Page "Richard Casey, Baron Casey" Paragraph 6

Lady Spears ( centre ) with Sir Edward Spears ( left ) in December 1942 in Lebanon on the steps of their residence – that of the First British Minister to the Levant.

To the right of Sir Edward stands Henry Hopkinson, private secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Alexander Cadogan ; Richard Casey, Minister Resident in the Middle East, is to the right of Lady Spears, with Mrs Ethel Casey to her left.

Casey moved to Cairo in 1942 when Winston Churchill appointed him Minister Resident in the Middle East, to the annoyance of Prime Minister John Curtin and some in the British Foreign Office.

In this role he played a key role in negotiating between the British and Allied governments, local leaders and the Allied commanders in the field.

In 1944, when the Middle East ceased to be a military theatre, the British government appointed Casey as the Governor of Bengal, in India, a post which he held till 1946.

During his tenure he had to deal with the aftermath of the devastating Bengal famine of 1943, caused in part by the Japanese invasion of Burma and war-time rationing, but severely compounded British administrative incompetence and lack of concern.

He also had to deal with the ever more vocal demands for independence from Britain by Indian patriots, represented politically by the Indian National Congress.