Sir James Robert Dunlopsmith (1858-1921)

Sir James Robert Dunlop Smith, 1858-1921. Educated at Edinburgh University and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst; Second Lieutenant, 1878; MA, 1878; entered the 22nd Regiment, 1879; transferred to Indian Staff Corps, 1882; Private Secretary and ADC to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, 1883-1887; Settlement Officer, Sialkot, 1877-1896; Commissioner, Hissar, 1896-1897; Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Punjab, 1879-1899; Famine Commissioner, Rajputana, 1899-1900; CIE, 1901; Political Agent, Phulkian States (Nabha, Patiala, & Jind) and Bahawalpur, 1901-1904; Organized the 1903 Coronation Durbar, Delhi; became Lt.-Colonel, 1905; Private Secretary to the Viceroy of India, Lord Minto, 1905-1910; CSI, 1909; Knighted, KCSI 1910; Political ADC to the Secretary of State for India, London, 1910-1919.

Dunlop Smith spent much of his life in India, starting in 1878 as a soldier, and for twenty two years served both as a soldier and an administrator in the Punjab and the Princely States. In 1901 Lord Curzon chose Dunlop Smith as the first British Political Agent to the Phulkian States (collectively, Nabha, Patiala, and Jind) and Bahawalpur State. Curzon was an ambitious Viceroy. He wished to bring political cohesion to the Princely States and was determined not to lose their loyalty to the Imperial Crown in the process. Dunlop Smith faced hostile Chiefs, and he was regarded as an outsider whose task was to trample over long-guarded privileges. But he won their confidence and friendship.

Dunlop Smith was a firm, wise guide to the Native Princess. His Alien birth was soon forgotten, and the Maharajas took him into their confidence and accepted his suggestions. His relationship with the venerable Maharaja of Nabha, Sir Hira Singh, was particularly good and held up to administrators in the Native States as an ideal example of the goodwill and comradeship that could exist between ruler and adviser. During this time Dunlop Smith became adviser and friends with Sir Rahim Bakhsh, the Manager of the State of Bahawalpur, and Khan Bahadur Sardar Bakhshi Wali Mohammad Khan, Judicial Minister of the State of Nabha.

In 1903 Dunlop Smith organized one of finest spectacles India had ever seen during British rule - the parade of the Native Retainers at the Delhi Coronation Durbar.

In 1905 Curzon was succeeded as Viceroy by Lord Minto. The new Viceroy cast about for a Private Secretary, and chose Dunlop Smith upon advise by Sir Walter Lawrence. Dunlop Smith remained Lord Minto's Private Secretary till 1910. In 1905 Dunlop Smith introduced Sir Rahim Bakhsh to John Perronet (JP) Thompson, the Foreign Secretary to Lord Minto.

Among his close friends was Rudyard Kipling who often turned to Dunlop Smith for background for his stories. He and Kipling were both known in India as as excellent story tellers, and Dunlop Smith, who had no literary aspirations, provided Kipling with numerous examples of Indian customs from his own experiences.