Information about some names that appear in the Minutes could not be traced, and there is very limited material available on other individuals. Much information has been drawn from the Internet, particularly ODNB, The Times archives, and Wikipedia.
Aga Khan, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah (1877–1957); 48th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, and a prominent and strong supporter of various Muslim causes around the world. Based in India, he was appointed to the Council of the Viceroy of India in 1902. In 1906 he became one of the founders of the All-India Muslim League and was elected its first ‘permanent’ president. He was greatly respected by successive British governments and took a keen interest in the activities of Britain's Muslims, including those of the Muslim Mission established at Woking in 1912, giving generous financial assistance for the development of a number of Islamic institutions in England. See his autobiography, The Memoirs of Aga Khan: world enough and time (London, 1954).
Ali, Abdullah Yusuf (1872–1953); graduated from St John's College, Cambridge and called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1896; an officer of the Indian Civil Service, he served in various capacities, retiring in 1914. During the First World War he was a private in the West Kent Fencibles and president of the Indian Students' Prisoners of War Fund. Carried out much propaganda work for the government; represented Indian Muslims at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919; entered the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, India, 1919; appointed as Revenue Member of the Council of the State 1921. In the early years of the School of Oriental Studies in London (later renamed the School of Oriental and African Studies) he was lecturer in Hindustani, Hindi, and Indian Religions, Manners, and Customs; an Arabic scholar, his recension in English of the Qur'an in 1935 is still acclaimed as a classic. Active supporter of the World Congress of Faiths and contributed learned lectures at meetings organized by the Woking Muslim Mission Trust and Literary Society, as well as writing books and articles on Islamic issues for various journals. See The Times, 15 December 1953.
Ali, Syed Ameer (1849–1928), Chairman of the ELM's Executive Committee, and a leading Muslim at the turn of the twentieth century. After an illustrious career as a high court judge in India, he settled in England in 1904, where he committed himself to several Muslim causes. Founded the London Muslim League in 1908, and the Red Crescent Society in 1912. In 1909, became the first Indian to be appointed Privy Councillor and to be given membership of its Judicial Committee. See Martin Forward, ‘Syed Ameer Ali: a bridge builder’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 6, no. 1 (1995), pp. 45–62.
Ali, Sir Torick Ameer (1891–1975); younger son of Syed Ameer Ali (q.v.) and brother of Waris Ameer Ali (q.v.); educated at Marlborough School and Christ Church, Oxford, before being called to the Bar in 1916; married Isabelle Ida; knighted. In November 1944, while acting as Chief Justice in Calcutta, he was appointed adviser to the Secretary of State for India in London and in this capacity later became the Chairman of the ELM Trustees.
Ali, Waris Ameer (1886–1975); elder son of Syed Ameer Ali (q.v.); educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and Balliol College, Oxford; entered the Indian Civil Service and retired as a Judge in 1929. During the Second World War served as the War Services Adviser to the High Commissioner of India in London. Well-versed in Islamic culture and history, and also conversant with a number of European languages. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and wrote small pieces for the Geographical Journal. See The Times, 9 April 1975; also the Geographical Journal, 141, no. 3 (November 1975), p. 515.
Ali Khan, Mirza Abdul (Sadigh-es-Sultaneh) (1876–?); Minister at the Persian Embassy in London; Imperial Commissioner to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company; Ambassador to Washington, DC, 1919–1921. See The Times, 27 March 1919.
Allanson-Winn, Rowland George Allanson, 5th Baron Headley (1855–1935); educated privately, save for a few months at Westminster School in 1868, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge; admitted to Bar at the Middle Temple, 1879. Spent two years as editor of the Salisbury Journal before studying at King's College London and becoming a civil engineer in 1896. In the autumn of 1913 he met Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, and soon converted to Islam, taking the Muslim name Shaikh Saifurrahman Rahmatullah El-Farooq. Founded the British Muslim Society in 1914 and remained its president until 1935. In 1916 he unsuccessfully requested the Secretary of State for India to donate land for the construction of a mosque in London. In 1923, together with Kamal-ud-Din, he went on pilgrimage to Mecca and thereafter travelled to Egypt (1923), South Africa (1926), and India (1927 and 1928) to raise funds for a mosque in London. Died in a nursing home in June 1935 and was buried in the Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking.
