Editing Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable

{{Short description|Indian businessman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
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| name               = The Lord Cable
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'''Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable''' (1 December 1859 – 28 March 1927)<ref name = "Riddick (2006), p. 241"/> was an [[India]]n-born [[United Kingdom|British]] merchant and financier.

==Background==
Born in [[Calcutta]], he was the eldest son of George Hebberd Cable, a superintendent with the [[Indian Customs and Excise Service]].<ref name = "Walford (1919), p. 208">Walford (1919), p. 208</ref> His mother Emily Maria, was the daughter of William Pickersgill, who had served in the [[Royal Navy]].<ref name = "Walford (1919), p. 208"/> Cable was educated privately and at the [[University of Calcutta]].<ref name = "Riddick (2006), p. 241"/>

==Mercantile career==
After his education Cable became first employed in Calcutta at Ashburner and Co and then worked for Lyall, Rennie and Co, both trading agencies.<ref name = "Riddick (2006), p. 241">Riddick (2006), p. 241</ref> Aged seventeen he joined Bird and Co, a merchant house which had interests in many different areas of commerce, especially labour contracting (in which it had started), [[coal]] and [[jute]].<ref>Wilkins and Schröter (1998), p. 210</ref>

In 1886, he became a [[business partner|partner]] in the company.<ref>Wilkins and Schröter (1998), p. 212</ref> By 1896 it directly employed 15,000 people and contracted 15,000 more.<ref name = "Harrison (1964), p. 52">Harrison (1964), p. 52</ref> Much of this expansion was due to Cable's business acumen and his knowledge of India and good relations with its people.<ref name = "Harrison (1964), p. 52"/> He also set up a subsidiary in the [[City of London]] to ease British investments in the company.<ref name = "Harrison (1964), p. 94"/> By 1914 he was senior partner of the company.<ref name = "Harrison (1964), p. 94">Harrison (1964), p. 94</ref> In 1917 Bird acquired a controlling interest in F. W. Heilgers and Co, another Calcutta merchant house, creating by far the largest company in India, employing 100,000 people.<ref>Harrison (1964), p. 115</ref>

Cable was also a [[board of directors|director]] of the [[Western Assurance Company]], the [[Tanganyika Development Company]], and the [[British America Assurance Company]].

==Political career==
In 1903, Cable was elected president of the [[Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry|Bengal Chamber of Commerce]]<ref name = "Who's Who (1926), p. 444">Who's Who (1926), p. 444</ref> and from then sat in the [[Imperial Legislative Council (India)|Imperial Legislative Council]], headed by the [[Viceroy of India]].<ref name = "Riddick (2006), p. 241"/> He was nominated [[Sheriff of Calcutta]] in 1905 and during his tenure was knighted when [[George V of the United Kingdom|George, Prince of Wales]] and his wife [[Mary of Teck]] visited the city in the following year.<ref>{{London Gazette| issue = 27913 |page=3326 | date = 15 May 1906 }}</ref>

After his return to England by 1913, Cable was invited into the Royal Commission on Indian Finance and Currency<ref name = "Who's Who (1926), p. 444"/> and in 1916 he was appointed [[High Sheriff of Devon]].<ref>Whitaker (1923), p. 178</ref> In the 1921 New Year's Honours he was raised to [[Peerage of the United Kingdom]] with the title '''Baron Cable''', of Ideford, in the County of [[Devon]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=32178|supp=y|page=1|date=31 December 1920}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette| issue = 32212 |page=858 | date = 1 February 1921 }}</ref>

==Personal life==
On 10 October 1888, he married Lilian Sarah, daughter of Weston Joseph Sparkes.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sitter: Lady Lilian Sarah Cable, later Baroness Cable, née Sparkes ( ).|url=http://lafayette.org.uk/cab3642a.html|publisher=Lafayette Negative Archive}}</ref> 
The couple had two daughters and two sons, both named George. The first died at or near birth and was buried on 6 February 1891 in Calcutta, Bengal, India.<ref>{{cite web|title=George Pickersgill Cable LT61-TDP.|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGVY-K29|publisher=India Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948}}</ref> The second was born on 5 December 1891 at Ideford. He was killed in action in the [[First World War]] in 1915.<ref>The Rifle Brigade (1916), p. 127</ref> His daughter the Hon. Ruth McCarthy Cable married the businessman and public servant Sir Edward Benthall, who followed Lord Cable to Bird and Co. in India; she was the mother of the theatre director [[Michael Benthall]].

His wife died in 1924 and Cable survived her for three years, dying in [[London]] in 1927; he was buried in Ideford on 31 March. With his death the barony became extinct.

A Junior Wing House at [[St Paul's School, Darjeeling]], India, where all the [[house system|houses]] bear names after colonial age figures, is named after him.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*{{cite book | title = Who's Who 1926 | publisher = Adam & Charles Black Ltd. | location = London | year = 1926 }}
*{{cite book | title = Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companioage 1923 | publisher = J. Whitaker & Sons | year = 1923 }}
*{{cite book | last = Walford | first = Edward | title = The County Families of the United Kingdom | year = 1919 | publisher = Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd. | location = London }}
*{{cite book | last = Riddick | first = John F. | title = The History of British India: A Chronology | year = 2006 | ISBN = 0-313-32280-5 | publisher = Praeger Publishers | location = Westport }}
*{{cite book | title = The Rifle Brigade Chronicle 1916 | year = 1916 | publisher = The Rifle Brigade Club | location = London }}
*{{cite book|authorlink1=Mira Wilkins | author = Mira Wilkins | author2 = Harm G. Schröter | name-list-style = amp | title = The Free-Standing Company in the World Economy, 1830–1996 | year = 1998 | ISBN = 0-19-829032-2 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford }}
*{{cite book | last = Cokayne | first = George Edward | editor = Vicary Gibbs | publisher = The St Catherine Press Ltd. | title = The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom | volume = XIII | year = 1940 | location = London }}
*{{cite book | last = Harrison | first = Godfrey | publisher = Anna Art Press Private Ltd. | title = Bird and Company of Calcutta: A History produced to mark the Firm's Centenary, 1864–1964 | year = 1964 | location = Calcutta }}
}}

==External links==
*{{hansard-contribs | mr-ernest-cable | Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable }}
*{{NPG name}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-reg|uk}}
{{s-new|creation}}
{{s-ttl| title  = [[Baron Cable]]
       | years  = 1921–1927 }}
{{s-non| reason = Extinct }}
{{S-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cable, Ernest}}
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British businesspeople]]
[[Category:High Sheriffs of Devon]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:St. Paul's School, Darjeeling alumni]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Kolkata]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Sheriffs of Kolkata]]
[[Category:Members of the Imperial Legislative Council of India]]
[[Category:Peers created by George V]]