Up for auction a RARE! "1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst" Charles Hardinge Hand Signed Album Page Dated 1931.
ES-4841E
Charles
Hardinge, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, KG, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, ISO, PC, DL (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. 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.
Hardinge entered the diplomatic services in 1880. 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. After a brief tenure as Assistant
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, he became Ambassador to Russia, in 1904. In 1906, he was promoted to the
position of Permanent
Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, where, despite his own
conservatism, 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,[3] and appointed by the Asquith government as Viceroy of
India.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 by
Indian nationalists, 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.[ The Hardinge Railway bridge in Bangladesh was constructed and
inaugurated(1915) in his tenure. It continues to serve a crucial a role in the
country's railway network even today.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