Amery, Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett (1873–1955); Conservative politician and journalist noted for his interest and involvement in colonial and imperial affairs during the 1920s and 1930s, especially India, where he was born and where he learned to speak Hindustani. His mother was the sister of Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (q.v.). Educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. MP for Birmingham South (1911–1918) and for Birmingham Sparkbrook (1918–1945). Colonial Secretary 1924–1929; Secretary of State for India 1940–1945. Co-signatory with Lord Edward Halifax (the Foreign Secretary) and Lord Lloyd, to a memorandum sent to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposing an allocation of funds for the purchase of a site for a mosque in London. See BL, IOR, P&J (S)/2033, fos 128–133, Halifax to Amery, 11 September 1940 and ibid., fos 142–145, Amery to Lloyd, 26 September 1940. See also Amery's autobiography, My Political Life, 3 vols (London, 1953–1955).
Ampthill (see Russell, (Arthur) Oliver Villiers, 2nd Baron Ampthill)
Anik, Abdeali Shaikh Mahomedali (1860–1939); a Muslim from the Bohra community who operated as a merchant in London from 1901 onwards. Honorary treasurer of the Indigent Muslim Burial Fund, the British Red Crescent Society, and the London Mosque Fund; also a freemason, who was a member of a number of lodges.
Arberry, Arthur John (1905–1969); orientalist and prolific scholar of Arabic, Persian, and Islamic studies. Graduated from Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1929; research fellow 1931–1932. Head of Department of Classics at Cairo University 1932–1934; on returning to Britain he became the Assistant Librarian at the Library of the India Office, 1934–1939. During the Second World War, he served in the Ministry of Information. Professor of Persian, University of London, 1944–1947; Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic, University of Cambridge, 1947–1969.
Arnold, Professor Sir Thomas Walker (1864–1930); renowned scholar of Islam. Educated at the City of London School and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Teacher at the Mahommedan Anglo-Orient College, Aligarh, in the United Provinces, India, 1888–1898. Professor of Philosophy at Government College, Lahore, 1898–1904; later also Dean of the Oriental Faculty at Punjab University. Assistant Librarian, Indian Office, 1904–1909; appointed Educational Adviser to Indian students in Britain, 1909; Adviser to the Secretary of State for India, 1917–1920. Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, 1921–1930. Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, 1912; knighted, 1921. See Katherine Watt, ‘Thomas Walker Arnold and the re-evaluation of Islam, 1864–1930’, Modern Asian Studies, 36, no. 1 (Feb. 2002), pp. 1–98.
Attari, Hatim; successful businessman; in 1937, in partnership with Joseph Hobb and Alexander Tolmie, bought the Bruichladdich Distillery Co. (Islay) Ltd for a reported £23,000 (see http://www.bruichladdich.com/the_history_1881to2000.htm (accessed 19 January 2010)).
Baig, Mirza Abbas Ali (1855–1932); came from an old Mughal army family. Graduated from Bombay University, 1878. Inspector of Muslim Schools from 1882; held various other posts in the Indian Civil Service; Oriental Translator, 1893–1906. Member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1910–1917. Knighted 1917. Awarded honorary LL.D. by the University of Glasgow. In England, he was an energetic supporter of the rights of the Muslim community and was instrumental in rescuing the Woking Mosque from being turned into a factory. In 1923 he was a member of the National Liberal Club. See the Islamic Review, March 1933, pp. 62–63; The Times, 3 June 1932.
Beg, Mirza Zulqadar; Sunni Muslim official and son of Nawab Sarwar-ul-Mulk. Judge of the High Court, then secretary to the Nizam of Hyderabad's government in the Judicial, Political, and General departments; finally Secretary in the Military and Medical departments. See Hyderabad State List of Leading Officers, Nobles and Personages (Potter Press reprint, 2007), p. 35.
