Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster

Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster PC (19 August 1855 – 12 March 1909), known as H. O. Arnold-Forster, was a British politician and writer. He was Secretary of State for War in Arthur Balfour's Conservative government from 1903 until December 1905. Background and education Arnold-Forster was the son of William Delafield Arnold, Director of Public Instruction in the Punjab, and Frances Anne Hodgson, known as Fanny, the daughter of Major-General John Anthony Hodgson of the Bengal army. She died in 1858. His grandfather was Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby. When his father died in 1859, he and his siblings were adopted by William Edward Forster and his wife Jane, who was his father's sister. He was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford, from which he graduated with first class honours. He was called to the bar in 1879. Political career Arnold-Forster acted as private secretary to his adoptive father, who became Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1880. He joined Cassell & Co. in 1885, for whom he prepared educational manuals, including the "Citizen Reader" series. He was secretary of the Imperial Federation League from 1884.