Secretary of State for India

File:The seat of the chairman of the court of directors of the East India Company (c.1730) - BL Foster 905.jpg

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

File:John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn - Project Gutenberg eText 17976.jpg

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

{{#invoke:Hatnote|hatnote}}

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby 2.jpg	Lord Stanley MP for King's Lynn	2 August 1858	11 June 1859	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:1stViscountHalifax.jpg	Sir Charles Wood MP for Halifax until 1865 MP for Ripon after 1865	18 June 1859	16 February 1866<ref>Resigned after being injured in a hunting accident.</ref>	Liberal	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |						John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:George Robinson 1st Marquess of Ripon.jpg	George Robinson, 3rd Earl de Grey	16 February 1866	26 June 1866	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Robert cecil.jpg	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne MP for Stamford	6 July 1866	8 March 1867	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh.jpg	Sir Stafford Northcote MP for North Devonshire	8 March 1867	1 December 1868	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |						Benjamin Disraeli
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll by George Frederic Watts.jpg	George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll	9 December 1868	17 February 1874	Liberal	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	William Ewart Gladstone
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Robert cecil.jpg	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury	21 February 1874	2 April 1878	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Benjamin Disraeli
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:1st Earl of Cranbrook.jpg	Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Viscount Cranbrook	2 April 1878	21 April 1880	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Picture of Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire.jpg	Spencer Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington MP for North East Lancashire	28 April 1880	16 December 1882	Liberal	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	William Ewart Gladstone
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:1st Earl of Kimberley 1897.jpg	John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley	16 December 1882	9 June 1885	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Randolph churchill.jpg	Lord Randolph Churchill MP for Paddington South	24 June 1885	28 January 1886	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:1st Earl of Kimberley 1897.jpg	John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley	6 February 1886	20 July 1886	Liberal	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	William Ewart Gladstone
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Portrait of Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount Cross.jpg	R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross	3 August 1886	11 August 1892	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:1st Earl of Kimberley 1897.jpg	John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley	18 August 1892	10 March 1894	Liberal	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	William Ewart Gladstone
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Henry Fowler.jpg	Henry Fowler MP for Wolverhampton East	10 March 1894	21 June 1895	Liberal	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Lord George Hamilton.JPG	Lord George Hamilton MP for Ealing	4 July 1895	9 October 1903<ref>Resigned.</ref>	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Unionist Coalition)
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |						Arthur Balfour (Unionist Coalition)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, circa 1910s.jpg	William St John Brodrick MP for Guildford	9 October 1903	4 December 1905	Irish Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn - Project Gutenberg eText 17976.jpg	John Morley MP for Montrose Burghs until 1908 Viscount Morley of Blackburn after 1908	10 December 1905	3 November 1910	Liberal	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |						rowspan=4 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	H. H. Asquith
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Portrait of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe.jpg	Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe	3 November 1910	7 March 1911	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn - Project Gutenberg eText 17976.jpg	John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn	7 March 1911	25 May 1911	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Portrait of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe.jpg	Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe	25 May 1911	25 May 1915	Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Austen Chamberlain MP.jpg	Austen Chamberlain MP for Birmingham West	25 May 1915	17 July 1917<ref>Resigned.</ref>	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	H. H. Asquith (Coalition) David Lloyd George (Coalition)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Edwin Samuel Montagu.jpg	Edwin Montagu MP for Chesterton until 1918 MP for Cambridgeshire after 1918	17 July 1917	19 March 1922	Liberal
rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:William Peel.jpg	William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel	19 March 1922	22 January 1924	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Bonar Law
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |						Stanley Baldwin
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Lord Olivier GGBain.jpg	Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier	22 January 1924	3 November 1924	Labour	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Ramsay MacDonald
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:1stEarlOfBirkenhead.jpg	F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead	6 November 1924	18 October 1928	Conservative	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Stanley Baldwin
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:William Peel.jpg	William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel	18 October 1928	4 June 1929	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:William Wedgewood-Benn.jpg	William Wedgwood Benn MP for Aberdeen North	7 June 1929	24 August 1931	Labour	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Ramsay MacDonald
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Sir Samuel Hoare GGBain.jpg	Sir Samuel Hoare MP for Chelsea	25 August 1931	7 June 1935	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Ramsay MacDonald (1st & 2nd National Min.)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Lord Zetland.jpg	Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland	7 June 1935	28 May 1937	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Stanley Baldwin (3rd National Min.)

Secretaries of state for India and Burma, 1937–1947

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Lord Zetland.jpg	Lawrence Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland	28 May 1937	13 May 1940	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Neville Chamberlain (4th National Min.; War Coalition)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:Leopold Amery MP.png	Leo Amery MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook	13 May 1940	26 July 1945	Conservative	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Winston Churchill (War Coalition; Caretaker Min.)
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	File:British Political Personalities 1936-1945 HU59768.jpg	Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence	3 August 1945	17 April 1947	Labour	rowspan=2 style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Clement Attlee
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |		The Right Honourable William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel	17 April 1947	14 August 1947	Labour

Secretaries of state for Burma, 1947–1948

Portrait		Name	Term of office		Political party	Prime Minister
style="background-color: Template:Party color" |		The Right Honourable William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel	14 August 1947	4 January 1948	Labour	style="background-color: Template:Party color" |	Clement Attlee

See also

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

Template:Uk-fco-history

Further reading

• 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