Hardinge of Penshurst, Charles, 1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944)

British diplomat and politician. He was British ambassador at St Petersburg, Russia (1904–06) and subsequently viceroy of India (1910–16). It was in his term that the Indian capital was moved to Delhi, and the partition of Bengal, enacted by George Curzon, reversed. Hardinge persisted in his policy of friendly relations with the Indian princes and sympathy with the new Western-educated middle classes, as well as with the needs of the masses, notably in the way of provision of public works, sanitation, and education.

He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered the diplomatic service in 1880. Under the Conservative prime minister, Arthur Balfour, he served in the Foreign Office, having returned from India. In 1920 he succeeded Lord Derby as ambassador in Paris, France, resigning in 1922.