Henry McMahon

Sir Henry McMahon, GCIE, GCSI, (1862-1949) was a British diplomat instrumental in forming the modern Middle East. Representing the Indian Government and the Colonial Office at the Simla Conference in 1913-1914, he negotiated the border among China, India and Tibet.

On the outbreak of the First World War, he was named Resident in Cairo, replacing Lord Kitchener, who became Foreign Secretary. He was to write the British side of the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence, defining conditions for Arab participation in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

As High Commissioner, he commended his Arab Bureau team of 1916 to Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour:

• Gertrude Bell
• Kinahan Cornwallis
• Gilbert Clayton
• A. Brownlow Fforde
• David Hogarth
• T.E. Lawrence
• W.A. Ormsby-Gore
• A.C. Parker
• Ronald Storrs
• C.E. Wilson