Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent

1 portrait of Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Sir William Henry Hoare Vincent

by Walter Stoneman
bromide print, 1930
6 1/4 in. x 4 3/4 in. (160 mm x 120 mm) image size
Commissioned, 1930
Photographs Collection
NPG x185834

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  • Walter Stoneman (1876-1958), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 18527 portraits, Sitter in 8 portraits.

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William Vincent was the 3rd son of James Crawley Vincent, Vicar of Carnarvon, who died as a result of a cholera epidemic in 1869, leaving his wife Grace Johnson with 8 young children. Vincent received a scholarship and was educated initially at the Friars’ School, Bangor and then Christ College, Brecon. In 1884 he went to London to prepare for the Indian Civil Service entrance exam and, following his success, did his training at Trinity College, Dublin and in London. He was posted to Bengal, arriving late in 1887. Initially he served in the executive branch as a District Officer, transferring in 1900 to the judicial branch, culminating in his appointment in 1909 as an acting judge of the Calcutta High Court. In 1911 he was appointed to be Secretary of the Legislative Department of the Government of India and was knighted in 1913. A spell followed on the executive council of the provincial government of Bihar and Orissa and in 1917 he was recruited by the Viceroy Lord Chelmsford to be Home Member of the Government of India and President of the Viceroy’s Executive Council. In the 1919 India Act the Legislative Assembly of the Government of India was created, with Vincent as its first leader. He retired from India in 1922 and was appointed to the Secretary of State’s Council of India in London, serving until 1931. He retired to live with his sister in their childhood home in North Wales, serving as High Sheriff of Anglesey in 1931-2, Treasurer of the University College of North Wales from 1932-40 and in various charitable capacities. He died from pulmonary bronchitis in Bournemouth in 1941.
Vincent married Grace Minna Trotter in India in 1889: they had two daughters, Dorothy and Isabel, both of whom were married in India, to a businessman (Col. Sir Charles Arthur MC, VD) and a political officer (Lt.Col. Gordon Loch CIE, DL) respectively.

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Current affairs

Amy Johnson is the first woman to fly solo to Australia. She flew the 11,000 miles from Croydon to Darwin in a De Havilland Gipsy Moth named Jason and won the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE for her achievement. She went on to break a number of other flying records, and died while serving in the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941.

Art and science

Noel Coward's play, Private Lives is first performed. The original run starred Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier as well as Coward himself. Private Lives became Coward's most enduringly successful play.

International

Gandhi leads the Salt March. The march to the coast was a direct protest against the British monopoly on the sale of salt and inspired hordes of Indians to follow him and adopt his methods of Satyagraha (non-violent resistance to the British rule of India).
Stalin orders the 'liquidation of the kulaks (wealthy farmers) as a class' in a violent attempt to centralise control of agriculture and collectivise farming.

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