Secretary of State for India

Former position in British government

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Secretary of State for India

Royal Arms as used by His Majesty's Government

India Office
Member of| British Cabinet
Privy Council
Seat| Westminster, London
Appointer| The British Monarch
on advice of the Prime Minister
Term length| At His Majesty's pleasure
Constituting instrument| Government of India Act
Precursor| President of the Board of Control
Formation| 2 August 1858
First holder| Lord Stanley
Final holder| William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel
Abolished| 14 August 1947
Deputy| Under-Secretary of State for India
The ceremonial seat of the Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and subsequently that of the Secretary of State for India The 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, Secretary of State for India from 1905 to 1910 and again briefly, as acting Secretary, in 1911

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 the British Indian Empire, including Aden, Burma and the Persian Gulf Residency. The post was created in 1858 when the East India Company's rule in Bengal ended and India, except for the Princely States, was brought under the direct administration of the government in Whitehall in London, beginning the official colonial period under the British Empire.

In 1937, the India Office was reorganised which separated Burma and Aden under a new Burma Office, but the same secretary of state headed both departments and a new title was established as His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India and Burma. The India Office and its secretary of state were abolished in August 1947, when the United Kingdom granted independence in the Indian Independence Act, which created two new independent dominions, India and Pakistan. Burma soon achieved independence separately in early 1948.

## Secretaries of state for India, 1858–1937

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Before the establishment of the British Empire on 2 August 1858, Lord Stanley had served as President of the Board of Control.

Portrait  | Name  | Term of office  | Political party  | Prime Minister

|
|
|
|

|  | Lord Stanley
MP for King's Lynn | 2 August
1858  | 11 June
1859  | Conservative |  | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
|  | Sir Charles Wood
MP for Halifax until 1865
MP for Ripon after 1865 | 18 June
1859  | 16 February
1866[1] | Liberal |  |
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

| John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
|  | George Robinson, 3rd Earl de Grey | 16 February
1866  | 26 June
1866  | Liberal
|  | Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne
MP for Stamford | 6 July
1866  | 8 March
1867  | Conservative  |  |
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

|  | Sir Stafford Northcote
MP for North Devonshire | 8 March
1867  | 1 December
1868  | Conservative

Benjamin Disraeli

|  | George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll | 9 December
1868  | 17 February
1874  | Liberal  |  | William Ewart Gladstone
|  | Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury | 21 February
1874  | 2 April
1878  | Conservative  |  | Benjamin Disraeli
|  | Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Viscount Cranbrook
| 2 April
1878  | 21 April
1880  | Conservative
|  | Spencer Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington
MP for North East Lancashire | 28 April
1880  | 16 December
1882  | Liberal  |  | William Ewart Gladstone
|  | John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley | 16 December
1882  | 9 June
1885  | Liberal
|  | Lord Randolph Churchill
MP for Paddington South | 24 June
1885  | 28 January
1886  | Conservative  |  | Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
|  | John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley | 6 February
1886  | 20 July
1886  | Liberal  |  | William Ewart Gladstone
|  | R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross | 3 August
1886  | 11 August
1892  | Conservative  |  | Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
|  | John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley | 18 August
1892  | 10 March
1894  | Liberal  |  | William Ewart Gladstone
|  | Henry Fowler
MP for Wolverhampton East | 10 March
1894  | 21 June
1895  | Liberal  |  | Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
|  | Lord George Hamilton
MP for Ealing | 4 July
1895  | 9 October
1903[2] | Conservative  |  |
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
(Unionist Coalition)

Arthur Balfour
(Unionist Coalition)

|  | William St John Brodrick
MP for Guildford | 9 October
1903  | 4 December
1905  | Irish Unionist
|  | John Morley
MP for Montrose Burghs until 1908
Viscount Morley of Blackburn after 1908 | 10 December
1905  | 3 November
1910  | Liberal  |  | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
|  | H. H. Asquith
|  | Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe | 3 November
1910  | 7 March
1911  | Liberal
|  | John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn | 7 March
1911  | 25 May
1911  | Liberal
|  | Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe | 25 May
1911  | 25 May
1915  | Liberal
|  | Austen Chamberlain
MP for Birmingham West | 25 May
1915  | 17 July
1917[3] | Conservative  |  | H. H. Asquith
(Coalition)

