Sir David Taylor Monteath (7 April 1887 – 27 September 1961) was a British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, working at the

India Office The India Office was a British government department in London established in 1858 to oversee the administration of the Provinces of India, through the British viceroy and other officials. The administered territories comprised most of the mo ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, who was the last Permanent Under Secretary of State for India and Burma before independence meant that the post was no longer required.

Early life and education

Monteath was born in Barton Regis Hundred,

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

,''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837–1915'' the youngest son of Sir James Monteath, an Indian Civil Servant of the Bombay Cadre, who, for some time in 1903, had functioned as Acting Governor of

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

. His elder brother was John Monteath. Sir David was educated at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

"Clifton College Register" Muirhead, J.A.O. p196: Bristol; J.W Arrowsmith for Old Cliftonian Society; April, 1948 and

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

Career

In 1910, Monteath originally joined the Admiralty as an Admiralty Clerk Class I, but transferred the very next year to the India Office as a junior clerk in the Correspondence Department. During the First World War, however, he went back temporarily to the Admiralty, being commissioned as a temporary Lieutenant in the

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

and receiving an OBE in 1918. He returned in 1919 as Private Secretary to the then Under Secretary of State, Sir

Thomas Holderness Sir Thomas William Holderness, 1st Baronet, (11 June 1849 – 16 September 1924) was the first former member of the Indian Civil Service to be appointed to the post of Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India (although Sir George Russell Cl ...

, followed by Sir William Duke and Sir Arthur Hirtzel. In 1927, he became Private Secretary to the then

Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India secretary or the Indian secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of ...

, F. E. Smith, Lord Birkenhead, the great friend of Sir

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

. He continued to act in this capacity till 1931, when he was promoted as Assistant Under-Secretary of State looking after the affairs of the Indian and Burmese Round Table Conferences, especially the Burmese, where he was Secretary to the Conference. In 1937, he was given independent charge of Burmese Affairs as

Under-Secretary of State Undersecretary (or under secretary) is a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a secretary (person in charge). It is used in the executive branch of government, with different meanings in different political systems, and is a ...

, till 1941, when with Sir Findlater Stewart going off into what he considered to be more pressing wartime work, he became Under-Secretary for both India and Burma, and there he remained till the independence of both countries made his post unnecessary.

Honours

Monteath was appointed an OBE in 1918, a CVO in 1931, a CB in 1938, a KCMG in 1941, a KCB in 1944, and a KCSI in 1948. He received numerous honours and awards after retirement He died in Abingdon, Berkshire in 1961.

References

People educated at Clifton College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford 1887 births 1961 deaths 20th-century Royal Navy personnel Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order Officers of the Order of the British Empire Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for India Civil servants in the Admiralty Private secretaries in the British Civil Service Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I Foreign Office personnel of World War II {{UK-gov-bio-stub