Hope was born at Hopetoun House, South Queensferry, Linlithgowshire, Scotland, on 24 September 1887. He was the eldest son of John Adrian Louis Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, later 1st Marquess Linlithgow, and Hersey Everleigh-de-Moleyns, Countess of Hopetoun and later Marchioness of Linlithgow, daughter of the fourth Baron Ventry. His godmother was Queen Victoria.
He was educated at Eton College and on 29 February 1908 succeeded his father as 2nd Marquess Linlithgow.
During World War I (1914–18) Linlithgow served on the western front. In 1922 he was appointed a civil lord of the Admiralty, and, when the first Labour government was formed in 1924, he was selected deputy chairman of the Conservative and Unionist Party organization. Exposed to India’s problems as chairman of the royal commission on agriculture in India (1926–28) and of the select committee on Indian constitutional reform, he succeeded Lord Willingdon as viceroy in 1936. According to the Government of India Act of 1935, the provinces were to be governed by ministries responsible to the elected legislatures. The Indian nationalist Congress Party, with clear majorities in five of the 11 provinces, was unwilling to take office without assurance that the governors would not use their reserve powers to override the ministries. Because Linlithgow overcame these fears, provincial autonomy functioned smoothly, but he failed to secure consent of the princes, which was necessary for establishment of the federal structure provided by the statute.
In September 1939 Linlithgow broadcast an appeal for unity in the war against Germany before consulting the Indian political parties, offending the Congress Party leaders, who then asked their provincial ministers to resign. The Congress Party leaders also refused Linlithgow’s offer of representation in his executive council; nevertheless, he enlarged the council’s number of Indian members. Added to the Japanese threat to British control of India during World War II was the attempt in August 1942 at a mass civil-disobedience campaign by the Congress Party, which was dissatisfied by Britain’s refusal to grant independence to India. Linlithgow interned its leaders and suppressed resistance to the government. By the date of his retirement in 1943, a completely volunteer army of more than 2,000,000 men, plus considerable contingents from the Indian states, had joined the British military efforts.
On 19 April 1911 he married Doreen Maud Milner (1886–1965), the younger daughter of Sir Frederick Milner. They had twin sons and three daughters.
He became a Conservative statesman and married the daughter of the English novelist W. Somerset Maugham
The mother of Lucinda Green, a famous equestrian.
