https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=John_Russell_ColvinJohn Russell Colvin - Revision history2026-07-30T18:49:12ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=John_Russell_Colvin&diff=113036&oldid=prev>GünniX at 20:44, 18 June 20212021-06-18T20:44:11Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|English colonial administrator}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}<br />
{{Use British English|date=April 2019}}<br />
{{about|the lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of India|the water engineer in northern India|John Colvin (engineer)}}<br />
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{{Infobox officeholder<br />
|honorific_prefix = <br />
|name = John Russell Colvin<br />
|honorific_suffix = <br />
|image = Hon. John Russell Colvin (1807–1857) - 697.jpg<br />
|caption = <br />
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1807|5|29|df=yes}}<br />
|birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]]<br />
|death_date = {{Death date and age|1857|9|9|1807|5|29|df=yes}}<br />
|death_place = [[Agra]], [[North-Western Provinces]]<br />
|order1 = [[List of Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces|Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces]]<br />
|term_start1 = 7 November 1853<br />
|term_end1 = 9 September 1857<br />
|governor_general1= [[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|The Marquess of Dalhousie]]<br>[[Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning|The Earl Canning]]<br />
|predecessor1 = [[James Thomason]]<br />
|successor1 = [[Hugh Fraser (East India Company officer)|Hugh Fraser]]<br />
|awards = <br />
|alma_mater = [[Haileybury and Imperial Service College|East India Company College]]<br />
}}<br />
'''John Russell Colvin''' (29 May 1807&nbsp;– 9 September 1857) 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]] from 1853 until his death from cholera during the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].<br />
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==Biography==<br />
[[File:Agra 03-2016 13 Agra Fort.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Tomb of John Russell Colvin inside the [[Agra Fort|Red Fort of Agra]].]]<br />
Colvin was born in [[Calcutta]], then part of the [[Bengal Presidency]], the second son and fourth child of James Colvin (born 1768), a merchant with Colvin, Bazett & Co. of London and Calcutta. The [[Colvin family]] were a prominent [[Anglo-Indian]] family of Scottish descent. He was educated at the [[East India Company College]] in [[Hertfordshire]], [[England]] and entered the service of the [[British East India Company]] in 1826.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=748}}<br />
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In 1836 he became private secretary to [[George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland|Lord Auckland]] at the time of the [[First Anglo-Afghan War]] of 1837, and named [[Auckland Colvin|his son]] after him. From 1846-49, Colvin served as Commissioner of [[Tanintharyi Region|Tenasserim]], in British (Lower) [[Burma]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=748}}<br />
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In 1853 [[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|Lord Dalhousie]] appointed him lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of [[India]]. In 1857, at the start of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], Colvin was at [[Agra]] with only a weak British regiment and a native battery, not enough force to prevail against the mutineers. Colvin issued a proclamation to the 'natives' that was censured at the time for its clemency, but it was similar to the approach of [[Henry Montgomery Lawrence|Sir Henry Lawrence]], later followed by [[Charles John Canning, 1st Earl Canning|Lord Canning]]. Colvin died shortly before the fall of [[Delhi]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=748}}{{efn|Colvin's diaries are held in the European Manuscripts Section at the India Records Office in London.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}} }}<br />
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His body could not be carried out of the [[Agra Fort]] (which after the fall of the [[Mughals]], the British establishment in India converted into a military garrison). The selection of the burial location is often criticized for the insensitivity, considering the significance of the place.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/india/agra/attraction-detail.html?vid=1154654624867 |title=Diwan-i-Am |work=The New York Times |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070325223145/http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/india/agra/attraction-detail.html?vid=1154654624867 |archive-date=March 25, 2007 }}</ref> Within the sprawling palace-fort complex, the tomb is located in the front of the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) where the [[Peacock Throne]] was placed.<br />
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==Family==<br />
