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Elliott Colvin (died 1883)

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Not to be confused with Elliot Colvin (died 1940).

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.

Elliott Graham Colvin
Colvin Gate memorial, Bulandshahr
Personal details
Born1836
Calcutta, British India
Died3 November 1883
Sahanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Early life and family

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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

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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

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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

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  •  
    Facing market
  •  
    Inside arch
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    Memorial plaque facing Moti Bagh

Notes

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  1. ^ Of the same name was Sir Elliot Graham Colvin, born in 1861 and died in 1940.[3]
  2. ^ She later moved back to England and died there in 1914.[10][11]

References

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  1. ^ "1851 England; Buckhinghamshire". The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Kew, Surrey. 1951. Retrieved 11 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
  2. ^ a b "Notices". Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service. 30 June 1880. p. 511 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "Sir Elliot Graham Colvin - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Notices". Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service. 30 June 1880. p. 511 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "Eton School Lists, 1791-1850". London. 1850. Retrieved 11 March 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
  7. ^ "Naval promotions". Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser. 18 May 1850. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "Marriages". Morning Advertiser. 15 November 1862. p. 8 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine. London: John Henry and James Parker. 1862. p. 770.
  10. ^ "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.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ a b "Notices". Homeward Mail from India, China and the East. 22 December 1877. p. 1317 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "Bengal: from the calcutta and government gazette". Bombay Gazette. 19 April 1861. p. 370 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "News of the week". Englishman's Overland Mail. 13 November 1883. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. ^ "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.
  16. ^ "Indian items". Evening Mail. 24 December 1883. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. ^ 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.
  18. ^ 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.
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