Begum, Sultan Kaikhusrau Jahan (1858–1930); only surviving daughter of Sultan (Begum) Shah Jahan. Ruled the princely state of Bhopal, India from 1901 to 1926, when she abdicated in favour of her son. Her mother's donation had helped to construct the first purpose-built mosque in England, in Woking in 1889, which she visited in 1925 wearing a burqa. An energetic supporter of educational reform, she was the founding (and so far the only woman) Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, 1920–1930. Her prolific writing included several books on education and health. See Shaharyar M. Khan, The Begums of Bhopal: a dynasty of women rulers in Raj India (London, 2000).
Bey, Halil Halid (1869–1931), also written in the Minutes as Khalil Khalid (to convey the Turkish pronunciation, when writing in English, the letter h instead of kh was sometimes used). Graduated in law from the University of Istanbul in 1893 and came to England in 1894; Vice-Consul at the Ottoman Embassy from 1897. Teacher of Turkish at the University of Cambridge, 1902–1911. Halid was one of the Muslims who initiated the movement for a mosque in London (see The Times, 18 January 1911). Among his many publications, The Diary of a Turk (London, 1903), A Study of Turcophobia (1904), and The Cross Versus the Crescent (London, 1907) are especially noteworthy. See S. Tanvir Wasti, ‘Halil Halid: anti-imperialist Muslim intellectual’, Middle Eastern Studies, 29, no. 3 (July 1993), pp. 559–579.
Bey, Mundji Fikri (c.1869–?); Turkish Jew, whose father was a governor of several Ottoman provinces. Entered the Ottoman Sultan's service in 1887; served as a Consul in Greece and New York, before being appointed Consul-General in London before the First World War. See ‘Turkish Jews in Westerbork’, http://www.bevrijdingintercultureel.nl/eng/turksjood.html (accessed 25 November 2009).
Bilgrami, Dr Hamid Hasan (1908–?); lecturer in Urdu at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. President of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin. He left London in 1953 and settled in Pakistan. See The Times, 15 August 1951; also ELM Archives, letter from Bilgrami to Sir John Woodhead, dated 25 January 1951.
Bilgrami, Syed Hassan; in the Indian Medical Service. His grandfather was the oriental interpreter to Governor-General Lord Dalhousie and his father was a Deputy Collector and Magistrate in Bengal. Chairman of the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College Association, London, with branches in Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh.
Bird, Arthur; first appears in the Minutes in 1938 when standing in for the then Treasurer, A.S.N. Anik. He became an Honorary Assistant Secretary but, following Anik's death in 1939 and the closure of his business, Bird's connection with the Fund ended in 1940.
Bull, Sir William (1863–1931); student at Birkbeck Institute (later College, University of London); qualified as a solicitor, 1889. Elected to the London County Council, 1892; Conservative MP for Hammersmith (1900–1918) and for Hammersmith South (1918–1929). Privy Councillor, 1918; created Baronet, 1922. Served in many Parliamentary capacities and was a member of one of its Missions to India. Also supported the movement for extending voting rights for women. See ‘The papers of Sir William Bull’, http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FBULL (accessed 25 November 2009).
Bullock, Willoughby; Secretary and Clerk to the Society of Knights Bachelor (from 1912 Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor), in which Sir William Bull (q.v.) played a leading role. Later Attorney-General of British Honduras (now Belize). See ‘The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor’, http://www.iskb.co.uk/TODAY.htm (accessed 21 November 2010).
Cochrane-Baillie, Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Ross, 2nd Baron Lamington (1860–1940); educated at Eton College and at Christ Church, Oxford. Conservative MP for St Pancras North (1886–1890); succeeded to title, 1890. Governor of Bombay, 1903–1907. On his return to Britain he retained an interest in movements supporting greater understanding between the British government and so-called Eastern peoples, especially the Islamic world, as well as the welfare of subject peoples and minorities within the British Empire. Active member of a range of organizations working in this field, including the Royal Central Asian Society, the East India Association, the Middle Eastern Association, The Indigent Moslems Burial Fund, and the British Red Crescent Society.
Cornwall, Sir Edwin (1863–1953); coal merchant. Elected mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Fulham, 1900. A member of the Progressive Party, he was elected chairman of the London County Council in 1904. Liberal MP for Bethnal Green North East (1906–1922). Knighted 1905; created baronet, 1918. See The Times, 2 March 1953.
