Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow
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Victor Alexander John Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (24 September 1887 - 5 January 1952) was a British statesman who served as Viceroy of India from 1936 to 1943.
Succeeding his father in 1908, Linlithgow served on the Western Front in World War I, and then served in various minor roles in the Conservative governments of the 1920s and 30s, including that of Chairman of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India and of the select committee on Indian constitutional reform.
In 1936, he succeeded Lord Willingdon as Viceroy of India. Linlithgow implemented the plans for local self-government embodied in the Government of India Act of 1935, which led to government led by the Congress Party in 5 of the 11 provinces, but the recalcitrance of the princes prevented the full establishment of Indian self government.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Linlithgow's appeal for unity led to the resignation of the Congress ministries. Disputes between the British administration and Congress ultimately led to massive Indian civil disobedience in the Quit India movement in 1942. Linlithgow suppressed the unrest brutally and arrested the Congress leaders.
It was during this period that, while attending Christmas morning service at the Cathedral of the Redemption in Delhi with his large family, he had to sit through a sermon delivered by the then Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India attacking his attitude to Congress and Home Rule; the peroration of the sermon led to uncontrollable laughter in church as the bishop gestured at the viceregal pew and said "...and all we have left is an array of blasted Hopes."
Upon his retirement in 1943, his seven year tenure as viceroy had been the longest in the history of the Raj. He died in 1952.
| Preceded by: The Earl of Willingdon | Viceroy of India 1936–1943 | Succeeded by: The Viscount Wavell
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