Victor Hope , 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow Victor Alexander John Hope , 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow KG , KT , GCSI , GCIE , OBE , PC ( 24 September 18875 January 1952 ) was a British statesman who served as Governor - General and Viceroy of India from 1936 to 1943 . Early life and family . Hope was born at Hopetoun House , Queensferry , Linlithgowshire , Scotland , on 24 September 1887 . He was the elder son of John Adrian Louis Hope , 7th Earl of Hopetoun , later 1st Marquess Linlithgow , and Hersey Everleigh - de - Moleyns , Countess of Hopetoun and later Marchioness of Linlithgow , daughter of the fourth Baron Ventry . His godmother was Queen Victoria . He was educated at Eton College and on 29 February 1908 succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess Linlithgow . Early career . Linlithgow served as an officer on the Western Front during the First World War , ending the war with the rank of Colonel . He commanded of a battalion of the Royal Scots . He was mentioned in dispatches and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire . He then served in various minor roles in the Conservative governments of the 1920s and ' 30s . From 1922 till 1924 he served as the civil lord of the Admiralty , becoming chairman of the Unionist Party Organization in 1924 for two years . He also served as President of the Navy League from 1924 until 1931 . He served as chairman of the Medical Research Council and of the governing body of the Imperial College London . Linlithgow was also chairman of the committee on the distribution and prices of agricultural produce and president of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture until 1933 . In 1926 he was Chairman of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India , which published its findings in 1928 . Influenced by submissions to the Royal Commission , " a decade later , when ( he ) became Viceroy of India he showed a personal interest in nutrition , pushing it to the top of the research agenda " . In the 1930s he was also chairman of the select committee on Indian constitutional reform . Viceroy . Having previously declined both the governorship of Madras and the governor - generalship of Australia ( his father was the first Governor - General of Australia ) , he became the Viceroy of India on 18 April 1936 , succeeding Lord Willingdon . Linlithgow implemented the plans for local self - government embodied in the Government of India Act of 1935 , which led to government led by the Congress Party in five of the 11 provinces , but the recalcitrance of the princes prevented the full establishment of Indian self - government . With the outbreak of the Second World War , Linlithgow ' s appeal for unity led to the resignation of the Congress ministries . Disputes between the British administration and Congress ultimately led to massive Indian civil disobedience in the Quit India Movement in 1942 . Linlithgow suppressed the disturbances and arrested the Congress leaders . He is partly blamed for the Bengal famine of 1943 . Retirement . He retired in 1943 , his seven - year tenure as Viceroy having been the longest in the history of the Raj . He was considered by his British obituarists to have been one of the most skillful colonial officers to have held the highest office . Indians were less kind than his obituarists : VP Menon in " The Transfer of Power in India " recorded : " His 7½ year regime - - longer than that of any other Viceroy - - was conspicuous by its lack of positive achievement . When he left India , famine stalked portions of the countryside . There was economic distress due to the rising cost of living and the shortage of essential commodities . On the political side , Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru expressed the general feeling thus : ' Today , I say , after seven years of Lord Linlithgow ' s administration the country is much more divided than it was when he came here ' . " A sincere Presbyterian , he served as Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland in 1944 and 1945 . He died in 1952 . Family . On 19 April 1911 he married Doreen Maud Milner ( 1886 – 1965 ) , the younger daughter of Sir Frederick Milner . They had twin sons and three daughters : In some circles the three girls were known as Faint Hope , Little Hope and No Hope .