Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland

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The Most Honourable
The Marquess of Zetland
KG GCSI GCIE PC JP DL
2nd Marquess of Zetland.JPG
Secretary of State for India
In office
7 June 1935 – 28 May 1937
Monarch George V
Edward VIII
George VI
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by Sir Samuel Hoare, Bt
Succeeded by Office renamed Secretary of State for India and Burma
Secretary of State for India and Burma
In office
28 May 1937 – 13 May 1940
Monarch George VI
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by New office
Succeeded by Leo Amery
Personal details
Born 11 June 1876 (1876-06-11)
Died 6 February 1961 (1961-02-07)
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Cicely Archdale (1886–1973)
Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge

Lawrence John Lumley Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland KG GCSI GCIE PC JP DL (11 June 1876 – 6 February 1961), styled Lord Dundas until 1892 and Earl of Ronaldshay between 1892 and 1929, was a British Conservative politician. An expert on India, he served as Secretary of State for India in the late 1930s.

Background and education

Zetland, born in London,[1] was the son of Lawrence Dundas, 1st Marquess of Zetland, and Lady Lillian, daughter of Richard Lumley, 9th Earl of Scarbrough.[2] He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] At Cambridge, he was a member of the University Pitt Club.[4]

Political career

Zetland was returned to Parliament for Hornsey in 1907, a seat he held until 1916. Much of his public career centred on British India. In September 1912, he was appointed (with Lord Islington, Herbert Fisher, Mr Justice Abdur Rahim, and others) as a member of the Royal Commission on the Public Services in India of 1912–1915.[5] He was Governor of Bengal between 1917 and 1922 and Secretary of State for India between 1937 and 1940. Although a member of the Conservative Party, his belief was that Indians should be allowed to take ever-increasing responsibility for the government of the country, culminating in Dominion status (enjoyed by Canada, Australia, and other formally self-governing parts of the British Empire).

Zetland played an important role in the protracted negotiations which led to the Government of India Act 1935, which began, subject to the implacable opposition of Winston Churchill and the "diehards" to anything that might imperil direct British rule over India, to implement those ideals. He was ideally placed as Secretary of State for India to implement them, although the two Viceroys with whom he served, Lords Willingdon and Linlithgow, were rather less idealistic than he. In the event, Willingdon and Linlithgow were proved right when the Congress Party won the 1937 Provincial elections, much to the dismay of Zetland. Zetland's term as Secretary of State — and the experiment with democracy represented by the 1935 Act — came to an end with Churchill's assumption of the Prime Ministership in 1940: Zetland then offered his resignation, feeling that his ideas and Churchill's regarding India were so different that "I could only end by becoming an embarrassment to him."

Zetland, who was known to favour good relations between the UK and Germany, was associated with the Anglo-German Fellowship during the late 1930s.[6]

Zetland was also an author: Rab Butler, who served under him in the India Office, records that he asked how he could understand better his chief's thinking about the future of India and received the answer: "Read my books!"

Zetland was sworn of the Privy Council in 1922[7] and made a Knight of the Garter in 1942. He also bore the Sword of State at the coronation of George VI in 1937[8] and was Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire between 1945 and 1951.[9] He was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 1922.

Family

Lord Zetland married Cicely, daughter of Mervyn Henry Archdale, in 1907. They had one son and two daughters and lived at Snelsmore at Chieveley in Berkshire. Zetland died in February 1961, aged 84, and was succeeded by his son, Lawrence Dundas, 3rd Marquess of Zetland. The Marchioness of Zetland died in January 1973.[2]

Publications

  • The heart of Âryâvarta; a study of the psychology of Indian unrest. Constable, London, 1925
  • Lands of the Thunderbolt: Sikhim, Chumbi & Bhutan. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1923

Notes

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[unreliable source?]
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ London Gazette, Issue 28642 of 6 September 1912, p. 6631
  6. ↑ Richard Griffiths, Fellow Travellers on the Right, Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 220
  7. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 32677. p. 3135. 21 April 1922.
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 34453. p. 7051. 10 November 1937.
  9. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 36965. p. 1210. 2 March 1945.

References

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Hornsey
1907–1916		 Succeeded by
Kennedy Jones
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Fort William
1917–1922		 Succeeded by
The Earl of Lytton
Preceded by Secretary of State for India
1935–1937		 Succeeded by
Secretary of State for India and Burma
Preceded by
New office
 Secretary of State for India and Burma
1937–1940		 Succeeded by
Leo Amery
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire
1945–1951		 Succeeded by
Sir William Worsley, Bt
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Marquess of Zetland
1929–1961		 Succeeded by
Lawrence Aldred Mervyn Dundas
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