Sir Hugh Shakespear Barnes (14 July 1853 – 15 February 1940) was an English administrator in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He served as Chief Commissioner of

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

several times during the 19th century.

Early life and education

Barnes was born in

Shahjahanpur Shahjahanpur () is a municipal corporation, town and district headquarters of Shahjahanpur District in Uttar Pradesh, India. The city is between Bareilly and Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. History Shahjahanpur was established by Dil ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, to James Ralph Barnes, a member of the British

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

, and Mary Jane Thompson. His maternal great-grandfather, George Nesbitt Thompson, (1753–1831), was private secretary to

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

. His mother's brother was Sir

Rivers Thompson Sir Augustus Rivers Thompson KCSI CIE (12 September 1829 – 27 November 1890) was a British colonial administrator who served as Chief Commissioner of the British Crown Colony of Burma from April 1875 to March 1878. He was Lieutenant-Governor ...

, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, while his father's brother George Carnac Barnes, Commissioner of the

Cis-Sutlej states The Cis-Sutlej states were a group of states in the modern Punjab and Haryana states of northwestern India during the 19th century, lying between the Sutlej River on the north, the Himalayas on the east, the Yamuna River and Delhi District on the ...

. He was educated at

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

. His brother, Herbert Curie Barnes, served as Private Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Burma.

Career

Hugh Barnes joined the Indian Civil Service in 1874, after placing atop the entrance examination. He was appointed Chief Commissioner of

in 1891 (twice), and served further terms in 1896–1899 and 1899–1900. In 1899, he was appointed

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

to the Government of India. It was announced in August 1902 that Barnes was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Burma in succession to Sir Frederick Fryer, whose term was to end in early 1903. Barnes served in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

from April 1903 until May 1905, in which year he became a Member of the

Council of India The Council of India was the name given at different times to two separate bodies associated with British rule in India. The original Council of India was established by the Charter Act of 1833 as a council of four formal advisors to the Governor ...

. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Star of India The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes: # Knight Grand Commander (GCSI) # Knight Commander ( KCSI) # Companion ( CSI) No appointments ...

in 1903.

Personal life

Barnes married Winifred Strachey, daughter of John Strachey, another Indian civil servant and a member of the prominent

Strachey Strachey is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Strachey family of Sutton Court, Somerset *John Strachey (d. 1674), friend of John Locke **John Strachey (geologist) (1671–1743), British geologist ***Henry Strachey of Sutton Cour ...

family. So many members of the Strachey family served in India that they were known jokingly as the "Strachey government." Barnes' daughter, Mary Barnes Hutchinson, was to become a writer and member of the

Bloomsbury Group The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...

References

1853 births 1940 deaths People from Shahjahanpur People educated at Malvern College Chief Commissioners of Baluchistan Administrators in British Burma Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Indian Civil Service (British India) officers {{UK-gov-bio-stub