Sir David Taylor Monteath (7 April 1887 – 27 September 1961) 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 ...

, working at 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 London, who was the last Permanent Under Secretary of State for India and Burma before independence meant that the post was no longer required.

Early life and education

Monteath was born in

Barton Regis Hundred Barton Regis was an ancient Hundred (county subdivision), hundred of Gloucestershire, England. Hundreds originated in the late Anglo-Saxon England, Saxon period as a subdivision of a county and lasted as administrative divisions until the 19th ce ...

, Gloucestershire,''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837–1915'' the youngest son of Sir James Monteath, an Indian Civil Servant of the Bombay Cadre, who, for some time in 1903, had functioned as Acting Governor of Bombay. His elder brother was

John Monteath John Monteath (9 October 1878 – 11 June 1955) was an Irish first-class cricketer and colonial official in British India. Monteath was the son of Sir James Monteath, a colonial administrator in British India. He was educated at Clifton ...

. Sir David was educated at Clifton College"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p196: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948 and Trinity College, Oxford.

Career

In 1910, Monteath originally joined the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

as an Admiralty Clerk Class I, but transferred the very next year to the India Office as a junior clerk in the Correspondence Department. During the First World War, however, he went back temporarily to the Admiralty, being commissioned as a temporary Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and receiving an OBE in 1918. He returned in 1919 as Private Secretary to the then Under Secretary of State, Sir

Thomas Holderness Sir Thomas William Holderness, 1st Baronet, (11 June 1849 – 16 September 1924) was the first former member of the Indian Civil Service to be appointed to the post of Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India (although Sir George Russell Clerk ...

, followed by Sir William Duke and Sir

Arthur Hirtzel Sir (Frederic) Arthur Hirtzel (14 May 1870 – 1 January 1937) was a British civil servant in the India Office and an academic. Biography Frederic Arthur Hirtzel was born in Minehead, Somerset on 14 May 1870, the only child of Frederic and Flor ...

. In 1927, he became Private Secretary to the then Secretary of State for India, F. E. Smith, Lord Birkenhead, the great friend of Sir

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

. He continued to act in this capacity till 1931, when he was promoted as Assistant Under-Secretary of State looking after the affairs of the Indian and Burmese Round Table Conferences, especially the Burmese, where he was Secretary to the Conference. In 1937, he was given independent charge of Burmese Affairs as Under-Secretary of State, till 1941, when with Sir

Findlater Stewart Sir Samuel Findlater Stewart (22 December 1879 – 11 April 1960) was a Scottish civil servant of the India Office. From 1930 to 1941, he served as Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India, the most senior civil servant in the India Off ...

going off into what he considered to be more pressing wartime work, he became Under-Secretary for both India and Burma, and there he remained till the independence of both countries made his post unnecessary.

Honours

Monteath was appointed an OBE in 1918, a CVO in 1931, a CB in 1938, a KCMG in 1941, a KCB in 1944, and a KCSI in 1948. He received numerous honours and awards after retirement He died in

Abingdon, Berkshire Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been admini ...

in 1961.

References

People educated at Clifton College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford 1887 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Royal Navy personnel Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Officers of the Order of the British Empire Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for India Civil servants in the Admiralty Private secretaries in the British Civil Service Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I Foreign Office personnel of World War II {{UK-gov-bio-stub