Elliott Colvin (died 1883)
Elliott Graham Colvin | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1836 Calcutta, British India |
| Died | 3 November 1883 Sahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
Elliott Graham Colvin (1836–1883) was a British Indian Civil Service (ICS) Officer. He served in Mathura and Meerut during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and later became Meerut's Commissioner.
After his death, a gate was erected in his memory in Bulandshahr on the instructions of Frederic Growse.
Early life and family[edit]
Elliott Colvin was born in 1836 in Calcutta, now Kolkata, to John Russell Colvin.[1][2][a] His siblings included Auckland Colvin and Walter Colvin.[4][5] He was educated at Eton and Haileybury, England.[4][6] In 1850 he became a naval cadet.[7]
On 18 September 1862 in Nainital, he married Edith, the eldest daughter of Peter Cunningham.[8][9][b] The Times of India later noted that "he was peculiarly happy in his married life".[4] He learnt French, German and Russian, and was familiar with several Northern Indian dialects.[4]
Career[edit]
Colvin returned to India in 1855 and was an assistant in the Agra division at the onset of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, during which he served at Mathura.[4] He fought at Hathras, Aligarh and the surrounding areas.[12] He also became well known at Budaun.[4] He spent a few months at Meerut before being appointed as superintendent of the Terai District towards Rohilkhand.[4][13] In 1880 he was transferred to Benares.[2] Later, he became settlement officer, collector and commissioner back at Meerut.[4] There, he led the search for European graves and commissioned maintenance of the burial sites.[12]
Death and legacy[edit]
At the age of 47, Colvin's health began to deteriorate.[4] He died of "inflammation of the lungs" on 3 November 1883 at Sahanpur, and his body was taken to Meerut.[4][14][15] He was buried at Meerut cemetery.[4] At Meerut, he was succeeded by Mr. Quinton, a member of the Viceregal Council.[16]
Following his death, a gate in his memory was constructed at a cost of 4,000 rupees at the east wall of Moti Bagh in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, at the instruction of Frederic Growse.[17] Growse wrote in his 1884 book Bulandshahr; or, Sketches of an Indian district; social, historical and architectural that Colvin's "sudden untimely death, on the 3rd November 1883, was deeply felt by all classes of the community".[17] An illustration of the gate was planned for inclusion in the second part of Growse's Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in New Buildings in the Bulandshahr District.[18]
Colvin gate[edit]
-
Facing Moti Bagh -
Facing market -
Inside arch -
Memorial plaque facing Moti Bagh
Notes[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "1851 England; Buckhinghamshire". The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Kew, Surrey. 1951. Retrieved 11 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ a b "Notices". Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service. 30 June 1880. p. 511 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Sir Elliot Graham Colvin - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "The late Mr. Colvin". The Times of India. 9 November 1883. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Notices". Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service. 30 June 1880. p. 511 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Eton School Lists, 1791-1850". London. 1850. Retrieved 11 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ "Naval promotions". Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser. 18 May 1850. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Marriages". Morning Advertiser. 15 November 1862. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ The Gentleman's Magazine. London: John Henry and James Parker. 1862. p. 770.
- ^ "Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911". 1939 England and Wales Register. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK. 1911. Retrieved 15 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ "England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995". 1914 England and Wales Register. 1911. Retrieved 13 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ a b "Notices". Homeward Mail from India, China and the East. 22 December 1877. p. 1317 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Bengal: from the calcutta and government gazette". Bombay Gazette. 19 April 1861. p. 370 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "News of the week". Englishman's Overland Mail. 13 November 1883. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995". Principal Probate Registry. London. 1884. Retrieved 11 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
- ^ "Indian items". Evening Mail. 24 December 1883. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ a b Growse, Frederic Salmon (1884). "III. The rebuilding of Bulandshahr". Bulandshahr: Or, Sketches of an Indian District: Social, Historical and Architectural. Medical Hall Press. p. 70.
- ^ Growse, Frederic Salmon (1885). Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in New Buildings in the Bulandshahr District. Part I. Allahabad: North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press. p. 25.