Arthur Hope, 2nd Baron Rankeillour

Arthur Oswald James Hope, 2nd Baron Rankeillour (7 May 1897 – 26 May 1958) was a British politician, soldier and administrator. He was a Conservative and served as Member of Parliament for Nuneaton from 1924 to 1929 and for Birmingham Aston from 1931 to 1939, after which he was Governor of the Madras Presidency of British India from 1940 to 1946.

Hope was born to James Hope, 1st Baron Rankeillour in 1897 and had his early education in England. He served with distinction in France during the First World War and entered public life soon after his military service was over.

Hope married Grizel Gilmour (daughter of Brig.-Gen. Sir Robert Wolrige Gordon, 8th of Craigmillar and 13th of Liberton, 1st Bt. and Lady Susan Lygon) in 1919 and had four daughters. He died on 26 May 1958, nineteen days after his 61st birthday.

Early life Arthur Oswald James Hope was born to James Hope, 1st Baron Rankeillour, by his marriage to Mabel Ellen Riddell, at Marylebone, England on 7 May 1897. His father had served as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. He was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards in 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War and rose to be a Captain.

As Governor of Madras

Hope was appointed Governor of Madras in 1940 There were Japanese air raids on the coastal towns of Vizagapatam and Cocanada on 6 April 1942 followed by sea attacks on Madras port.

Madras was in a state of emergency when Hope assumed his post, as the last elected government had resigned in October 1939. An anti-British campaign, the Quit India Movement, was launched in 1942. The provincial governments responded with a crackdown. Hope imposed censorship of newspapers in the Presidency and reporting on internal politics was suppressed. In protest against the government's actions, newspapers all over India were suspended for a day. With the transferring of the 1st Battalion in 1928, the Madras Regiment ceased to exist.

I have always felt reading the history of the Madras army in the old days that there must be something fundamentally wrong in ignoring the Madrasis in recent years. When you read the history of the past from 1750 onwards, you will see that the Madras troops did a great part of the fighting in India in those days and were nearly always successful. It only required a good lever and a good office to bring a Madrasi back to his proper place and, therefore, almost from the first week that I was in the country, I have impressed on the late Commander-in-chief and his successor the fact that Madrasis were as good as, if not better, than anybody else and they have fought, are fighting and would fight again, as well as any other people in India, or indeed in the whole world.

In 1945, Hope inaugurated a polytechnic college built by G. D. Naidu in Coimbatore which was later named "Arthur Hope Polytechnic" in his honour. The polytechnic was later upgraded to a college of science and technology and renamed Government College of Science and Technology in 1950. Though the college was renamed and moved to a new campus, the area where it was originally located is still called "Hope College".

Embezzlement and forced resignation Hope's tenure came to an end on 26 February 1946. Papers preserved at The National Archives indicate Lord Wavell (by then Viceroy) and the British government feared scandal after it became known to officials that Hope was receiving loans from wealthy Indians to pay off large debts incurred "speculating on the racecourse" before his appointment. Hope eventually admitted that this assumption was accurate. It was feared by Lord Wavell that Hope might be sued if he was merely removed from office; governors had protection from litigation while they remained in office. It was decided that Hope must be quickly removed as governor without raising suspicion.

Hope was diagnosed as suffering from Tropical Neurasthenia, a pseudo-medical health condition used at the time for the cover of Europeans returning home.

Other money given to Hope was found to have been misappropriated in the same way; no proper auditing of what was termed a "special pod account" had taken place.

Honours

Hope was appointed to the Order of the Indian Empire as a Knight Grand Commander in 1939 just before his appointment as Governor of Madras. Arthur Hope succeeded to the barony on the death of his father, the 1st Baron on 14 February 1949.

Death

Hope died on 26 May 1958 at the age of 61.

Family

On 2 June 1919, at the age of 22, Hope married Grizel Gilmour. The couple had four daughters.

On Hope's death in 1958, as he had no son, his title and Scottish estate (Achaderry House, Roy Bridge, Inverness-shire) were inherited by his younger brother, Henry John Hope, a barrister.