Lionel Barnett Abrahams

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Sir Lionel Barnett Abrahams
Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation(s)civil servant and economist
TitleAssistant Under-secretary of State for India
Children1 son

Sir Lionel Barnett Abrahams, KCB (1869–1919[1][2]) was a British civil servant, economist, and historian who worked in the British government's India Office.

Early life and education

Born in 1869, Abrahams was the only son of Mordecai Abrahams, a noted

shochet, and long-term secretary of the Initiation Society.[3]

Abrahams was a graduate of the

Balliol College at Oxford, which he attended 1892–1898.[2] In 1894, he won the Arnold historical essay prize.[2][4]

Career

Abrahams joined the

Companion of the Bath, (CB) in 1908.[1][2] He was raised to Knight-Commander of the Bath (KCB) in 1915.[2]

Abrahams was the first Jew to hold a position as high as Assistant Under-secretary of State in the British Civil Service.[3]

In the position of Assistant Under-secretary, Abrahams needed to deal with currency and financial issues.[5]: 193 

Reputation

Shirras describes Abrahams as "a permanent official who served the financial interests of India with conspicuous efficiency and a zeal particularly his own.".[5]: 192โ€“193  Shirras also writes that "It was probably of Sir Lionel Abrahams that Sir James Meston was thinking when he referred to the fact that in the Secretariat of India, 'we have not got anything like the trained competent staff that a public office in London has.'"[5]: 193 

Writings

Abrahams wrote The Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290.[1][6] This was the thesis for which he won the Arnold Prize in 1894. It was reprinted in the Jewish Quarterly Review in the issues dated October 1984 and January 1895 and April 1895.[7] He also wrote "Debts and houses of Jews of Hereford, 1290" which was published in volume one of The Jewish Historical Society of England โ€“ Transactions in 1894.[8]

Personal life

Abrahams married Lucy, daughter of Nathan Solomon Joseph, in 1896. They had one son, Arthur Charles Lionel Abrahams.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Hayavadana Rao, Conjeeveram (1915). "Abrahams, Lionel". The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915) . Pillar & Co. – via Wikisource.
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57024. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4039-3910-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
    )
  4. Oxford University
    . Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Shirras, George Findlay (1920). Indian Finance and Banking. Indiana University. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  6. ^ Abrahams, Lionel Barnett (January 1895). "The Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 (Continued) : Abrahams, B. Lionel : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming". Internet Archive. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  7. ^ Abrahams, Lionel Barnett (1895). The expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 : Abrahams, Barnett Lionel, Sir, 1869-1919 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming. p. 10. Retrieved 14 August 2020 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ "JHSE Papers". Jewish Historical Society of England. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
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