Hope People and Places

Clan Hope People

William Hope
Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was 21 years old, and a lieutenant in the 7th Regiment (later The Royal Fusiliers), British Army during the Crimean War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 18 June 1855 at Sebastopol, Crimea, Lieutenant Hope went to the assistance of the adjutant, who was lying outside the trenches badly wounded. Having found that it was impossible to move him, even with the help of four men, he ran back across the open ground under very heavy fire from the enemy batteries, and procured a stretcher to bring the wounded officer in. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Fusiliers Museum (Tower of London, England).

Victor Alexander John Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887 – 1952)
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 disturbances 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.