Cecil Gervase Hope-Gill
Epithet: Diplomat (1896-1984)
Record type: Biographies
Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):
Cecil Gervase Hope-Gill, who died in Spain in 1984 at the age of 87, must have been one of the last of the band of men in the British consular and diplomatic service whose careers had taken them to parts of the world which sounded romantic, but were in their time often dangerous and difficult to reach. Like Hope-Gill, most of them were strong individualists, showing enthusiasm, determination, courage and imperturbability. All of these qualities were necessary to sustain British reputation and influence during her years of decline as a world power. His refusal of proffered honours tends to conceal the distinction of Hope-Gill's long service in times of historic upheaval.
He was born in Jabalpur, Central India, where his father, soon to become Bishop of Travancore and Cochin, was stationed; his holidays from King William's College were spent with his great-uncle Archdeacon Hugh Stowell Gill at Andreas. Switching to Brighton College to specialise in classics, the young Cecil gained a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge. The out-break of World War I saw him volunteer and gain a commission in the Royal Monmouthshire Engineers. He served in Flanders in 1915 and 1916, thereafter in Egypt and Palestine, participating in Allenby's capture of Jerusalem. This taste of the Middle East prompted his decision to try for the Levant Consular Service. Securing a high mark, he was gazetted as probationer vice consul in 'His Majesty's Consular Service in the Ottoman Dominions'.
Appointed to Morocco in 1922, he was there throughout the Riff Wars until transfer to Jedda in the Bejaz, where Sa'ud was in the process of carving out his kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Hope-Gill's fluent Arabic ensured his presence at audiences with Ibn Sa'ud, travels in the Badhramaut, links with M. St J. Philby (father of the traitor Kim) and a long period as chargé d'affaires. He found himself gazetteered in the honours list, but wrote begging to decline acceptance on the ground that such was not the personal mark of the Sovereign's approval, but only a routine hand-out.
Service in Egypt preceded his move to Addis Ababa as consul. The Italians had just invaded Abyssinia. Hope-Gill organised the defence of the legation compound which at the height of the siege housed 1520 souls of 27 different nationalities, with all the attendant complications of religious eating habits and hygiene. The ceremonial entry of the Italians was followed by the expulsion of British newspaper correspondents, with the notable exception of Evelyn Waugh who had accompanied the invaders. Hope-Gill was provoked to ask him, 'Are you proud of yourself?' and received the answer 'I know on which side my bread is buttered'. Addis Ababa was followed by the Yemen, where Hope-Gill received a personal letter from Anthony Eden assuring him that his omission from the honours list 'is out of respect for your conscientious objections to accepting any decoration. This tribute he valued 'more than a routine dish-out'.
On furlough in London he was attached to the suite of the Egyptian delegation to the coronation of King George VI, attending a series of ceremonies with Premier Nahas Pasha who enjoyed them just as much as Hope-Gill did. Marriage in 1937 was followed by appointment to Seattle, until World War II led him to plead that his knowledge of the Middle East and its languages was being wasted, so he was posted to Baghdad just in time for another crisis. In March 1941, the pro-German Rashid Ali became Prime Minister, and attacks on the British air bases at Basra and Habbaniya followed. The two-month siege of the embassy again tested Hope-Gill's powers of organisation.
Service in the Belgian Congo was preceded by a second spell in Abyssinia, reached by a car journey right across Africa. As head of chancery he had the satisfaction of attending the reinstatement of the emperor Haile Selassie. Following a spell in the Foreign Office until the war's end, his final posting was to Morocco as consul general in Tetuan. There a new consulate general was built, largely to plans submitted by his wife. The building was later to be used by Winston Churchill and Aristotle Onassis, and was eventually bought by the Moroccan government.
In 1952 Hope-Gill retired from the service, living for some years in a charming Georgian house at Godmanchester near Huntingdon. Retirement provided the leisure to contact and amass details of all living descendants of the Manx families of Gill and Gell (they are of the same root), and to design a unique family tree with a fully comprehensive index. This work led to a 'clan gathering' in the Isle of Man in 1959.
In 1961, seeking the winter sun, he bought a house at Almunecar in Granada and lived there until the last few months of his life. His widow, born Colin Campbell-Smith, a New Zealander, survived him. There were no children. A man of great charm and endless energy, he was intensely proud of his Manx blood.
Biography written by J. Stowell Kenyon.
(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.216-8.)
Culture Vannin
#NMW
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 14 December 1896
Date of death: 20 January 1984
Name Variant: Hope Gill, Cecil