# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Gorst, Eldon

​GORST, Sir [JOHN] ELDON (1861–1911), consul-general in Egypt, born at Auckland, New Zealand, on 25 June 1861, was eldest son of the Right Hon. Sir John Eldon Gorst, who had gone out to New Zealand in 1860, by his wife Mary Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Lorenzo Moore of Christchurch. For a time he assumed the additional christian name of Lowndes to distinguish him from his father. Educated at Eton, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1880, graduating B.A. in 1883 as 21st wrangler, and proceeding M.A. in 1903. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1885, and in the same year was appointed, after a competitive examination, an attaché in the diplomatic service. In September 1886 he was sent as an attaché to the British agency at Cairo, and thus began his connection with Egypt. In May 1887 he was granted an allowance for knowledge of Arabic, and in October was promoted to be a third secretary in the diplomatic service; on 1 April 1892 he became a second secretary, and in May 1901 a secretary of legation. Meanwhile he had taken service under the Egyptian government, and had in November 1890 been appointed controller of direct revenues, serving in that capacity under Alfred (afterwards Viscount) Milner. In 1892 he succeeded Milner as under-secretary of state for finance, and in 1894 he was appointed to a newly created post, that of adviser to the ministry of the interior. This appointment was created with the object of decentralising the police, and combining an increase in the number of Egyptian as compared with European officers with efficient European control at headquarters, viz. at the ministry of the interior (Cromer, Modern Egypt, 1908, ii. 488). The selection of Gorst for the new appointment was evidence of the confidence which was felt in his ability and his tact, and was justified by the results (cf. Colvin, The Making of Modern Egypt, 1906, p. 339). In 1898 he succeeded Sir Elwin Palmer [q. v. Suppl. II] as financial adviser. The holder of the office is in effect 'the most important British official in Egypt' (Cromer, Modern Egypt, ii. 286; Milner, England in Egypt, 3rd edit., 1893, p. 105), and Gorst, who was made C.B. in 1900 and K.C.B. in 1902, filled it until 1904 with uniform success. After assisting at Paris in the negotiation of the Anglo-French agreement which settled outstanding questions with regard to Egypt, Gorst was transferred in May 1904 to the foreign office in London as an assistant under-secretary of state. Three years later, in 1907, he succeeded Lord Cromer as agent and consul-general in Egypt, ranking as minister plenipotentiary in the diplomatic service. He arrived at Cairo in April 1907, and Lord Cromer left on 4 May. In the House of Commons, on 11 April 1907, the foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, stated that the appointment had been made after consultation with Lord Cromer, who had full confidence in Gorst's ability to continue his work. Gorst was, in Lord Cromer's opinion, 'endowed with a singular ​degree of tact and intelligence' (Modern Egypt, ii. 292). He had proved himself a broad-minded administrator, hard-working, with great aptitude for finance and a good knowledge of the Arabic language. Gorst himself defined the aim of British policy in Egypt as 'not merely to give Egypt the blessings of good administration, but to train the Egyptians to take a gradually increasing share in their own government' (Reports an Egypt and the Sudan in 1910, Cd. 5633, May 1911, p. 1). The necessary qualifications were knowledge of the vernacular, sympathy with the feelings, the way, and the thought of the people, and even with their prejudices, and tact, power of effacement, and unlimited patience (Reports for 1909, Cd. 5121, April 1910, p. 50).
Gorst entered on his difficult duties at a very difficult time. The year 1907 was marked by financial depression due to overtrading and excessive credit, and by one of the worst Nile floods on record. Next year, 1908, he reported progress in satisfying the reasonable aspirations of the Egyptian people, but noted that Egyptian feeling had been affected by the unrest in other Mohammedan countries. The virulence of the extreme nationalist party made it necessary in 1909 to revive the press law and to pass a special 'Loi soumettant certains individus à la surveillance de la Police'; in February 1910 the Egyptian prime minister, Boutros Pasha, was murdered. In his report for 1910, the last which he wrote, Gorst recorded the comparative failure of representative institutions in Egypt in the form of the legislative council and general assembly, and he emphasised the necessity of caution in countenancing principles of self-government.
Like Lord Durham in his celebrated report on Canada; like Lord Dufferin in his report on Egypt; and like his own immediate predecessor. Lord Cromer, Gorst insisted on the wisdom of promoting municipal and local self-government, and one of the chief measures passed during his tenure of office was a law for enlarging the powers of the provincial councils, which came into force on 1 Jan. 1910. His administrative policy was subjected to criticism by politicians of both the advanced and the reactionary schools, but he was uniformly supported by the British government. He died prematurely, after a painful illness, on 12 July 1911, at his father's house. The Manor House, Castle Combe, Wiltshire, and was buried in the family vault at Castle Combe. He was succeeded as consul-general in Egypt by Lord Kitchener.
Gorst was made a G.C.M.G. in 1911 on the coronation of King George V, and held the first class of the Medjidie (1897) and the first class (grand cordon) of the order of Osmanie (1903). He was a keen sportsman. He married on 25 June 1903 Evelyn, daughter of Charles Rudd, of Ardnamurchan, Argyllshire, and had one daughter.
[The Times, 13 July 1911; Foreign Office List; Who's Who; Blue Books; Milner, England in Egypt, 3rd edit., 1893; Sir Auckland Colvin, The Making of Modern Egypt, 1906; Cromer, Modern Egypt, 1908.]
C. P. L.