page_title: Geoffrey Rothe Clarke
section_title: Career in the Indian Civil Service
hierarchical_section_title: Geoffrey Rothe Clarke / Career in the Indian Civil Service
caption_attribution_description: English: First official airmail flight by Humber-Sommer biplane - India 1911
context_page_description: Sir Geoffrey Rothe Clarke was a senior civil servant in British India from 1903 to 1925, and thereafter a leading member of British industry until his death, including during World War II.
context_section_description: Clarke was accepted into the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1895 after passing the ICS competitive entrance examination. His first posting was to the Province of Bihar and Orissa as a District Magistrate. In 1903, he was transferred on promotion to the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department as Director General for the Punjab Province, followed by similar and higher grade posts in Madras, Allahabad, Simla and Calcutta. He became involved in the amalgamation and rapid expansion of India's post and telephone services. 
  
  In February 1911, he authorised the world's first official aerial post, flying 6500 mail items five miles from Allahabad across the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers to Naini railway junction for onward transit. The aircraft was a biplane flown by the French pilot, Henri Pequet. The flight was one of a number of demonstrations given by the Humber Company at The United Provinces Exhibition. A surcharge of six Annas per item raised charitable funds in aid of Holy Trinity Church Allahabad constructing a hostel for Indian students.  The Indian Post Office issued special stamps commemorating the event in 1961, 1986, and 2011.
  Clarke was recalled to London in 1916 to serve under David Lloyd George in the Ministry of Munitions in order to advise on overcoming the weapons supply crisis in Britain during World War I.  He was sent on a special deputation to the United States and Canada to negotiate procurement contracts, and was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1918 for this service.
  On return to India in March 1917, Clarke was appointed Postmaster General of Bengal and Assam. A year later, he was promoted to Director General of Posts and Telegraphs for British India (including Aden, Burma and Ceylon) as well as a member of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General of India. Over his seven-year tenure of the Post Office, he oversaw an increase in postal, telephone and telegraph traffic. By obtaining additional investment funding, wireless and telephone infrastructure were installed and usage, especially long distance, grew rapidly. For employees, no distinction of race was made in promotion or pay, such that by the end of his tenure, most higher appointments in the Post Office were held by Indian nationals, including his successor, GP Roy.
  Under his guidance, the Postal Department was the first government department in India to grant official recognition to the organisation of its workers in independent trade unions. By 1925, the All India Postal Staff union had 70,000 members, and its elected President for that year, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, played a key role in the enactment of the Trade Union Act of 1926, whereby the trade union movement of the subcontinent, for the first time, acquired legal cover for unionising unorganised workers.
  Clarke represented the Government of India at the International Postal Congresses held in Madrid (1920), Stockholm (1924), and Paris (1925). At Stockholm he defeated a resolution to deprive India of its separate vote as a member of the International Postal Union. He was knighted in 1925.
caption: First Official Airmail Flight by Humber-Sommer biplane India 1911
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