Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}}

In 1912, aged only 25, he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]].<ref name=Debrett/> His proposers were [[William Turner (anatomist)|William Turner]], [[Alexander Crum Brown]], [[Cargill Gilston Knott]] and [[James Haig Ferguson]]. He served as the society's vice president from 1934 to 1937.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf}}</ref>

He then served in various minor roles in the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] governments of the 1920s and '30s. From 1922 till 1924 he served as the civil lord of the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]], becoming chairman of the [[Unionist Party (Scotland)|Unionist Party]] Organisation in 1924 for two years. He also served as president of the [[Navy League of Great Britain|Navy League]] from 1924 until 1931. He was chairman of the [[Medical Research Council (UK)|Medical Research Council]] and of the governing body of the [[Imperial College London]]. Linlithgow was also chairman of the committee on the distribution and prices of agricultural produce and president of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture until 1933. In 1926 he was chairman of the [[Royal Commission]] on Agriculture in [[India]], which published its findings in 1928.<ref name=RoyalCommAgIndia1928>{{citation |year=1928 |author=Linlithgow (Chairman) |title=Royal Commission on Agriculture in India. Volume I, Part II |place=Calcutta |publisher=Government of India, Central Publication Branch |url=https://archive.org/stream/evidenceofoffice031789mbp#page/n5/mode/2up |access-date=12 August 2010|display-authors=etal}} (Full text at Internet Archive)</ref> Influenced by submissions to the Royal Commission, "a decade later, when (he) became Viceroy of India he showed a personal interest in nutrition, pushing it to the top of the research agenda".<ref name=Arnold2000>{{citation |year=2000 |author=Arnold, David |title=Science, technology, and medicine in Colonial India |series=[[The New Cambridge History of India]]. Part III, Volume 5 |page=201 |place=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-56319-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7bAxnPwOMd8C&q=science+technology+india |access-date=12 August 2022}}</ref> The reason for sending a Commission on Agriculture under Linlithgow was 'because constitutional reform without economic and educational reform will do nothing to ameliorate the condition of life of the mass of the population of India, and this is what matters most.'<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Church |first1=A. G. |title=The Development of Indian Agriculture |journal=Nature |date=May 1928 |volume=121 |issue=3053 |pages=698–700 |doi=10.1038/121698a0 |bibcode=1928Natur.121..698C |s2cid=44552204 }}</ref>

Having previously declined both the [[List of Governors of Madras|governorship of Madras]] and the [[Governor-General of Australia|governor-generalship of Australia]] (his father was the first Governor-General of Australia),<ref>{{cite book|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hopetoun-seventh-earl-of-6730|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Chris|last=Cunneen|chapter=Hopetoun, seventh Earl of (1860–1908)|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=3 April 2018|via=Australian Dictionary of Biography}}</ref> he became the [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy of India]],<ref name="ReferenceA"/> succeeding [[Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon|Lord Willingdon]]. Travelling out to India on the P&O liner [[RMS Strathmore|RMS ''Strathmore'']], he arrived in Bombay, with his wife, daughters, and personal staff, on 17 April 1936.<ref>''News and Views'' (1936), p. 5: "Lord and Lady Linlithgow, together with their three daughters and personal staff, arrived by the new P & O liner S. S. Strathmore on Friday, April 17, in the early morning, and were escorted into Bombay harbor by the ships of the Royal Indian Navy".</ref> Linlithgow implemented the plans for local self-government embodied in the [[Government of India Act 1935]], which led to provincial governments led by the [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]] in five of the eleven provinces of [[British India]], but the recalcitrance of the princes prevented the establishment of elected governments in most of the [[princely states]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

With the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], Linlithgow's rejection of the request by the Congress for a declaration that India would be given the chance to determine its own future after the war{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}<!--[[Cripps mission]] says it was a unilateral declaration of Indian support for Britain--> led to the resignation of the Congress ministries. On 8 August 1940 Lord Linlithgow made a statement on behalf of the British government. It was known as the [[August Offer]] and offered greater rights in the governance of India to the Indian people. The proposal was rejected by most Indian politicians, including the Congress Party and the Muslim League. Disputes between the British administration and Congress ultimately led to massive Indian civil disobedience in the [[Quit India Movement]]. Linlithgow suppressed the disturbances and arrested the Congress leaders. Some historians have partly blamed Linlithgow for the [[Bengal famine of 1943]] which resulted in three million deaths.<ref>Richard Stevenson, ''Bengal Tiger and British Lion: An Account of the Bengal Famine of 1943''</ref>

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*Lady Anne Adeline (27 January 1914 – 2007<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp148314/lady-anne-adeline-southby-nee-hope|title=Lady Anne Adeline Southby (née Hope) – Person – National Portrait Gallery|website=www.npg.org.uk|access-date=3 April 2022}}</ref>)

*Lady Joan Isabella (21 September 1915 – 1989<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp151451/lady-joan-isabella-gore-langton-nee-hope|title=Lady Joan Isabella Gore-Langton (née Hope) – Person – National Portrait Gallery|website=www.npg.org.uk|access-date=3 April 2022}}</ref>)

*Lady Doreen Hersey Winifred (17 June 1920 – 22 January 1997<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12305663.Lady_Doreen_Prior_Palmer/|title=Lady Doreen Prior-Palmer|website=HeraldScotland|access-date=3 April 2022}}</ref>), the mother of [[Lucinda Green]], a famous [[Equestrianism|equestrian]].