>Citation bot at 05:46, 11 July 2021

2021-07-11T05:46:34Z

New page

{{About|the East Indian Company civil servant|the American football player|Jim Thomason}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific_prefix =
|name = James Thomason
|honorific_suffix =
|image = James Thomason.png
|caption =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1804|5|3|df=yes}}
|birth_place = [[Great Shelford]], England, United Kingdom
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1853|9|27|1804|5|3|df=yes}}
|death_place = [[Bareilly]], [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh]]
|order1 = [[List of Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces|Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces]]
|term_start1 = 22 December 1843
|term_end1 = 10 October 1853
|governor_general1= [[Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough|The Lord Ellenborough]]<br>[[Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge|The Viscount Hardinge]]<br>[[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|The Marquess of Dalhousie]]
|predecessor1 = [[George Russell Clerk|Sir George Russell Clerk]]
|successor1 = [[John Russell Colvin]]
|awards =
|alma_mater = [[East India Company College]]
}}

'''James Thomason''' (3 May 1804 – 17 September 1853) was a British administrator of the [[East India Company]] and [[List of Lieutenant Governors of the North-Western Provinces|Lieutenant-Governor]] of the [[North-Western Provinces]] between 1843 and 1853.

==Early life==
The son of Thomas Truebody Thomason, a British cleric in Bengal from 1808, and his first wife Elizabeth Fawcett, he was born on 3 May 1804 in [[Little Shelford]]. He was educated in England from 1814, at Aspenden Hall School, [[Hertfordshire]], where he knew [[Thomas Babington Macaulay]], living with his paternal grandmother Mrs Dornford, and [[Charles Simeon]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=27251|title=Thomason, James|first=David J.|last=Howlett}}</ref> Simeon, in Cambridge, his godfather and effective guardian, gave him a great deal of attention.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hopkins |first1=Hugh Evan |title=Charles Simeon of Cambridge |date=2012 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-61097-813-2 |page=169 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkdNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA169 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1818 Thomason became a pupil in 1819 at Stanstead Park, near [[Racton]] in Sussex, of [[George Hodson (priest)|George Hodson]], who was tutoring [[Albert Way]], son of [[Lewis Way]] in what became a small class of six boys that included [[Samuel Wilberforce]].<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Newsome |first1=David |title=The Parting of Friends: The Wilberforces and Henry Manning |date=1993 |publisher=Gracewing Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-3714-1 |page=40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTT34mhMtC8C&pg=PA40 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Meacham |first1=Standish |title=Lord Bishop: The Life of Samuel Wilberforce, 1805-1873 |url=https://archive.org/details/lordbishoplifeof0000meac |url-access=registration |date=1970 |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/lordbishoplifeof0000meac/page/8 8] |isbn=9780674539136 |language=en}}</ref> He moved on to [[Haileybury College]].<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Career in India==
Thomason returned to India in 1822. He held numerous positions there, including magistrate-collector, settlement officer in [[Azamgarh]] (1832–37), and foreign secretary to the government of India (1842–43). In 1843 he was named [[List of Lieutenant Governors of the North-Western Provinces|Lieutenant-Governor]] of the [[North-Western Provinces]], a post he held for ten years. By 1853 he had also established a system of 897 locally supported [[elementary school]]s in centrally located villages that provided a [[vernacular]] [[education]] for children throughout the region. He was appointed as governor of Madras by [[Queen Victoria]], but did not survive to assume the post.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=James Thomason biography - British colonial governor | encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/592913/James-Thomason|publisher=Britannica Online|accessdate=1 March 2015}}</ref> He died on 27 September 1853, at [[Bareilly]], India, where he was staying with Maynie Hay, his married daughter.<ref name="ODNB"/>

==Legacy==
[[File:Admin Block IIT-R.JPG|thumb|James Thomason Building at [[Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee]]]]
Thomason proposed that a civil engineering college be established at [[Roorkee]]. The college, now the [[Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee]], was founded in 1847. It gained university status in 1949<ref>http://www.iitr.ac.in/institute/pages/History.html</ref> and was declared an institute of national importance in 2001 by the then HRD minister [[Murli Manohar Joshi]]. The main building was renamed to James Thomason Building in his honor by an act of the Board of Governors of the institute in December 2013, and a road on campus also bears his name.<ref>http://www.iitr.ac.in/Main/news/Notification(12122013).pdf</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|title=The India List and India Office List|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ|year=1819|publisher=Harrison}}
* {{cite book|author=Richard Temple|author-link=Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet|title=James Thomason — Lieutenant-Governor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZbtlywslQ6kC|date=February 2006|publisher=Read Books|series=[[Rulers of India series]]|isbn=978-1-84664-413-9}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box | title=[[List of Lieutenant Governors of the North-Western Provinces|Lieutenant Governor of North-Western Provinces]] | before=Sir [[George Russell Clerk|G. R. Clerk]] | after=''[[Alfred William Begbie|A. W. Begbie]]''<br> (acting) | years=22 December 1843 – 10 October 1853}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomason, James}}
[[Category:1804 births]]
[[Category:1853 deaths]]
[[Category:British East India Company civil servants]]
[[Category:Members of the Council of India]]
[[Category:Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces]]
[[Category:People from Great Shelford]]

James Thomason - Revision history

>Citation bot at 05:46, 11 July 2021