Maurice Pascal Alers Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey, GCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, GCMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

, GCVO

Royal Victorian Order

The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...

, PC

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...

 (1 April 1877–26 January 1963) was a British civil servant who gained prominence as the first Cabinet Secretary

Cabinet Secretary

A Cabinet Secretary is almost always a senior official who provides services and advice to a Cabinet of Ministers. In many countries, the position can have considerably wider functions and powers, including general responsibility for the entire civil service...

 and who later made the rare transition from the civil service to ministerial office.

Life and career

The third son of R. A. Hankey, Maurice Hankey was born at Biarritz

Biarritz

Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....

 in 1877 and educated at Rugby School

Rugby School

Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...

. He joined the Royal Marine Artillery, was promoted Captain and served in successive roles including coastal defence analyst in the War Division of the Naval Intelligence Department (1902–1906). In 1908 he was appointed Naval Assistant Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence

Committee of Imperial Defence

The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ad hoc part of the government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of World War II...

 and became Secretary to the Committee in 1912, a position he would hold for the next twenty-six years. In November 1914 he took on the additional duty of Secretary of the War Council. In this function he took notice of the ideas of Major Ernest Swinton to build a tracked armoured vehicle and brought them to the attention of Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 on 25 December 1914, leading to the eventual creation of the Landship Committee

Landships Committee

The Landships Committee was a small British war cabinet committee established in February 1915 to deal with the design and construction of what would turn out to be tanks during the First World War...

.

In December 1916 David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George

David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...

 became Prime Minister

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

 and shook up the way the government was run. A small War Cabinet

War Cabinet

A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....

 was instigated and Hankey was appointed as its Secretary. He also served as Secretary of the Imperial War Cabinet

Imperial War Cabinet

The Imperial War Cabinet was created by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George in the spring of 1917 as a means of co-ordinating the British Empire's military policy during the First World War...

 (which also incorporated representatives of the Colonies and Dominion governments) and gained a reputation for strong competency, so much so that when the full Cabinet was restored in 1919, the secretariat was retained and Hankey served as Secretary to the Cabinet for the next nineteen years. In 1923 he acquired the further position of Clerk of the Privy Council

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...

. During his long tenure he would also often serve as British Secretary to many international conferences and Secretary-General of many Imperial Conferences.

In August 1938 Hankey retired from government and became a British Government Director of the Suez Canal Company, a post he would hold for only one year. In the New Year's Honours List of 1939 he was ennobled as Baron Hankey, of The Chart in the County of Surrey. Lord Hankey remained a respected figure and was often consulted by ministers and civil servants for advice. In August 1939 he advised Neville Chamberlain

Neville Chamberlain

Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...

 about the formation of a new War Cabinet

War Cabinet

A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....

 and the following month become another of Chamberlain's many non-party political appointments when he was made Minister without Portfolio

Minister without Portfolio

A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...

 and a member of the War Cabinet

War Cabinet

A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....

. Hankey was personally reluctant to take on this task but agreed to do so. He became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is, in modern times, a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom that includes as part of its duties, the administration of the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster...

 when Chamberlain was succeeded by Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

 in May 1940, but was left out of Churchill's War Cabinet. In July 1941 Lord Hankey was moved to the position of Paymaster-General

Paymaster-General

HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom. The Paymaster General is in charge of the Office of HM Paymaster General , which held accounts at the Bank of England on behalf of Government departments and selected other public bodies...

, but the following year he was dropped from the Government altogether. He continued to hold other positions in both the public and private sector until his death.

Hankey kept a series of at times startlingly detailed handwritten diaries throughout most of his years in government, including during his time as Secretary to the War Council and Imperial War Cabinet of the First World War. These diaries are currently held at the Churchill Archives Centre

Churchill Archives Centre

The Churchill Archives Centre is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the Churchill Papers, the massive archive of Sir Winston Churchill, as well as the private papers of Baroness Thatcher...

 in Cambridge UK, and can be read by the public.

Maurice Hankey's youngest brother Donald Hankey

Donald Hankey

Donald William Alers Hankey was an English soldier best known for two volumes of essays about the British volunteer army in World War I both titled A Student in Arms.-Biography:...

 was a soldier best known for a series of essays he wrote while serving on the western front in World War I. Donald died in action at the Somme.

Offices held

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External links

• Spartacus Educational article
• The Papers of Lord Hankey are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, and are accessible to the public.