Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Griffin, Lepel Henry
GRIFFIN, Sir LEPEL HENRY (1838–1908), Anglo-Indian administrator, born at Watford, Hertfordshire, where his father was serving as locum tenens, on 20 July 1838, was only son of the three children of Henry Griffin, incumbent of Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk, by his wife Frances Sophia, who had a family of four sons and six daughters by a first husband, Mr. Welsh.
Griffin was educated at Maiden's preparatory school, Brighton, and then at Harrow, which he soon left, on account of illness. After tuition by Mr. Whitehead of Chatham House, Ramsgate, he passed the Indian civil service examination in 1859, and was posted to the Punjab as an assistant commissioner on 17 Nov. 1860. 'His conversational powers and ready wit made him popular in society ; but he soon proved himself in addition an effective writer, a fluent speaker, and, despite a somewhat easy-going manner, a man of untiring industry' (Journ. East India Assoc. April 1908). He is the original of the brilliant civilian portrayed in Sir Henry Cunningham's novel 'Chronicles of Dustypore' (1875), and was credited with the authorship of Aberigh Mackey's 'Twenty-one Days in India' (1880), satiric sketches of Anglo-Indian life, which first appeared anonymously in 'Vanity Fair' (1878-9). Sir Robert Montgomery [q. v.], lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, turned Griffin's literary abilities to good purpose by selecting him to prepare historical accounts of the principal Punjab families and of the rulers of the native principalities. The work, which involved immense research, was based both on official documents and on records and information gathered from the chiefs and nobles themselves. His 'Punjab Chiefs,' historical and biographical notices of the principal families of the Punjab (Lahore, 1865); 'The Law of Inheritance to Sikh Chiefships previous to the Annexation' (Lahore, 1869) ; and 'The Rajas of the Punjab' (Lahore, 1870; 2nd edit. London, 1873), at once took rank as standard works.
Griffin served as under-secretary to the local government from April 1870 ; officiating secretary from March 1871 ; on special duty to frame track rules between the Punjab and Rajputana from February 1873; and as superintendent of the Kapurthala state from April 1875. He was on special duty at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, and was appointed permanent chief secretary of the Punjab in November of that year. His official minutes, rapidly dictated to shorthand writers, were models of style.
Griffin's great opportunity came in the later phases of the Afghan war. 'After lengthened consideration,' wrote Lord Lytton semi-officially in Feb. 1880, 'I have come to the conclusion that there is only one man in India who is in all respects completely qualified by personal ability, special official experience, intellectual quickness and tact, general commonsense and literary skill, to do for the government of India what I want done as quickly as possible at Kabul, and that man in Mr. Lepel Griffin.' Accordingly in March 1880 the viceroy furnished Griffin with an elaborate minute on the policy to be adopted in Afghanistan, and gave him superintendence of negotiations at Kabul, in subordination only to the military commander, Sir Frederick (now Earl) Roberts. Griffin reached Kabul on 20 March, and at once entered into communication with Abdur Rahman, who had returned to the country after ten years' exile in Russian territory, and was beginning to establish himself in Afghan Turkestan. Griffin by his masterly tact overcame Abdur Rahman's suspicions of English policy and finally, in circumstances which seemed most unpromising, helped to establish him on the Afghan throne and to inspire him permanently with a friendly feeling for England.
Before Griffin's labour was completed Lytton resigned; but the new viceroy, Lord Ripon [q. v. Suppl. II], offered Griffin sympathetic support. At a durbar at Kabul on 22 July the wishes and intentions of the government were explained to the Afghans by Griffin in a Persian speech, and Abdur Rahman was formally acknowledged as Ameer of Kabul, Griffin meeting him at Zimma, sixteen miles north of Kabul, a few days later, and discussing the conditions of British recognition and questions of future relationship. Griffin's official minute, dated 4 Aug., gave impressions of the new ruler which subsequent events proved singularly correct. 'The interview had the happiest results,' writes Lord Roberts in his 'Forty-one Years in India,' 'and must have been extremely gratifying to Mr. Griffin, whom we all heartily congratulated on the successful ending to the very delicate and difficult negotiations, which he had carried on with so much skill and patience.' The British defeat at the hands of Ayub Khan at Maiwand on |27 July slightly postponed the settlement, and Griffin remained at Kabul until the withdrawal of the British troops after the rout of Ayub Khan's army by General Roberts on 1 Sept. He was made C.S.I, in July 1879, and K.C.S.I. in May 1881. He also received the Afghan medal. The Ameer admired Griffin's skilful diplomacy, and wrote that 'he deserved the title of "Lord of Kabul" just as much as Roberts did that of "Lord of Kandahar" ' (Abdub Rahman's Life, 1900, ii. 115).
