Sir John Rees, 1st Baronet
Sir John David Rees, 1st Baronet, KCIE, CVO (16 December 1854 – 2 June 1922[1]) was a colonial administrator in British India and subsequently a Member of Parliament at Westminster.
Biography
[edit]He was educated at Cheltenham College and joined the Indian Civil Service in 1875. He served mostly in the south of India where he was Under-Secretary in the Madras Government, and later the British Resident in Travancore and Cochin. He also served as an Additional Member of the Governor-General's Council in the 1890s.
In 1901, Rees retired from the Civil Service. He was an active proponent of the Raj and wrote a number of books on British India. The Real India, first published in 1908, went through a number of editions. In 1902, he had even contributed a number of columns to the Times Literary Supplement on Indian matters.
Parliament
[edit]He served two terms as Member of Parliament (MP): from 1906 to 1910 as the Liberal MP for Montgomery constituency, and from 1912 to 1922 as the Unionist MP for Nottingham East.
He also unsuccessfully contested Kilmarnock Burghs at a by-election in 1911.[2]
Family
[edit]He married Mary Catherine Dormer in 1891,[3] and was created a baronet on 8 May 1919. Lady Rees was a correspondent of George Orwell.[4]
Their daughter Rosemary Rees, later Lady du Cros (1901-1994) was an aviator and one of the first eight female pilots appointed to the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. She was also a qualified flight instructor and was one of the few pilots to receive an MBE for her work in this field.[5]
He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, Richard Rees, the inspiration for Ravelston in Orwell's Keep The Aspidistra Flying.
Selected works
[edit]- Tours in India
- The Mahommedans
- The Real India
- Modern India
- Current Political Problems
Arms
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References
[edit]- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 3)
- ^ Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
- ^ "Rees, John David". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. pp. 1465–1466.
- ^ "Letter from Orwell to Mary Catherine Rees". UCL Library Services.
- ^ "Rosemary Theresa (nee Rees), Lady du Cros (1901-1994)". National Portrait Gallery, London.
- ^ Debrett's Baronetage. 1921.
External links
[edit]- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Rees
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