Lord William Bentinck

The Right Honourable  Lord William Bentinck  GCB, GCH, PC
Governor-General of India
In office 4 July 1828 – 20 March 1835
Monarch	George IV William IV
Preceded by	William Butterworth Bayley (acting)
Succeeded by	Sir Charles Metcalfe, Bt (acting)
Born	14 September 1774 (1774-09-14)
Died	17 June 1839 (1839-06-18) Paris, France
Nationality	British
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	Lady Mary Acheson (d. 1843)

Lieutenant-General Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck GCB, GCH, PC (14 September 1774 – 17 June 1839), known as Lord William Bentinck, was a British soldier and statesman. He served as Governor-General of India from 1828 to 1835.

Background

Bentinck was the second son of Prime Minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Lady Dorothy, daughter of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire.^[1]

Career until 1827

After service in the Peninsular War, Bentinck was appointed commander of British troops in Sicily. A Whig, Bentinck used this position to meddle in internal Sicilian affairs, effecting the King's withdrawal from government in favour of his son, the Crown Prince, the reactionary Queen's disgrace, and an attempt to devise a constitutional government for the troubled island, all of which ultimately ended in failure. In 1814, Bentinck landed with British and Sicilian troops at Genoa, and commenced to make liberal proclamations of a new order in Italy which embarrassed the British government (which intended to give much of Italy to Austria), and led, once again, to his recall in 1815.

Governor-General of India

On his return to England, Bentinck served in the House of Commons for some years before being appointed Governor-General of Bengal in 1827. His principal concern was to turn around the loss-making Honourable East India Company, in order to ensure that its charter would be renewed by the British government.

Bentinck engaged in an extensive range of cost-cutting measures, earning the lasting enmity of many military men whose wages were cut. Although his financial management of India was quite impressive, his modernising projects also included a policy of westernisation, influenced by the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and James Mill, which was more controversial. Reforming the court system, he made English, rather than Persian, the language of the higher courts and encouraged western-style education for Indians in order to provide more educated Indians for service in the British bureaucracy.

Bentinck also took steps to suppress sati, the death of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre, and other Indian customs which the British viewed as barbaric. Although his reforms met little resistance among native Indians at the time, it has been argued^{[citation needed]} that they brought on dissatisfaction which ultimately led to the great Mutiny of 1857. His reputation for ruthless financial efficiency and disregard for Indian culture led to the much-repeated story that he had once planned to demolish the Taj Mahal and sell off the marble. According to Bentinck's biographer John Rosselli, the story arose from Bentinck's fund-raising sale of discarded marble from Agra Fort and of the metal from a famous but obsolete Agra cannon.^[2]

Bentinck returned to the UK in 1835, refusing a peerage, and again entered the House of Commons as a Member for Glasgow.

Personal life

Lord William Bentinck.

Bentinck married Lady Mary, daughter of Arthur Acheson, 1st Earl of Gosford, in 1803. The marriage was childless. He died in Paris in June 1839, aged 64. Mary died in May 1843.^[3] The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds the personal papers and correspondence of Lord William Bentinck (Pw J), as part of the Portland (Welbeck) Collection.

References

External links

• [williamhenrycavendish-bentinck(1804-1870).aspx Biography of Lord William Bentinck, with links to online catalogues, from Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham]