Foreign Office". The Times. No. 36986. London. 24 January 1903. p. 11.
  5. ^ a b "No. 28403". The London Gazette. 2 August 1910. p. 5581.
  6. ^ "Iconic Hardinge Bridge: A tale of 138 years". The Daily Star. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  7. ^ Lord Hardinge and the Mesopotamia Expedition and Inquiry, 1914–1917; Douglas Goold; The Historical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 919–945
  8. ^ for an explanation of this concept, see Alison Weir, Royal Genealogy (1989)
  9. ^ Prior, Katherine (January 2011) [2004]. "Hardinge, Charles, first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33703. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. ^ "Casualty Details | CWGC".
  11. ^ Daily Telegraph: royal wedding photograph; accessed 28 March 2014.
  12. ^ Prior, Katherine (2004). "Hardinge, Charles, first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944), diplomatist and viceroy of India". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33703. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 3 April 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. ^ "No. 26639". The London Gazette. 2 July 1895. p. 3740.
  14. ^ "No. 27560". The London Gazette. 2 June 1903. p. 3524.
  15. ^ "No. 27655". The London Gazette. 8 March 1904. p. 1521.
  16. ^ "No. 27662". The London Gazette. 29 March 1904. p. 2025.
  17. ^ "No. 27674". The London Gazette. 6 May 1904. p. 2923.
  18. ^ "No. 27675". The London Gazette. 10 May 1904. p. 3000.
  19. ^ "No. 27750". The London Gazette. 3 January 1905. p. 22.
  20. ^ "No. 27926". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 June 1906. p. 4462.
  21. ^ "No. 28388". The London Gazette (Supplement to the London Gazette Extraordinary). 24 June 1910. p. 4476.
  22. ^ "No. 29519". The London Gazette. 24 March 1916. p. 3175.
  23. ^ "No. 32145". The London Gazette. 30 November 1920. p. 11794.
  24. ^ Hardinge of Penshurst, Charles Hardin (2021). Old Diplomacy; the Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. Hassell Street Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-1013702396.
  25. ^ Hardinge of Penshurst, Lord (1948). My Indian Years 1910-1916: the Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. John Murray. p. 150.
Viceroy's Cabinet list from 1910 to 1915[1]

Sources

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Articles

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Further reading

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Government offices
Preceded by Viceroy of India
1910–1916 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by British Ambassador to Russia
1904–1906 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
1906–1910 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs
1916–1920 		Succeeded by
Preceded by British Ambassador to France
1920–1922 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Hardinge of Penshurst
1910–1944 		Succeeded by
  1. ^ Authority Of The Council (1913). Indian Army List For January I -1913.
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