* * *

David Lloyd George
(Coalition)

|  | Edwin Montagu
MP for Chesterton until 1918
MP for Cambridgeshire after 1918 | 17 July
1917  | 19 March
1922  | Liberal
|  | William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel | 19 March
1922  | 22 January
1924  | Conservative  |  | Bonar Law
| Stanley Baldwin
|  | Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier | 22 January
1924  | 3 November
1924  | Labour |  | Ramsay MacDonald
|  | F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead | 6 November
1924  | 18 October
1928  | Conservative  |  | Stanley Baldwin
|  | William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel | 18 October
1928  | 4 June
1929  | Conservative
|  | William Wedgwood Benn
MP for Aberdeen North | 7 June
1929  | 24 August
1931  | Labour  |  | Ramsay MacDonald
|  | Sir Samuel Hoare
MP for Chelsea | 25 August
1931  | 7 June
1935  | Conservative  |  | Ramsay MacDonald
(1st & 2nd National Min.)
|  | Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland | 7 June
1935  | 28 May
1937  | Conservative  |  | Stanley Baldwin
(3rd National Min.)

## Secretaries of state for India and Burma, 1937–1947

[edit]

Portrait  | Name  | Term of office  | Political party  | Prime Minister

|
|
|
|

|  | Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland | 28 May
1937  | 13 May
1940  | Conservative  |  | Neville Chamberlain
(4th National Min.;
War Coalition)
|  | Leo Amery
MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook | 13 May
1940  | 26 July
1945  | Conservative  |  | Winston Churchill
(War Coalition; Caretaker Min.)
|  | Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence | 3 August
1945  | 17 April
1947  | Labour  |  | Clement Attlee
|  | The Right Honourable
William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel
| 17 April
1947  | 14 August
1947  | Labour

## Secretaries of state for Burma, 1947–1948

[edit]

Portrait  | Name  | Term of office  | Political party  | Prime Minister

|
|
|
|

|  | The Right Honourable
William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel | 14 August
1947  | 4 January
1948  | Labour |  | Clement Attlee

## See also

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* India Office
* British Raj
* British rule in Burma
* Governor-General of India
* Imperial Civil Service
* Government of India Act

History of English and British government departments with responsibility for foreign affairs and those with responsibility for the colonies, dominions and the Commonwealth  Northern Department
1660–1782
Secretaries — Undersecretaries | Southern Department
1660–1768
Secretaries — Undersecretaries | —

|
|

Southern Department
1768–1782
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
1782: diplomatic responsibilities transferred to new Foreign Office | Colonial Office
1768–1782
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
Foreign Office
1782–1968
Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries | Home Office
1782–1794
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
War Office
1794–1801
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
War and Colonial Office
1801–1854
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
Colonial Office
1854–1925
Secretaries — Undersecretaries | India Office
1858–1937
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
Colonial Office
1925–1966
Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries | Dominions Office
1925–1947
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
India Office and Burma Office
1937–1947
Secretaries — Undersecretaries
Commonwealth Relations Office
1947–1966
Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries
Commonwealth Office
1966–1968
Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
1968–2020
Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Since 2020
Secretaries — Ministers — Undersecretaries

## Notes

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1. ^ Resigned after being injured in a hunting accident.
2. ^ Resigned.
3. ^ Resigned.

## Further reading

[edit]

* St. John, Ian. "Writing to the Defence of Empire: Winston Churchill’s Press Campaign against Constitutional Reform in India, 1929–1935". In: C. Kaul, (ed) Media and the British Empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) pp.104-124online

* Williams, Donovan. "The Council of India and the relationship between the home and supreme governments, 1858-1870."  English Historical Review 81.318 (1966): 56-73. exzcerpt

## External links

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