Arthur Oswald James Hope, 2nd Baron Rankeillour GCIE MC (7 May 1897 – 26 May 1958) was a British politician, soldier and administrator.
He was a Conservative and served as Member of Parliament for Nuneaton from 1924 to 1929 and for Birmingham Aston from 1931 to 1939, after which he was Governor of the Madras Presidency of British India from 1940 to 1946.
Hope married Grizel Gilmour (daughter of Brig.-Gen. Sir Robert Wolrige Gordon, 8th of Craigmillar and 13th of Liberton, 1st Bt.
[1] He was still a member of the House of Commons when appointed as Governor of Madras but gave up his seat, thereby causing a by-election in Birmingham Aston.
[1] He was a cricketer for a time and played a first-class match for the British Army against Cambridge University at Fenner's Ground on 7 June 1926.
[4] There were Japanese air raids on the coastal towns of Vizagapatam and Cocanada on 6 April 1942 followed by sea attacks on Madras port.
[4] Hope responded by evacuating commercial and administrative establishments and business offices along the Madras coast and moving them inland.
[8] I have always felt reading the history of the Madras army in the old days that there must be something fundamentally wrong in ignoring the Madrasis in recent years.
When you read the history of the past from 1750 onwards, you will see that the Madras troops did a great part of the fighting in India in those days and were nearly always successful.
[8] A training centre was raised at Madukkarai in Coimbatore district in July 1942[8] and the regiment fought with distinction in the Burma campaign.
[15] Hope was diagnosed as suffering from Tropical Neurasthenia, a pseudo-medical health condition used at the time for the cover of Europeans returning home.
Nye told his superiors in September 1946, that he discovered Hope had misappropriated 50,000 rupees (£3,750) given to him the previous year and intended for the Red Cross in India (equivalent to £204,413 in 2023[16]).
[14] The prime minister of the day, Clement Attlee, consented in April 1947 for Hope's debts to paid off from British government funds.