Manning the British Empire: Gender, Identity and Emotions in Early Twentieth Century Britain

Abstract

This article analyses the thought processes of Ralph Furse, a senior civil servant tasked with selecting and training senior colonial officials during the early twentieth century. It makes use of his desk diaries between 1910 and 1914, which he used to record his impressions of candidates for the colonial service, and his autobiography, published after his retirement in the 1960s. Furse based his assessments on masculine qualities of the candidates, as he saw them, and on their emotional styles. Those who projected authority as men, were physically imposing and could manage their emotions effectively were generally deemed suitable, whilst the more gregarious candidates lacking these masculine qualities were rejected. Furse was a gatekeeper to elite male status and his job helped shape his own sense of identity as a landed gentry man.