HUBERT HERVEY STUDENT AND IMPERIALIST A MEMOIR BY EARL GREY LATE ADMINISTRATOR OF RHODESIA "It is a grand thing to die for the expansion of the Empire" HUBERT HERVEY LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD Publisher to the India Office 1899 PREFACE My knowledge of Hubert Hervey during the last few years of his short career, when he was serving the British South Africa Chartered Company, first in their London offices, and subsequently in responsible administrative posts in Rhodesia, led me to regard him as one of the most chivalrous and high-minded men it has been my privilege to meet; and I have readily responded to a request made to me by his sister, on the suggestion of many of his friends, to write this short memoir. The deep sympathy I felt for Miss Hervey in the sudden termination of one of the most inspiring relationships that ever bound brother and sister together also made it difficult for me to refuse a task which I was aware it was not easy to perform in a manner worthy of the memory of Hubert Hervey, or satisfactory to his family. When the memoir, which originally was intended for private circulation only, was nearing comple 334022 tion, it was represented to me that the story of Hervey's life might prove an encouragement to others; and, in deference to this suggestion, I have given my consent to its publication. It contains, on the one hand, much which might with advantage be eliminated from a memoir intended for the public; on the other hand, it presents many deficiencies, which his friends will easily fill up from their recollections. For such was the wealth of Hervey's individuality, that he left to all who were acquainted with him an abundant store of memories-varied, original, and characteristic. But the attraction of his personality was rooted in the yet deeper strata of great principles and high ideals. And it is with the desire that this brief record may in some degree perpetuate the memory of an Englishman, whose inspiring example has been too soon removed from our midst, that I place these pages before the public. GREY. |