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.
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]
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
As well as the distinction of being awarded six British knighthoods, he also gained foreign awards:[1]
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.
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
^"Iconic Hardinge Bridge: A tale of 138 years". The Daily Star. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
^Lord Hardinge and the Mesopotamia Expedition and Inquiry, 1914–1917; Douglas Goold; The Historical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 919–945
^for an explanation of this concept, see Alison Weir, Royal Genealogy (1989)
^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.)
^"Casualty Details | CWGC".
^Daily Telegraph: royal wedding photograph; accessed 28 March 2014.
^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.)
^Hardinge of Penshurst, Charles Hardin (2021). Old Diplomacy; the Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. Hassell Street Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-1013702396.
^Hardinge of Penshurst, Lord (1948). My Indian Years 1910-1916: the Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. John Murray. p. 150.
Sources
Briton C. Busch (1980). Hardinge of Penshurst: a study of the old diplomacy. Hamden, Conn.: Conference on British Studies and Indiana University at South Bend by Archon Books. ISBN 9780208018304.
Lord Hardinge of Penshurst (1947). The Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Steiner, Zara S. (1969). The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy 1898–1914. Cambridge. ISBN 9780521076548.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Articles
Goold, Douglas (1976). "Lord Hardinge and the Mesopotamia Expedition and Inquiry, 1914–1917". The Historical Journal. 19 (4): 919–945. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00010773. S2CID 162259136.
Further reading
Hesilrige, Arthur G. M. (1921). Debrett's Peerage and Titles of courtesy. 160A, Fleet street, London, UK: Dean & Son. p. 444.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
Manhar Kuvarbā, Maharani of Panna (1916). Lady Hardinge of Penshurst, C.I., vice-reine of India: A Tribute to her Memory.