https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=George_Byers_MainwaringGeorge Byers Mainwaring - Revision history2026-07-31T09:10:17ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=George_Byers_Mainwaring&diff=500238&oldid=prevProabin at 18:20, 6 March 20252025-03-06T18:20:11Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|British Indian army officer and linguist}}<br />
General '''George Byers Mainwaring'''{{efn|the middle name is sometimes given as '''Byres'''}} (18 July 1824 – 16 January 1894) was a British Indian army officer and a linguist. He compiled the first English dictionary of the [[Lepcha language|Lepcha]] (or Róng) language.<!-- Byres is a misspelling, widely propagated online --><br />
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Mainwaring (pronounced "Mannering") was born in [[Banda district, India|Banda]] in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] to Bengal civil servant George Mainwaring and his wife Isabella (1800–1872), daughter of Major General Patrick Byers.<ref>{{cite book |author=Finley, R. Mainwaring |url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofma00finl/page/101/mode/2up |title=A short history of the Mainwaring Family |publisher=Griffith Farran Okeden & Welsh |year=1890 |place=London |page=60}}</ref> He was sent to Britain for study and was educated at Mr Tulloch's Academy, Aberdeen and at Messrs. Stoton and Mayor, Wimbledon. He obtained commission in the Bengal army on 8 January 1842. He was posted to the 16th Bengal Native Infantry and saw action in the [[Gwalior campaign|Battle of Maharajpur]], receiving a Gwalior campaign bronze star in 1843. He also received awards for service in the [[First Anglo-Sikh war|Sutlej campaign]] (1845–46) and the [[Battle of Mudki|Battle of Moodki]]. He went to England in 1854 and returned on 5 November 1857. Because of his fluency in [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]], he was posted as an interpreter with the 42nd and 49th Highlanders during the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Sepoy Mutiny]]. He went to England for medical reasons in 1863 and returned in 1866. In 1867 he was appointed by the government to produce a dictionary and grammar of the Lepcha language. He lived in [[Darjeeling]] at [[Lebong Valley|Lebong]] and later at Poloongdong. He studied the [[Lepcha language]] under a Lepcha priestess who learned some English. Mainwaring was made full colonel in January 1873. He was promoted to Major General in January 1884 and Lieutenant General in 1887. Mainwaring died at [[Serampore]] where he is buried.<ref>{{cite journal |year=1921 |title=Christian inscriptions from Serampur |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.10168/page/191/mode/1up |journal=Bengal, Past and Present |volume=23 |pages=171–194 |issue=45–46|author=Hosten, H.}}</ref><br />
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Mainwaring's ''A Grammar of the Lepcha (Rong) Language as it exists in the Dorjeling and Sikkim Hills'' was published in 1876. It was revised by Albert Grunwedel and republished in 1898.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=A Key To Four Transcription Systems Of Lepcha |author= Plaisier, Heleen|title=Himalayan Languages and Linguistics: Studies in Phonology, Semantics, Morphology and Syntax | year=2011 |publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-19448-9 |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004194489.i-322.15 |editor1=Turin, Mark |editor2=Zeisler, Bettina|pages=39–53 }}</ref><br />
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==Notes==<br />
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== References ==<br />
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== External links ==<br />
* [https://archive.org/details/grammarofronglep00mainuoft A grammar of the Rong (Lepcha) language as it exists in the Dorjeling and Sikim hills] (1876)<br />
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[[Category:1824 births]]<br />
[[Category:1894 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Linguists from British India]]<br />
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