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{{Short description|Indian technical pioneer}}{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia
| image = Ardaseer Cursetjee 1969 stamp of India.jpg
| image_size = 245px
| caption = Cursetjee Wadia on a stamp of India, 1969
| birth_date = 6 October 1808
| birth_place = [[Bombay]], British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1877|11|16|df=y|1808|10|06}}
| death_place = [[Richmond, London|Richmond]], United Kingdom
| other_names =
| known_for =
| occupation = Engineer
}}
'''Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (6 October 1808 – 16 November 1877) was an [[Indian people|Indian]] [[Parsis|Parsi]] shipbuilder and engineer belonging to the [[Wadia]] ship building family.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Ardaseer Cursetjee (Wadia), F.R.S|journal=Nature|date=10 June 1944|volume=153|issue=3893|page=706|doi=10.1038/153706d0|doi-access=free}}</ref>

He is noted for having been the first Indian to be elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society|Fellow]] of the [[Royal Society]]. He is also recorded as having introduced several (at the time) novel technologies to the city of Bombay (now [[Mumbai]]), including gas lighting, the sewing machine, steam pump-driven irrigation and electro-plating.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wadia|first1=D.F.|title=History of the Lodge Rising Star of Western India|date=1912|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoflodgeri00wadirich/page/n3}}</ref> He was also the first Parsi to have visited America in 1851.<ref name=":0" />

==Biography==
Ardaseer Cursetjee was the son of Cursetjee Rustomjee, a scion of the wealthy [[Wadia family]] of shipbuilders and naval architects, who was a ship builder at the Bombay Dockyard (today, Mumbai's [[Naval Dockyard (Mumbai)|Naval Dockyard]]). In 1822, aged 14, Ardaseer joined his father at the dockyards. He is described to have been particularly interested in steam engines. In 1833, aged 25, he designed and launched a small 60 ton ocean-going ship called ''Indus''. This ship would subsequently warrant a mention in his nomination for the Royal Society. In 1834, in the presence of the [[List of governors of Bombay|Governor of Bombay]], he had his house and gardens at [[Mazgaon]] lit using gas lighting. He married a [[Parsi]] girl, Avabai, and the couple had several children who subsequently became the initial members of the wealthy Wadia business family of India.<ref>{{cite web|title=ARDASEER CURSETJEE WADIA, FIRST INDIAN ELECTED to ROYAL SOCIETY|url=http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/901.php|website=www.auspostalhistory.com|publisher=Australian postal history and philately|accessdate=19 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203220221/http://www.auspostalhistory.com/articles/901.php|archive-date=3 February 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1837, Ardaseer was elected a non-resident member of the [[Royal Asiatic Society]] In 1839, at the age of 31, he travelled overland to England to further his studies of marine steam power on behalf of the [[Honourable East India Company|East India Company]]. He recounted his journey in ''The Diary of an Overland Journey from Bombay to England'', which was published in London in 1840. While in England, he constructed a steam engine, which he then had shipped to India for installation on the ''Indus''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=List of members|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|date=15 April 1865}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cursetjee|first1=Ardaseer|title=The Diary of an Overland Journey from Bombay to England|location=London|date=1840|publisher=Henington & Galabin}}</ref>

On 27 May 1841, Cursetjee was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. The nomination, made by [[Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton|Spencer Compton, Marquess of Northampton]], the then President of the Society, describes him as a "gentleman well versed in the theory and practice of [[naval architecture]] and devoted to scientific pursuits." It credits him with both the introduction of gas lighting to Bombay, as well as having "built a [sea-going] vessel of 60 tons to which he adapted a Steam Engine." In 1855 he was elected a [[Justice of the Peace]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gupta|first1=Arvind|title=Ardaseer Cursetjee|publisher=INSA – Indian national science academy|url=http://www.vidyaonline.org/dl/bs1acursetjee.pdf|accessdate=19 April 2018}}</ref>

Ardaseer Cursetjee remained Chief Engineer at the Bombay Docks until 1 August 1857, when he retired. He returned to England, where he settled.<ref>"Obituary of Ardaseer Cursetjee", ''Proceedings of the Society of Civil Engineers'', 51 (1878), p. 271.</ref>

In 1858, Ardaseer made his last trip to London and decided to permanently live in the UK with his mistress, an English woman named Marian Barber.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ardaseer Cursetjee – a case study on innovation and steam power|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/ships-steam-and-innovation-case-study/|website=blogs.ucl.ac.uk|publisher=University College of London|accessdate=13 May 2016}}</ref> While the couple did not marry, they had children and their lineage continues to live in the United Kingdom to date. One of his descendants Blair Southerden has written books, including ''A gentle lion and other ancestors'' (2013) tracing back his lineage, profiling the Parsi community and their interests in ship building.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Southerden|first1=Blair|title=A Gentle Lion and other ancestors|date=2013}}</ref>

Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia died, aged 69, on 16 November 1877 in [[Richmond, London]].<ref name="ips">{{cite web|author=Indian Postal Service|title=Ardaseer Cursetji Wadia amid Ships|url=http://www.stampsindia.com/viewstamp.php/Alpha/A/ARDASEER%20CURSETJI%20WADIA%20AMD%20SHIPS?PHPSESSID=5972351a3a6cf57bf41dc48cb3aad9e8|accessdate=20 April 2018}}</ref>

==Family==
Cursetjee set up home with Marian Barber (1817–1899) in England, living together although they never formally married. Marian was a British woman, from [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets|Tower Hamlets]] whose brother worked as a clerk in the docks of London. Together the couple had a number of children, the first of which, Lowjee Annie, was born in Bombay in December 1853.<ref>Bombay Calendar 1854, transcribed by Families in British India Society</ref> Her second child, Gustasp Ardaseer, was born in Bombay in 1856. The couple subsequently returned to UK as the Parsi community in India did not accept their marriage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Reports of cases heard and determined by the Judicial Committee, 6:8, p.376. This case came before the Privy Council in 1856 on appeal from the Supreme Court. The findings that it was impossible to apply the law of the Diocese of London, a Christian law to persons professing the Zoroastrian religion were to be much quoted in future cases|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/ships-steam-and-innovation-case-study/ships-steam-and-innovation-case-study-personal-connections/#_edn1|website=blogs.ucl.ac.uk|publisher=UCL London|accessdate=13 May 2016}}</ref>{{clarify|reason=this makes no sense as we have just said they never married|date=April 2018}}

Ardaseer had a wife in India, Avabai, who he left there when he migrated to UK. His children from Avabai and his children from Marian continued to maintain relations, sometimes intermarrying amongst themselves.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Kochhar | first = Rajesh K. | title = Ardaseer Cursetjee (1808–1877), the First Indian Fellow of the Royal Society of London | journal = Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London | volume = 47 | issue = 1 | pages = 33–47 | date = January 1993 | doi = 10.1098/rsnr.1993.0004| s2cid = 144803290 }}</ref>

For example, Cursetjee Rustomjee (1855–1941), the grandson of Avabai and Ardaseer was sent to England to study for the [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|Indian Civil Service]] examination and stayed with his grandfather in Richmond. There, he met Lowjee Annie, his aunt and the daughter of Ardaseer and Marian. He married her in 1880. While their three children were all born in India, their father returned to England soon after retirement in 1911. He died in [[Matlock, Derbyshire|Matlock]], [[Derbyshire]] in 1941.<ref>{{cite book|isbn=9781787350267|title=East India Company at Home, 1757–1857|publisher=University College of London|year=2018|editor= Finn, Margot |editor2=Smith, Kate}}</ref>

== Commemoration ==
On 27 May 1969, the [[Indian Postal Service]] issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of his contributions as "pioneer and innovator."<ref name="ips" />

His children in the UK continued to carry his name for some time. St. Mathias church in [[Surrey]] records that in 1879, one of his children, Gustasp Ardaseer, married Florence Neal.<ref>{{cite web|title=Case study – Ardaseer Cursetjee|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/files/2014/05/Cursetjee-Final-PDF-19.08.14.pdf|website=blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/files/2014/05/Cursetjee-Final-PDF-19.08.14.pdf|publisher=UCL London|accessdate=13 May 2016}}</ref>

On 19 May 2021, a [[blue plaque]] was unveiled in Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia's honour by [[English Heritage]] at 55 Sheen Road, [[Richmond, London|Richmond]], London, where he settled with Marian Barber and their family for the last decade of his life, naming the property Lowgee House after his ancestral name.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Who do you think you are? The esteemed Indian ancestor no one in my white British family knew about|url=https://news.sky.com/story/who-do-you-think-you-are-the-esteemed-indian-ancestor-no-one-in-my-white-british-family-knew-about-12307091|access-date=2021-05-19|website=Sky News|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia {{!}} Civil Engineer {{!}} Blue Plaques|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ardaseer-cursetjee-wadia/|access-date=2021-05-20|website=English Heritage}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite journal
| last = Kochhar
| first = Rajesh K.
| title = Indian Fellows of the Royal Society, London (1841–2000)
| journal = Current Science
| volume = 80
| issue = 6
| pages = 721–722
| date = March 2001
| url = http://www.iisc.ernet.in/currsci/mar252001/721.pdf
}}

{{Wadia Group}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cursetjee, Ardaseer}}
[[Category:1808 births]]
[[Category:1877 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Indian shipbuilders]]
[[Category:Engineers from Maharashtra]]
[[Category:Parsi people from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Scientists from Mumbai]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian engineers]]
[[Category:Parsi people]]
[[Category:Wadia family]]

Ardaseer Cursetjee - Revision history

imported>Billjones94 at 15:06, 11 August 2021