Charles Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst

Lord Hardinge of Penshurst

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

Hardinge, the grandson of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge, a former Governor-General of India, was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the diplomatic service in 1880, and became ambassador to Russia in 1904. In 1906 he was promoted to the position of Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, and despite his own conservatism, worked closely with Liberal Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. Hardinge was thus raised to the peerage as Baron Hardinge of Penshurst in 1910, and appointed by the Asquith government as Viceroy of India.

His tenure was a memorable one, seeing 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 1912. Although Hardinge was the target of assassination attempts by Indian nationalists, his tenure generally saw better relations between the British administration and the nationalists, thanks to the implementation of the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909, Hardinge's own admiration for Mohandas Gandhi, and criticism of the South African government's anti-Indian immigration policies.

Hardinge's efforts paid off in 1914 during the First World War. Due to improved colonial relationships, Britain was able to deploy nearly all of the British troops in India as well as many native Indian troops to areas outside of India. In particular the British Indian Army was able to play a significant role in the Mesopotamian campaign

In 1916, Hardinge returned to his former post in England as Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, serving with Arthur Balfour. In 1920 he became ambassador to France before his retirement in 1922. He died in Penshurst, Kent, on August 2, 1944.

References

• Briton C. Busch, Hardinge of Penshurst: a study of the old diplomacy, Hamden, Conn.: Published for the Conference on British Studies and Indiana University at South Bend by Archon Books, 1980.