Sir (Frederic) Arthur Hirtzel (14 May 1870 – 1 January 1937) was a British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in the India Office and an academic.

Biography

Frederic Arthur Hirtzel was born in

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

, Somerset on 14 May 1870, the only child of Frederic and Florence Hirtzel. He started his education at a preparatory school in Croydon and in 1882 went to Dulwich College. From Dulwich he proceeded to Trinity College, Oxford,'Sir Arthur Hirtzel', ''The Times'', London, 4 January 1937, pg. 14. where he gained a First in

Classical Moderations Honour Moderations (or ''Mods'') are a set of examinations at the University of Oxford at the end of the first part of some degree courses (e.g., Greats or '' Literae Humaniores''). Honour Moderations candidates have a class awarded (hence the ' ...

(Greek and Latin) in 1891 and a First in Literae Humaniores (Greek and Roman history and Philosophy) in 1893. He won a Craven Scholarship in 1891. From 1895 to 1902 he was a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.''Who's Who, 1935'', London : A.& C. Black, 1935, p. 1575. In 1899 he married Olive Ransome; the couple had three daughters and one son.''Who Was Who, 1929-1940'', London : A. & C. Black, 1941, p.645. He entered the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

in 1894. His first important posting came in March 1901 when he was appointed Private Secretary to Sir Arthur Godley, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India. He later acted as Private Secretary to Sir

John Morley John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially, a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leani ...

, the

Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...

, while he was promulgating what came to be known as the

Morley-Minto Reforms The Indian Councils Act 1909, commonly known as the Morley–Minto or Minto–Morley Reforms, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that brought about a limited increase in the involvement of Indians in the governance of British In ...

which came into effect in 1909. Following this, he became Secretary in the Political Department from 1909 to 1917, followed by being appointed as the assistant under-secretary and then the deputy under-secretary of state during the period 1917 to 1924. Finally, he became the

permanent under-secretary of state A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil ...

during the period 1924 to 1930 when he retired. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1907 and a Knight Commander of the same order (KCB) in 1911. During the period 1925 to 1930, he was also Chairman of the Board of Governors at his old school, Dulwich College. His main residences were 47 Palace Court, London, which he occupied during much of his official and married life, and East End House,

Fairford Fairford is a town in Gloucestershire, England. The town lies in the Cotswold hills on the River Coln, east of Cirencester, west of Lechlade and north of Swindon. Nearby are RAF Fairford and the Cotswold Water Park. History Evidence of se ...

, Gloucestershire, a spacious, three-storeyed property dating back to 1640 with later additions in the 1730s and 1890s. Perhaps surprisingly, Hirtzel never set foot in India, and his holidays were spent in Minehead and Cornwall.John Fisher
‘Sir Arthur Hirtzel and the Pax Britannica in the Middle East’
''Diplomacy & Statecraft'', 32:2 (2021), 263-288

Publications

*''P. Vergili Maronis Opera. Recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit Fredericus Arturus Hirtzel'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1900. *''Imperial Christianity'' (reprinted from ''The East and the West''), 1913. *''The Church, the Empire, and the World'', London: SPCK, 1919. *''South Persia and the Great War: Discussion'', ''The Geographical Journal'', 58:2, August 1921, 117–8. iscussion by Edmund Barrow, Arthur Hirtzel, George Napier and Charles Yate, 116-9, of Sir Percy Sykes, 'South Persia and the Great War', ''The Geographical Journal'', 58:2, August 1921, 101–16.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirtzel, Arthur 1870 births 1937 deaths Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath People educated at Dulwich College Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for India Private secretaries in the British Civil Service People from Minehead Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford India Office people