After this triumph Griffin became agent to the governor-general in central India in February 1881. He was instrumental in effecting valuable reforms in Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal, and some smaller states, and he won the regard of the chiefs. His action in securing in 1884 the degradation of Sidik Hasan Khan, second consort of Shah Jehan, Begam of Bhopal from 1868 to 1901, for his usurpation of power and his covert disloyalty is warmly commended by her daughter, the present Begam Sultan Jahan, in 'An Account of My Life' (1912). When home on leave in 1886 Griffin was a royal commissioner for the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, and at the Queen Victoria jubilee in the following year he was on special duty with the Maharaja Shivaji Rao Holkar of Indore. Refusing Lord Dufferin's invitation to supervise the reorganisation of Burma, after the annexation of the upper province in 1886, Griffin remained in central India until his retirement from the service in January 1889. He had hoped for the lieutenant-governorship of his old province in 1887, when Sir Charles Aitchison [q. v. Suppl. I] retired, but his unconventional frankness seems to have made the government shy of giving adequate recognition to his exceptional abilities.
On educational policy in India Griffin held original views. His constant intercourse with the Indian aristocracy bred in him distrust of the system of making the English language the sole instrument of the higher native education. With Dr. G. W. Leitner (1840-1899), principal of the Government College, Lahore, he early in his career urged the employment in teaching of the Indian vernaculars, and the award of honours for proficiency in Eastern literature and learning, as well as for English. Ultimately at his instigation a university college was established in 1870 at Lahore to give effect to these principles, and when the Punjab University was created there in Oct. 1882, one of the five faculties was for Oriental learning. Yet the Oriental faculty which alone sought to employ in tuition other languages than English never flourished and is now practically defunct (Quinquennial Report on Indian Education, 1902-7). The Inayat Ali-Griffin prize is annually given in his memory for the highest marks in Mahommedan law in the first law examination. Griffin further helped Leitner to establish without much success the Oriental Institute at Woking, to enable Indian students in England to adhere to their caste and communal customs. Griffin also founded in 1885, with Leitner and Mr. Demetrius Boulger, the first editor, the 'Asiatic Quarterly Review,' which long enjoyed a prosperous career.
On settling in England Griffin interested himself in literature, finance, and politics. As chairman of the Imperial Bank of Persia he did much for British prestige in Persia, and in 1903 the Shah conferred upon him the imperial order of the lion and the sun. He was also chairman of the Burma ruby mines, and was on the boards of other companies. From 1894 to his death he was chairman of the East India Association, which disinterestedly advocated the interests of India. He took an active part in its proceedings, which were fully reported in the 'Asiatic Quarterly Review.'
He constantly wrote in the magazines and spoke in public on Indian questions, and while upholding the conservative view of Indian administration, showed a warm regard for the Indian people as well as for the native princes. He vigorously espoused the cause of Indians in the Transvaal and elsewhere in South Africa, heading deputations to the secretaries of state for India and the colonies on the subject in 1907. He was a supporter of the liberal unionist cause in home politics, and in 1900 he contested unsuccessfully West Nottingham in their interest.
Griffin died of pneumonia at his residence, Cadogan Gardens, London, on 9 March 1908. The body was cremated at Golder's Green and his ashes were deposited in the private chapel of Colonel Dudley Sampson, Buxshalls, Lindfield, Sussex. He married on 9 Nov. 1889 Marie Elizabeth, elder daughter of Ludwig Leupold of La Coronata, Genoa, Italy, agent to the North German Lloyd S.N. Co. at Genoa; she survived him with two sons, born in 1898 and 1900 respectively. His widow afterwards married Mr. Charles Hoare. A drawing of Griffin by C. W. Walton is reproduced in the Begam's 'Account of My Life' (1912), p. 128. In addition to the books already mentioned Griffin wrote:
- 'The Great Republic,' a hostile criticism of the United States of America, 1884, reproducing articles in the 'Fortnightly Review.'
- 'Famous Monuments of Central India,' fol. 1886.
- 'Ran jit Singh' in 'Rulers of India' series, 1892.
[Record of Services, Bengal Estab., 1888; India Office List, 1907; Lord Lytton's Indian Administration, 1899; Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, 1898; Imp. Gaz. of India, vols, viii. and xx.; Sultan Jahan Begam's Life, 1912; Ameer Abdur Rahman's Life, 1900; Journ. East India Assoc, April 1908; The Times, and Standard, 11 March 1908; Indian Rev., June 1904; notes kindly supplied by Mr. F. L. Petre; personal knowledge.]