Sir Arthur Henry Hardinge, (12 October 1859 – 27 December 1933), was a senior British diplomat.

Early life

Hardinge was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the son of General Hon. Sir Arthur Edward Hardinge, (1828–1892), KCB, Commander of the

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Army and later

Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of the governor is to act as the ...

, and a grandson of the 1st Viscount Hardinge. A fluent speaker of Spanish and French, he studied Classics and Modern History at

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and won the Lothian Prize Essay in 1880, and became a Fellow of

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

in 1881. He was a

Page of Honour A Page of Honour is a ceremonial position in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It requires attendance on state occasions, but does not now involve the daily duties which were once attached to the office of page. The onl ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

1870–1876.

Diplomatic career

Hardinge entered the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

in 1880, and had his first posting as a Junior Agent of the British Foreign Office, at

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, in 1883, under Ambassador

Robert Morier Sir Robert Burnett David Morier (31 March 1826 – 16 November 1893) was a British diplomat, who most notably served as the British Ambassador to Russia between 1884 and 1893. Early life Born in Paris, Morier was descended from a family of di ...

. He acted as a Secretary to the Foreign Minister

Lord Salisbury Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...

in 1885, and when Robert Morier was appointed Ambassador to Saint Petersburg, Russia, he went there as his personal aide. In 1887, he went to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, under Sir William White, moving in 1890 to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. He accompanied the Russian Tsarevich on his trip to India 1890–91, and was then acting Consul-General in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, in 1891, under

Sir Evelyn Baring Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, (; 26 February 1841 – 29 January 1917) was a British statesman, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British controller-general in Egypt during 1879, part of the international control whic ...

. In 1894 he was appointed Consul General to

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

being promoted to Colonial Head, 1895–1900, at the

British East Africa Protectorate East Africa Protectorate (also known as British East Africa) was an area in the African Great Lakes occupying roughly the same terrain as present-day Kenya from the Indian Ocean inland to the border with Uganda in the west. Controlled by Britai ...

, overseeing there the construction of the

Uganda Railway The Uganda Railway was a metre-gauge railway system and former British state-owned railway company. The line linked the interiors of Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya. After a series of mergers and splits, the lin ...

and the crushing of an Arabic ethnic rebellion. In October 1900 he was appointed Consul-General in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, a post which was later upgraded to Minister. Staying in

Teheran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

until 1906, he stressed the importance of stopping Tsarist

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

on courting the political favours of the Persian government . Concern by King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

prompted him to accept the position as Minister to Belgium 1906–1911, and later as Minister to Portugal 1911–1913, and Ambassador to Spain, 1913–1919, a neutral country in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was frequently visited at

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

by the notorious literary widow and sister to the famous General

José Millán Astray José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

, who was running some sort of World War I espionage network in both places and took thus opportunities to read and transcribe faithfully his diplomatic notes. He retired in 1920, aged 61. He became the author of several books, including ''Life of Lord Carnarvon'' (1925) and two volumes of autobiography, ''A Diplomatist in Europe'' (1927) and ''A Diplomatist in the East''. A supporter of

right-wing politics Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, author ...

, he joined the

British Fascists The British Fascists was the first political organisation in the United Kingdom to claim the label of fascist, although the group had little ideological unity apart from anti-socialism for much of its existence, and was strongly associated with ...

.Robert Leeson: ''Hayek: A Collaborative Biography: Part XII: Liberalism in the Classical Tradition, Austrian versus British'', Springer, 2018 p. 196 He died in

Mortlake Mortlake is a suburban district of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the south bank of the River Thames between Kew and Barnes. Historically it was part of Surrey and until 1965 was in the Municipal Borough of Barnes. For many centu ...

and was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter,

Fordcombe Fordcombe is a village within the civil parish of Penshurst in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The village is located on the northern slopes of the Weald, five miles (8 km) west of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The church, part of a unit ...

, Kent.

Family

Hardinge married, in 1899, Alexandra Mina Ellis, daughter of Major-General Sir Arthur Ellis. They had a daughter, and two sons Henry Arthur Mina Hardinge (1905–1925), and George Granville Douglas Hardinge (1912–1927), who both died young.

Honours

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

*Companion (CB) 1895 *Knight Commander (KCB) 1904 The Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George *Knight Commander (KCMG) 1897 *Knight Grand Cross (GCMG) 1910

References

* Who's Who entry on Hardinge * https://web.archive.org/web/20110707115822/http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6445789-kenyan-political-development-was-a-long-walk-in-the-dark * http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/iran/dip.html * http://www.pdavis.nl/Consuls.htm * http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/oil-agreements-in-iran {{DEFAULTSORT:Hardinge, Arthur Henry 1859 births 1933 deaths Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Ambassadors of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to Spain Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Belgium English expatriates in Iran English fascists Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom British fascists British Kenya people