Gomme, Sir (George) Laurence (1853–1916). Working his way up the administrative hierarchy, Gomme became Clerk to the London County Council (chief administrative officer) in 1900. A historian, anthropologist, and folklorist, he wrote prolifically and was a fellow of several learned societies. See ODNB, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38353?docPos=5 (accessed 25 November 2009).
Guinness, Walter Edward, 1st Baron Moyne (1880–1944); Anglo-Irish politician and businessman. Deputy Resident Minister of State in Cairo, August 1942–January 1944; Resident Minister, January–November 1944. Assassinated November 1944 by two members of the militant Jewish Zionist group Lehi.
Headley (see Allanson-Winn, Rowland George Allanson, 5th Baron Headley)
Hossain (Husain, Hussain), Mohammed Saiyid Manawar (1909–?); Director of Veday Laboratories Ltd.; Secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin; Trustee of the East London Mosque Trust Limited in the early 1950s.
Hotson, Sir John Ernest Buttery (1877–1944); educated at Edinburgh Academy and Magdalen College, Oxford. Served as an administrator in Bombay Presidency, acting as its Governor in 1931. Here he did ‘much valuable social work in regard to children's welfare and the rescue of fallen women’. After retirement he devoted himself to public service in Britain, particularly for the Prisoners of War Bureau and the Red Cross. See The Times, 15 May 1944.
Huque, Mohammad Azizul (1892–1947); lawyer, parliamentarian, social worker, and writer. Born in West Bengal; graduated from Presidency College, Calcutta, 1911; law degree from University Law College, 1914. Practised as a lawyer and in 1926 was appointed government pleader and public prosecutor of Nadia and also elected Vice-Chairman of the District Board and member of the Bengal Legislative Council; received the title Khan Bahadur. Selected as a member of the Indian Franchise Commission in 1931; Education Minister of Bengal, 1934–1937. First speaker of the Legislative Assembly constituted by the 1937 general election, 1937–1942; received the title of CIE (Companion, Order of the Indian Empire); knighted, 1941. High Commissioner for India in London, 1942–1943. Joined Viceroy of India's Executive Council, 1943; in charge of commerce, industries, civil supplies, food, and, later, the Textile Directorate under the Supply Department. Counsel for the Enquiry Commission constituted by the Central Government following the August 1946 riots in Calcutta. Supported the Muslim League protest against the Viceroy's actions, renouncing all his titles. See http://bpedia.org/H_0200.php (accessed 20 January 2011).
Isfahani (Ispahani), Mirza Hashim; merchant and financier with Pan-Islamic sympathies. Member of the London All-India Muslim League; President of the Central Islamic Society, 1917; active member of the Woking Mosque congregation. See http://www.wokingmuslim.org/books/mus-pales/mus-pales-t.pdf (accessed 28 November 2009).
Jang, Nawab Fakhr Yar; Sunni Muslim born in Jullundhur District, Punjab. Educated at Aligarh; MA, Oxford. Worked at the British Agency in Kabul, 1903; honorary attaché to Sir Henry McMahon during the tour of the Afghan ruler Amir Habibullah to India, 1907. Financial Department, Government of India, 1907–1910. Entered the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, 1913; was Deputy Accountant General and Accountant General before being appointed Finance Secretary. Judicial Member of the Nizam's Executive Council, 1936–1937; later Finance Member of the Executive Council. See Hyderabad State List of Leading Officers, Nobles and Personages (Potter Press reprint, 2007), p. 13.
Jang, Nawab Mehdi Yar (also Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Bilgrami) (1881–?); Shia Muslim. Inspector of Schools in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Entered the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, 1907; Director of Public Instruction; Secretary in the Judicial, Political, and General departments; Political Secretary to the Nizam's government. During the 1930s he became Sadr-ul-Maham (Member) in charge of the Political Department. See Hyderabad State List of Leading Officers, Nobles and Personages (Potter Press reprint, 2007), p. 21.