Colvin married Emma Sophia, daughter of Wetenhall Sneyd, a vicar in England; they had ten children,{{sfn|Boase|Penner|2004}} many of whom continued the family connection with India. Bazett Wetenhall, Elliott Graham, and [[Walter Mytton Colvin|Walter Mytton]] all passed distinguished careers in India, and a fourth, Clement Sneyd, C.S.I., was secretary of the public works department of the [[India Office]] in London.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}} The third son, [[Auckland Colvin|Auckland]], named after Lord Auckland, was lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces and [[Oudh]], and also served in Egypt. He co-founded the [[Colvin Taluqdars' College]] in [[Lucknow]]; he also published a biography of his father in the [[Rulers of India series]] in 1895,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hutton|first=W. H.|author-link=William Holden Hutton|title=''John Russell Colvin, the Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West under the Company'' by Auckland Colvin|journal=The English Historical Review|date=July 1895|volume=10|issue=39|page=604|jstor=547869}}</ref> and in 1905 gave a [[stained glass]] East window to the church of St. Mary at [[Soham]], both as a thanksgiving for the termination of the [[Second Boer War]], and as a permanent memorial to his father.{{sfn|Yeoman|1928}}<br />
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Colvin's elder brother, Bazett David, in 1847 inherited their father's estate at The Grove, Little Bealing, near [[Ipswich]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.onesuffolk.co.uk/LittleBealingsPC/Aboutus/Brief+History+of+Bealings.htm |title=Village history |access-date=6 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110124211344/http://www.onesuffolk.co.uk/LittleBealingsPC/Aboutus/Brief+History+of+Bealings.htm |archive-date=24 January 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> which thus became the childhood home of [[Sidney Colvin]], who grew up to be a critic, curator, and great friend of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]].{{fact|date=April 2019}}<br />
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Colvin's granddaughter [[Brenda Colvin|Brenda]] (1897–1981){{sfn|Moggridge |2006}} was an important landscape architect, author of standard works in the field and a force behind its professionalisation. She had no children, but another of Colvin's grandchildren founded his own line: Clement Sneyd's son ended up as Admiral Sir [[Ragnar Colvin]], [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]], [[Order of the Bath|CB]], and fathered [[John Horace Ragnar Colvin]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://blogs.abc.net.au/offair/2009/08/its-not-only-double-agents-who-lead-double-lives.html |title=It's not only double agents who lead double lives |access-date=8 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807042832/http://blogs.abc.net.au/offair/2009/08/its-not-only-double-agents-who-lead-double-lives.html |archive-date=7 August 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> the [[Cold War]] diplomat. The most recent generation is the Australian journalist [[Mark Colvin]] and Major General James Balfour CBE of the Royal Green Jackets.{{fact|date=April 2019}}<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{notelist}}<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==References==<br />
*{{Cite ODNB|first1=G.C. |last1=Boase |authorlink1=George Clement Boase |first2=Peter (reviewer) |last2=Penner |title=Colvin, John Russell (1807–1857) |year=2004 |id=6013 }}<br />
*{{Cite ODNB|first=Hal |last=Moggridge |title=Colvin, Brenda (1897–1981) |id=46400|date=2006}}<br />
*{{Citation|author=Yeoman |url=http://www.earl-soham.suffolk.gov.uk/history/romance2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030509003820/http://www.earl-soham.suffolk.gov.uk/history/romance2.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date= 9 May 2003 |date=18 April 1928 |title=Suffolk Parishes: Their History and Romance: Earl Soham |newspaper=East Anglian Daily Times }}<br />
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;Attribution<br />
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Colvin, John Russell |volume=6 |page=748}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
*{{cite book |last=Colvin |first=Sir Auckland|author-link=Auckland Colvin |title=John Russell Colvin: The Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Under the Company |series=[[Rulers of India series]] |place=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1895 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.278958 }}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{Commons category-inline|John Russell Colvin}}<br />
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20041016154557/http://www.uparchaeology.org/anx22agra.htm Tomb of John Colvin]<br />
*[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Myanmar.htm#British%20Lower%20Burma British Lower Burma]<br />
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{{succession box | title=[[List of Lieutenant Governors of the North-Western Provinces|Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces]] | before=''[[Alfred William Begbie|A. W. Begbie]]''<br> (acting) | after=''[[Edward Anderton Reade|E. A. Reade]]''<br> (acting) | years=7 November 1853&nbsp;– 9 September 1857}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Colvin, John Russell}}<br />
[[Category:1807 births]]<br />
[[Category:1857 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Colvin family|John Russell]]<br />
[[Category:British East India Company civil servants]]<br />
[[Category:Deaths from cholera]]<br />
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in India]]<br />
[[Category:Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces]]<br />
[[Category:British military personnel killed in the Indian Rebellion of 1857]]</div>>GünniX