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{{for|''Henry L. Griffin & Co.'' department store or its owner|Williams & Griffin}}
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[[File:Sir Lepel Henry Griffin.png|thumb|Sir Lepel Henry Griffin]]
'''Sir Lepel Henry Griffin''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCSI}} (20 July 1838 – 9 March 1908) was a British administrator and diplomat during the [[British Raj]] period in India. He was also a writer.

==Early life==
Lepel Henry Griffin was born in [[Watford]], England on 20 July 1838. His father, Henry, was a clergyman in the [[Church of England]] and his mother was Frances Sophia. His mother had been married previously and thus Griffin had ten half-siblings as well as two full sisters.<ref name=odnb>{{ODNBweb|id=33576|title=Griffin, Sir Lepel Henry (1838–1908)}}</ref>

Griffin was educated briefly at [[Harrow School]], having also attended [[Windlesham House School | Malden's Preparatory School]], [[Brighton]]. He did not go to university but was privately tutored for the [[competitive examination]] for entry to the [[Indian Civil Service]]. He sat and passed those examinations during 1859 and 1860, being ranked tenth among the 32 successful candidates.<ref name=odnb />

==Career==
He reached India in November 1860 and was posted to [[Lahore]].<ref name=odnb /> The mannerisms of Griffin had attracted attention in India from the time of his arrival there, and in 1875 [[H. S. Cunningham|Sir Henry Cunningham]] satirised him in the novel, ''[[Chronicles of Dustypore]]'',<ref name=odnb /> in which he was depicted as the character ''Desvoeux''.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Chronicles of Dustypore, a Tale of Modern Anglo-Indian Society |year=1875|publisher=Smith, Elder and Co. |location=London |volume=1 |first=Henry Stewart |last=Cunningham |authorlink=H. S. Cunningham |url=https://archive.org/details/chroniclesofdust01cunn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Chronicles of Dustypore, a Tale of Modern Anglo-Indian Society |year=1875|publisher=Smith, Elder and Co. |location=London |volume=2 |first=Henry Stewart |last=Cunningham |authorlink=H. S. Cunningham |url=https://archive.org/details/chroniclesofdust02cunn}}</ref> Katherine Prior, the author of his entry in the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', describes that, "He was a dandyish, [[Lord Byron|Byronic]] figure, articulate, argumentative, and witty. Anglo-Indian society was at once both dazzled by and scornful of his languid foppishness and irreverent tongue".<ref name=odnb />

In 1880 he became Chief Secretary of the Punjab.<ref>[http://www.fullbooks.com/Twenty-One-Days-in-India-and-the-Teapot3.html Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by George Robert Aberigh-Mackay – Full Text Free Book (Part 3/3)]</ref> He was sent as a diplomatic representative to [[Kabul]], at the end of the [[Second Afghan War]].<ref>[[:wikisource:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Abdur Rahman Khan|Abdur Rahman Khan – 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref> He was then Governor-General's [[Agent (law)|Agent]] in [[Central India]] and [[Resident (title)|Resident]] in [[Indore]]; and Resident in [[Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh|Hyderabad]].

He collaborated with the pioneer Indian photographer [[Lala Deen Dayal]].<ref>[http://www.deendayal.com/lifesketch.htm Life Sketch (Lala Deen Dayal 1844 – 1905)]</ref>

After his return to the United Kingdom, he was Chairman of the East India Association.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |articlename=The Maharaja Scindia and the East India Association|day_of_week=Friday |date=22 August 1902 |page_number=8 |issue=36853| }}</ref>

He was a proponent of an Anglo-American union, he addressed a meeting on 15 October 1898 in [[Luton]], on the subject of the suggested Anglo-American union, Col. [[John Hay]], the former United States Ambassador at London attended the meeting.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/10/16/102124822.pdf The Anglo-American Feeling – Sir Lepel Henry Griff... The New York Times: PDF]</ref>

==Death==
Griffin died at his home – 4 Cadogan Gardens, Sloane Street, London – on 9 March 1908 after suffering from [[influenza]]. He was cremated and his ashes were interred at a private chapel owned by [[Dudley Sampson|Colonel Dudley Sampson]] in [[Buxhalls]], [[Haywards Heath]], Sussex. His wife remarried, while the younger of his two sons, [[Sir Lancelot Cecil Lepel Griffin]] became the last political secretary of British India.<ref name=odnb />

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |title=The Panjab Chiefs |year=1865 |publisher=T. C. McCartney-Chronicle Press |location=Lahore |url=https://archive.org/details/panjabchiefshis00grifgoog}}
**{{cite book |title=The Panjab Chiefs |year=1890 |others=Updated by Charles Francis Massy |publisher=Civil and Military Gazette Press |location=Lahore |volume=1 |edition=New revised}}
**{{cite book |title=The Panjab Chiefs |year=1890 |others=Updated by Charles Francis Massy |publisher=Civil and Military Gazette Press |location=Lahore |url=https://archive.org/details/panjabchiefshis00massgoog |volume=2 |edition=New revised}}
***Revised as ''Chiefs and Families of note in the Punjab'' (1909)
*{{cite book |title=The Law of Inheritance to Chiefships |location=Lahore |publisher=Punjab Printing Company |year=1869 |url=https://archive.org/details/lawofinheritance00grif}}
*''The Rajas of the Punjab'' (1873)
*''[http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FY3022GGGG Famous monuments of Central India'' (1886)]
*{{cite book |title=The Great Republic |url=https://archive.org/details/greatrepublic00grifgoog |edition=Second |publisher=Chapman and Hall |location=London |year=1884}}
*{{cite book |title=Ranjit Singh |series=[[Rulers of India series]] |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1892 |url=https://archive.org/details/ranjitsingh00grifgoog}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{OL author|107464A}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Lepel}}
[[Category:1838 births]]
[[Category:1908 deaths]]
[[Category:Administrators in British India]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:British diplomats]]
[[Category:British writers]]
[[Category:People from Watford]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:People educated at Harrow School]]
[[Category:Liberal Unionist Party parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:People educated at Windlesham House School]]

Lepel Griffin - Revision history

>Ihavebigknivesforteeth at 14:27, 2 May 2021