Career
He worked in the Treasury at the Colonial Office in Hong Kong when the Household Bank charter was first drawn up. Arbuthnot Road, Hong Kong was named after him. Arbuthnot served in the Treasury, and later was private secretary to Sir Robert Peel and subsequently to Sir Charles Wood, later Viscount Halifax.
He was son of Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Arbuthnot, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He was appointed by Lord Liverpool a junior clerk in the Treasury 18 July 1820 and served with that department until his death.
He was then holding the appointment of auditor of the civil list and was also secretary to the ecclesiastical commissioners. George Arbuthnot was father of General Henry Thomas Arbuthnot.
He wrote a retrospective economic analysis of Sir John Peel"s 1844 act regulating the issue of banknotes:
Sir Robert Peel"s Acting of 1844, Regulating the Issue of Bank Notes, Vindicated, Longman, 1857.
