Power and Passion in Egypt: A Life of Sir Eldon Gorst, 1861-1911

289 Pages·2007·4.57 MB·English

by  Archie Hunter

Power and Passion
in Egypt
For Paul and Karen
By the same author:
Kitchener’s Sword-Arm: The Life and Campaigns
of General Sir Archibald Hunter
A Life of Sir John Gorst: Disraeli’s Awkward Disciple
Wellington’s Scapegoat: The Tragedy
of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Bevan

Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © Archie Hunter, 2007
The right of Archie Hunter to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any
part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
International Library of Colonial History 7
isbn 978 1 84511 364 3
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Typeset in Garamond Premier Pro by Steve Tribe, Andover
Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Chapter 1 Childhood 1
Chapter 2 Eton and Cambridge 6
Chapter 3 Choosing a Career 13
Chapter 4 Egypt: Insolvency and Occupation 20
Chapter 5 Climbing the Ladder 35
Chapter 6 Jessica Sykes 52
Chapter 7 Adviser to the Ministry of the Interior 68
Chapter 8 Romaine Turnure 83
Chapter 9 Financial Adviser: A Summit Achieved 98
Chapter 10 Financial Adviser: Place Assured 113
Chapter 11 Marriage at Last 124
Chapter 12 Negotiating the Anglo-French Entente, 1904 133
Chapter 13 Interlude: At the Foreign Office 146
Chapter 14 Succeeding Lord Cromer and the Rise
of Nationalism 160
Chapter 15 The Liberal Experiment Begins 174
Chapter 16 Political and Administrative Reforms 186
Chapter 17 Law and Order in the Sudan 202
vi Power and passion in egypt
Chapter 18 The Suez Canal Concession and the Assassination
of Boutros Ghali Pasha 212
Chapter 19 The Final Year 231
Chapter 20 Reflections 242
Notes 251
Bibliography 267
Index 271
illustrations
1. Eldon Gorst and his toys: Gorst is depicted as the puppet-
master controlling the Egyptian Cabinet (Cairo Punch) xii
2. Eldon Gorst as a boy (Paul Lysley) 8
3. Eldon Gorst as a young man (Paul Lysley) 16
4. Riaz Pasha, Premier of Egypt, 1879–1882, 1888–1891
and 1893–1894 (Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, USA) 27
5. Sir Evelyn Baring, later Lord Cromer, Agent and Consul-
General in Egypt, 1883–1907 (Durham University Library) 38
6. Abbas Hilmi II, Khedive of Egypt, 1892–1914 (Prince Abbas
Hilmi) 49
7. Princess Nazli (Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, USA) 55
8. Jessica Sykes (Sir Tatton Sykes, Bt.) 64
9. Nubar Pasha, Premier of Egypt, 1878–1879, 1884–1888 and
1894–1895 (Paul Lysley) 73
10. Sir John Gorst, Eldon Gorst’s father, Minister of Education,
1895–1902 (Sir John Gorst) 79
11. Romaine Turnure (Prudence de Lotbinière) 85
12. Hylda Hunter, Eldon Gorst’s sister, and her elder son (author) 89
13. Eva Gorst, Eldon Gorst’s sister (Paul Lysley) 122
14. Evelyn (Doll) Gorst, Eldon Gorst’s wife (Paul Lysley) 131
15. Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary, 1905–1916 (Imperial War
Museum: Q42035) 153
viii Power and passion in egypt
16. The Gorsts arrive in Cairo, April 1907 (Bystander) 163
17. Eldon Gorst as Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, 1907
(Paul Lysley) 171
18. Eldon Gorst the High Wire Artist: Gorst is shown walking a
tightrope between the Khedive’s Abdin Palace and the British
Agency (Paul Lysley: original provenance unknown) 177
19. Boutros Ghali Pasha, Premier of Egypt, 1908–1910 (Houghton
Mifflin, Co, Boston, USA) 193
20. Sir William Garstin, irrigation engineer and administrator
(Durham University Library) 214
Preface and
Acknowledgements

At the time of King Edward VII’s Coronation in 1902, the great British
public suddenly found that there were two Sir John Eldon Gorsts to
contend with. Ever since, and not entirely surprisingly, the two men have
often been confused. One was John Gorst, the Conservative politician and
social reformer who, aged 72, was just stepping down after a long stint as
Minister of Education, and the other was his son, aged 41, a member of the
Diplomatic Service and a fast-rising star in the Egyptian Administration. It
is the younger Gorst, known as Jack, who is the subject of this book.
In the 30 years prior to the First World War, three British proconsuls
were effectively the rulers of Egypt: Cromer, Kitchener and Gorst. The
first two were household names and are still well remembered. For many,
however, Jack Gorst has been a rather shadowy figure, his tenure of office of
just four years being sandwiched between the two titans. Although Robert
Tignor and Peter Mansfield had chapters on Gorst in books on British rule
in Egypt written some 35 years ago, Gorst has tended to be neglected by
historians, despite the availability for research of his diaries and remarkable
autobiographical notes. But in 1977 Peter Mellini published in the USA, as
a contribution to the Hoover Institution’s programme of African colonial
studies, a revealing and timely biography of Gorst entitled Sir Eldon Gorst:
The Overshadowed Proconsul. Since then, more information about Gorst,
notably about his private life, has emerged. My aim in this book is to bring