Jetha, Suleman Mohamed (1906–1996); came to London in 1933 where he set up a firm importing spices from India and supplying them to businesses in Aldgate East. An Ismaili, he converted to the Sunni tradition; married a Jewish woman. Active and leading member of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin from the 1940s and represented it on the East London Mosque Trust; Chairman of the Trust from the 1970s; also ran the Indigent Moslems Burial Fund. He was deeply involved in the management of the mosque and gave much of his time and energy to raising funds that contributed enormously towards the construction of the mosque that was finally inaugurated in Whitechapel Road in 1985.
Jeevanjee, Alibhoy Mulla (1856–1936); leading Indian merchant, from a Daudi Bohra (Shia) family from Karachi; made his considerable fortune in East Africa. First Indian member of the Legislative Assembly of British East Africa, 1909 (sole Indian member until 1919).
Kaderbhoy, M.T.; barrister. Honorary Secretary of the London All-India Muslim League; resigned from the LMF in 1911, and returned to India.
Kamal-ud-Din, Khwaja (1870–1932); born in India; qualified as a lawyer in the 1890s. In 1912 he came to England to present a case before the Privy Council. While in London he learned of the existence of the Woking Mosque, which had been used for worship on only a small number of occasions. After visiting the mosque in 1913, he succeeded in having it re-opened and, with the help of Mirza Abbas Ali Baig (q.v.) in particular, persuaded the court to establish its status as a Muslim place of worship under a Trust. Established the Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust at the mosque, which constituted the centre of Islam in England from 1913 to the mid-1960s. Began editing a monthly journal, The Islamic Review, 1915, which for over fifty-five years was the main Islamic journal in Britain. While Kamal-ud-Din himself was affiliated to the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement (a splinter from a heterodox sect founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmed of Qadian (Punjab, India) in the late nineteenth century), the Islam that he (and later imams) presented at Woking was ecumenical, not promoting any particular sect or movement within Islam.
Kazi, Imdadali Imamali (1886–1968); venerated scholar from the province of Sindh in British India (after 1947 part of Pakistan). Came to England for higher education, 1907; remained until 1919, studying economics and psychology at the London School of Economics and King's College London respectively. Married Elsa Gertrude Loesch, daughter of a German composer, 1910; called to the Bar, 1911. Returned to India, 1919, but came back to England, 1931. Elected first president of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin, 1934. In India from 1938; returned to England, 1947–1951. First Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sindh, 1951.
Khan, Habibullah (1872–1919); Amir of Afghanistan from 1901 until his assassination in 1919. Maintained strict neutrality during the First World War, despite coming under immense pressure from the Ottoman Emperor to support him.
Khan, Sahibdad (1896–?); from Jhelum, Punjab; came to United Kingdom, 1923. In 1927, on his return from the USA, he opened a perfumery business, which he ran for many years. Reported by British intelligence to be politically motivated from 1935 onwards, sympathetic to the Indian National Congress, and closely connected with Amir Shah, as well as the Indian seamen's communist leader, Surat Ali. Advocated Muslim–Hindu unity and Indian independence. During the Second World War, he was alleged to be engaged in the black market and profiteering, but was considered by the intelligence services to be a ‘moderate man and a conscientious Moslem’ (BL, IOR, P&J/12/468, fos 78–79).
Khan, Sahibzada Aftab Ahmad (1867–1930); educated at Christ's College, Cambridge; called to the Bar at the Inner Temple, 1894. Trustee of the Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh; President of the Mahomedan Educational Association of Calcutta, 1911. Member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India in succession to Sir Abbas Ali Baig, 1917; represented Indian Muslims at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. While in England he took interest in Muslim affairs, including those at the Woking Mosque, until his return to India in 1923.
Labbane (Lebanne, Lebbane), Kamal El; attaché to the Egyptian Embassy in London during the Second World War; active ELM Trustee until he returned to Egypt in 1944.
Lamington (see Cochrane-Baillie, Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Ross, 2nd Baron Lamington)
Latif, Camrudin Amirudin (1856–?); partner in a firm and agency for the sale of pearls and precious stones in Holborn, London, until its dissolution in 1914. Vice-President of the London branch of the All-India Muslim League. See http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/28846/pages/5227/page.pdf (accessed 18 January 2010); The Times, 20 September 1912.
