Piers Brendon - Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997

CONTENTS

To
Vyvyen
With love and thanks

ILLUSTRATIONS

Section One

Missionary with Tahitian converts (Corbis); Wedgwood anti-slavery medallion (Wilberforce House, Hull City Museums and Art Galleries/Bridgeman Art Library); Imperial interior, 1890 (Getty); Lord and Lady Curzon hunt in Hyderabad, 1902 (AKG-London); Hyderabads army polo team (Corbis); Sir James Grigg enters Simla, 1938 (Corbis); Hong Kong Harbour seen from Victoria Park (John Hillelson Collection); The CPRs Iron Horse (Vancouver Public Library, Special Collections); Indian Railway engraving by Indian School (Private Collection/Bridgeman); Teatime in Ceylon (Corbis); Ceylon tea harvest (Corbis); King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat of Burma (Corbis); Christmas day in Burma, 1885 (Corbis); Scottish troops beside the Sphinx, 1882 (Corbis); Tourists on the Great Pyramid, 1938 (Corbis); Imperial stamps (Private Collection)

Section Two

Sikh officers and men, 1858 (National Army Museum, London/Bridgeman); Lucknow after the Mutiny (Corbis); British camp in Afghanistan (Corbis); Afghan riflemen on the Khyber Pass (Corbis); Irish peasants in the 1880s (Corbis); Dublins General Post Office after the Easter Rising (Corbis); The Rhodes Colossus (Getty); Isandhlwana after the battle, 1879 (National Army Museum/Bridgeman); Gold miners in De Kaap, South Africa (Corbis); Boers at Spion Kop, 1900 (Corbis); A meal during the siege of Ladysmith (Popperfoto); Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 1915 (Corbis); Indian military hospital, Brighton Pavilion (Corbis); The Japanese march on Rangoon, 1942 (Corbis); Nigerian sergeant in Burma, 1944 (Imperial War Museum, London, neg. no. IND3098); Trade follows the flag, ephemera (Robert Opie Collection)

Section Three

The Imperial appeal, ephemera (Robert Opie Collection); Gandhis Salt March, 1930 (Corbis); Nehru and Jinnah, 1946 (Corbis); The last Viceroy and Vicereine of India (Corbis); The refugees of Partition, 1947 (Corbis); Jewish refugees arrive at Haifa, 1946 (Corbis); The exodus of Palestinian refugees to Gaza (Corbis); British troops confront Cypriots, Nicosia, 1955 (Corbis); The troopship Empire Ken at Port Said, November 1956 (Getty); Detaining Mau Mau suspects in Kenya, 1952 (Corbis); Jomo Kenyatta is hailed as Prime Minister, 1963 (Corbis); Queen Elizabeth II on her tour of Nigeria, 1956 (Corbis); Kwame Nkrumah leads Ghana to Independence, 1957 (Corbis); The Union Jack is lowered in Hong Kong, 1997 (Onasia)

Front endpaper

Imperial Federation map of the world showing the extent of the British Empire in 1886 Royal Geographical Society, London

Back endpaper

World map showing shipping routes and the extent of the British Empire in 1927 Royal Geographical Society, London

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book ranges across five continents and more than two centuries, so the debts I have incurred during the six years it took to write are correspondingly extensive.

I must first thank friends and colleagues at Churchill College, Cambridge, who have helped me in countless ways. I am especially grateful to Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, and to past and present members of his outstanding team, notably Natalie Adams, Louise King, Andrew Riley and Katharine Thomson. Dr. Dick Whittaker provided me with indispensable guidance on the Roman Empire. Hywel George gave me a unique insight into the workings of the post-war British Empire. Dr. Alan and Judy Findlay arranged an illuminating tour of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, courtesy of their son Matthew. Lady Julia Boyd recalled experiencing the end of the British Empire in person: after the handover in Hong Kong on 30 June 1997, she witnessed the royal yacht Britannia, with the last Governor, the Prince of Wales and other dignitaries on board, sailing into the darkness on her final voyage.

Most of my work was done at the Cambridge University Library, an incomparable resource for the historian, and I owe thanks especially to Rachel Rowe, Godfrey Waller and Peter Meadows, the Bible Society Librarian. Elsewhere librarians and archivists went out of their way to lighten my task. I am under particular obligation to Dr. Gareth Griffith, Director of the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, who put a room at my disposal in Bristol, where I was also able to draw on the expertise of Jo Duffy. Roderick Suddaby gave assistance at the Imperial War Museum. So did Kevin Greenbank at the Cambridge Centre for South Asian Studies. Further afield, Dr. Saroja Wettasinghe, Director of the National Archives of Sri Lanka, eased my path into her collections. Suzanne Mallon took immense trouble to introduce me to manuscript material at the Mitchell Library in Sydney.

In the course of my research I visited a number of ex-colonial clubsthe Tollygunge in Calcutta, the Bangalore Club, the Hong Kong Club and so onwhere I was most courteously received. I am particularly grateful to Allan Oakley, Secretary of the High Range Club at Munnar in Kerala, and to Stanley Gooneratne, Secretary of the Hill Club in Nuwara Eliya, who was kind enough to open his records for me.

I have benefited from the aid and counsel of many individuals, among them Dan Burt, Professor Martin Daunton, Dr. Richard Duncan-Jones, Bill Kirkman, Gamini Mendis, Professor James Muller, Manus Nunan, Anthony Pemberton, Harold Rosenbaum, and Dr. Calder Walton. Sir Christopher Hum generously shared his diplomatic memories of the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong. Sydney Bolt reminisced with characteristic wit about Britains war-time Raj in India as well as commenting on parts of my typescript. Michael Murphy performed the same office for my Irish sections, decorating the text with sprightly marginalia. Rex Bloomstein devoted time he could ill afford to perusing my chapter on Palestine. Richard Ingrams not only unearthed a fascinating vignette of colonial Cyprus penned by Paul Foot soon after he left the school where we all three served time, but he also sent me relevant books to review for The Oldie. So, with his unerring literary eye, did Jeremy Lewis. Other friends contributed in different ways: Professor Christopher Andrew, my late and much-lamented literary agent Andrew Best, Professor Vic and Pam Gatrell, Tim Jeal, Sharon Maurice, Professor Richard Overy and John Tyler. Professor James Mayall allowed me to pick his brains over long lunches.

I also enjoyed imperial lunches with Dr. Ronald Hyam, the leading British authority on the end of Empire, to whom I owe more than I can say. He supervised me when I was an undergraduate at Magdalene College, advised me subsequently and, despite seeing his own book through the press, scrutinised every word of mine. His criticisms, corrections and suggestions were of inestimable value. Needless to say, despite all this extraneous help, I alone bear the responsibility for any mistakes that remain.