Leitner, Gottleib Wilhelm (1840–1899); born in Budapest; interpreter (mainly in Arabic, Turkish, and Russian) to the British Commissariat in Constantinople, 1855. Studied at King's College London, 1858–1859; lecturer in Arabic, Turkish, and Modern Greek, 1859; Professor in Arabic and Muslim Law, 1861. Principal of Government College at Lahore (now Pakistan), 1864; helped raise its status to the University of the Punjab, of which he was the Registrar. Founder of a number of schools, literary associations, free public libraries, and academic journals. Author of comprehensive two-volume history of Islam (in Urdu). Returned to England, 1881; purchased the site of the Royal Dramatic College in Woking and established the Oriental Institute, for the purpose of educating students, especially from India, in ‘oriental’ languages, cultures, and religions. Established the Woking Mosque, 1889, to cater for the religious needs of these students. The Oriental Institute closed down at his death, but the Mosque was re-opened in 1913 by Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din (q.v.). See http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51109 (accessed 3 February 2011).
Lovegrove, J.W. (Habibullah) (1867–1940); master tailor. Lived and worked in London, 1890s–1930s; active member of the Woking Muslim Mission. Converted to Islam and wrote the book What is Islam? (2nd edn, Woking, 1934). See http://www.lovegrove.co.uk/habibullah/index.htm (accessed 19 January 2010).
Mehmed V. Reshad (1844–1918); 35th Ottoman Sultan and 99th Caliph of Prophet Muhammad. Began his rule 27 April 1909. Attempting to rule as a constitutional monarch, he surrendered all authority to the Committee of Union and Progress, the liberal–nationalist organization of the Young Turk movement. Turkey entered the First World War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and, as caliph, he declared jihad (holy war) on his enemies, inviting all Muslims, especially those under the rule of the Allies, to rally to the support of the Ottomans. By the time of Mehmed's death, most of the empire had fallen to the Allies, and six months later Constantinople was under military occupation. See http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/373194/Mehmed-V (accessed 26 November 2009).
Moid-ul-Mulk, Sir Sayed Ali Imam (1869–1932); called to the Bar by the Middle Temple, 1890. President of the All-India Muslim League, 1908. First Muslim member of the Viceroy of India's Executive Council, 1910. Appointed President of the Executive Council of the Nizam of Hyderabad, 1919; resigned, 1922. Leading member of the National Moslem Conference, 1931. See The Times, 31 October 1932.
Morison, Sir Theodore (1863–1936); highly-respected educationalist and writer. Member of the Viceroy of India's Administrative Council, 1903–1904; member of the Council of India, 1906–1916; knighted 1910; member of the Commission on the Public Services of India, 1913–1915.
Morley, John, Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923); British Liberal politician, writer, and newspaper editor. Editor of the Fortnightly Review, 1869–1882 and the Pall Mall Gazette, 1880–1883. MP for Newcastle upon Tyne (1883–1895) and for Montrose Burghs (1896–1908). Secretary of State for India, 1905–1910, 1911. Together with the Viceroy, the Earl of Minto, he was responsible for the Indian Councils Act of 1909 (known as the Morley–Minto reforms), which allotted Indian Muslims reserved seats in the Municipal and District Boards, in the Provincial Councils, and in the Imperial Legislature in excess of their relative proportion of the population. Created Viscount Morley, 1908.
Moyne (see Guinness, Walter Edward, 1st Baron Moyne)
Newcombe, Colonel Stewart F. (1878–1956); soldier, explorer, surveyor, adventurer; a close friend of T.E. Lawrence. Awarded DSO 1915. Appointed Joint Honorary Secretary to the ELM Trust, 23 July 1941; resigned 7 April 1943.
Noon, Malik Sir Firoz Khan (1893–1970); member of one of the biggest landowning families of the Punjab. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford; held a number of ministerial portfolios in the Punjab from 1927. High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, 1936–1941; returned to India as member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, 1941.
Pasha (Pacha), Dr Hassan Nachat (1888–1969); Director of King Fuad's Royal Cabinet. Founded the Ittehad (Unionist) Party and played an important part in Egyptian politics until 1925. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, 1938. Towards the end of his tenure, in October 1944, he married Australian-born Patricia May Marsh, thirty-two years his junior, in a wedding ceremony officiated by Sheikh Hafiz Wahba, an Egyptian cleric who worked for the then Saudi diplomatic service. See The Times, 16 April 1938; http://egy-plus.com/landmarks/95-02-04.php (accessed 20 January 2011).
Pickthall, Marmaduke William (1875–1936); Western Islamic scholar and novelist. Educated at Harrow. Son of a Church of England rector, he embraced Islam in 1917 and was also a freemason with Conservative views. Learned Arabic early in his life; supported the Ottoman Caliphate during the First World War. On several occasions acted as the imam at the Woking Mosque and delivered scholarly lectures on various aspects of Islam, which he considered to be a progressive faith. Edited Bombay Chronicle, 1920; thereafter in the service of the Hyderabad government for ten years; editor of the Hyderabad Quarterly Review and founded the journal Islamic Culture. Made a well-respected translation of the Qur'an, 1930. Died at St Ives but was buried, in fulfilment of his wishes, at Brookwood Cemetery. See Ann Freemantle, Loyal Enemy (London, 1938); Peter Clark, Marmaduke Pickthall: British Muslim (London, 1986); The Times, 20 May 1936.
Qadir, Shaikh Sir Abdul (1874–1950); journalist and politician. Joined the Punjab Observer, the first Muslim newspaper published in English, 1895; later its editor. In 1901, he launched the literary magazine Makhzan, an Urdu-language publication that went on to acquire a reputation for excellence. Came to England to study law, 1904; called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, 1907, after which he returned to India. First elected President of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. Knighted; replaced Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana as a member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1934–1939. While in England he was actively engaged in Muslim affairs. In 1937, at the foundation-stone-laying ceremony for the construction of a mosque in London, he gave the address of welcome to the chief guest, the Nizam of Hyderabad's heir-apparent, the Prince of Berar and his wife (copy available at the ELM Archives). Gave public lectures on Islam and attended a number of National League functions as well as the World Congress of Faiths in 1936. Returned to India, 1939.
Qajar, Ahmad Shah (1898–1930); last ruler of the Qajar dynasty of Persia (later Iran) in 1909, following the overthrow of his father. Deposed by an army officer, Reza Khan, in 1925, who proclaimed himself as shah and took the name of Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Persia.
Rafique, Sir Mohamed (1863–?); lawyer. Called to the Bar by the Middle Temple, 26 January 1886. Enrolled in the High Court at Allahabad as an Advocate but was a member of the Oudh Bar and practised in Lucknow. Later entered Judicial Service and was appointed a Judge of the Allahabad High Court, 1912. Retired 1923, but was then appointed member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, in recognition of his judicial acumen. Co-opted onto the Council of the East India Association, 1928; replaced 1929 by Colonel Sir Umar Hayat Khan Tiwana upon his arrival in England.
Rahimtoola, Habib Ibrahim (1912–1991). Canvassed for the Muslim League in the 1946 Indian provincial elections. Founder president of the Bombay Provincial Muslim Chamber of Commerce, 1944–1947. First High Commissioner of Pakistan to London, 1947–1952. See http://www.pakpost.gov.pk/philately/stamps2002/independence_day.html (accessed 7 January 2010).
Rasul, Raja Tassaduq; from the family of taluqdars (large landholders) of Jehangirabad, United Provinces, India. Member of the All-India Muslim League; involved in Muslim politics in India during the early decades of the twentieth century.
Reshad, Mehmed V (see Mehmed V Reshad)
Rothschild, Nathaniel de, Baron Rothschild (1840–1915); Cambridge-educated member of the prominent Jewish banking family; had a particular interest in housing in the East End of London.
Russell, (Arthur) Oliver Villiers, 2nd Baron Ampthill (1869–1935); educated at Eton and New College, Oxford; appointed Governor of Madras, 1900, and acted as pro tem Viceroy of India in 1904 when Lord Curzon went on leave. Returned to England in 1906; championed Indians in South Africa and was chair of an advisory committee on Indian students in Britain set up by Lord Morley. While proclaiming liberal views, he became increasingly opposed to the Morley–Minto proposals for Indian political reform and spoke out against the 1919 India Bill. On the Council of the Indian Empire Society and of the India Defence League. He was an active and leading freemason throughout his life. See The Times, 8 July 1935; ODNB, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35874?docPos=3 (accessed 27 November 2009).
Sadigh-es-Sultaneh (see Ali Khan, Mirza Abdul)
Sadrud Din (Sadruddin) Maulavi (c.1880–1981); Imam of Woking Mosque, 1914–1916. Leader of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement, 1951–1981.
Shairani, Hafiz Mahmud Khan (1880–1946); scholar, writer, and editor. Edited and published (with the help of other Muslim sponsors) Henry Stubbe's eighteenth-century polemical manuscript, An Account of the Rise and Progress of Mahometanism: with the life of Mahomet, and a vindication of him and his religion from the calumnies of the Christians (London, 1911).
Sheldrake, Bertram William (Khalid) (1888–1947); son of a pickle manufacturer from Forest Hill, London; converted to Islam at the beginning of the twentieth century. Actively contributed to the Pan-Islamic Society, describing its activities from 1904 in some detail in the Islamic Review and Muslim India of January 1914. First Honorary Secretary of Moslem Society of Britain, 1914. In 1919, and again in 1929–1930, visited South Shields with the objective of organizing local Yemeni seamen and residents, representing their concerns to the government. Went to India, early 1930s. Reported to have been offered the throne in the Muslim-majority Chinese province of Sinkiang. Later moved to Turkey and worked for the British Council in Ankara during the Second World War. See New York Times, 13 March 1934; Washington Post, 10 June 1934; Los Angeles Times, 5 August 1934; Max Everest-Phillips, ‘The suburban king of Tartary’, Asian Affairs, 21, no. 3 (1990), pp. 324–335.
Suhrawardy, Sir Hassan (1884–1946); member of a prominent Calcutta Muslim family. Qualified as a medical doctor, but also a religious man and an Islamic scholar; carried out postgraduate studies in Dublin, Edinburgh, and London. Knighted in 1932. Trustee of the Nizamiah Mosque Trust while in England. Adviser to the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1939–1944. A staunch supporter of the All-India Muslim League, he was at odds with some leading members of the Jamiat-ul-Muslimin who supported the Indian National Congress.
Swettenham, Sir Frank (1850–1946), Governor of the Straits Colony (Malaya) and High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States; Joint Director of the Official Press Bureau in London.
Sykes, Sir Frederick (1877–1954); Air Vice-Marshall in the Royal Air Force, retired 1922. Knighted 1919. Conservative MP for Sheffield Hallam (1922–1928) and for Nottingham Central (1940–1945). Governor of Bombay, 1928–1931. Returned to Britain, 1931, becoming involved in a number of philanthropic concerns.
Tiwana, Major-General Nawab Malik Sir Mahomed Umar Hayat Khan (1874–1944); landowner, army officer, and member of the Punjab Legislature. Posted on the Western Front, 1914, and then in Mesopotamia. Took part in the Third Afghan War in 1919. Member of the Council of the Secretary of State for India, 1929–1934; prominent freemason. Helped recruit soldiers in the Punjab for the Second World War. See The Times, 5 April 1944.
Turnour, Edward, 6th Earl Winterton (1883–1962); Irish peer and British politician. Conservative MP for Horsham (1904–1918), for Horsham and Worthing (1918–1945), and for Horsham again (1945–1951). Achieved ministerial office in several Conservative governments, including that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India, 1922–1924. Increasingly sidelined after 1938.
Winterton (see Turnour, Edward, 6th Earl Winterton)
Woodhead, Sir John Ackroyd (1881–1973); civil servant. Officer in Indian Civil Service; acting Governor of Bengal, 10 August 1934–1 April 1937 and June–November 1939. Headed the Woodhead Commission established in 1938 to investigate the circumstances leading to the failure of the Peel Commission to achieve resolution of the Arab Revolt that had begun in 1936. See http://www.worldstatesmen.org/India_BrProvinces.htm (accessed 10 January 2010).
Zada, Mahmood R. Counsellor to Saudi Arabian Legation to London during the Second World War; ELM Fund Trustee, 1942–1944.
