Sir George Russell Clerk (pronounced ''Clark''; – 25 July 1889) was a British civil servant in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

Life

Clerk was born at Worting House in

Mortimer West End Mortimer West End is a village and civil parish in north Hampshire in England. It lies in the northernmost point of the county. History At one time it was the Hampshire part of the cross-county parish of Stratfield Mortimer (mostly in Berkshire ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

,''1851 England Census'' the son of John Clerk of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and Anne St John Mildmay, daughter and coheir of the late

Carew St John Mildmay Carew St John-Mildmay (2 February 180013 July 1878) was Archdeacon of Essex from 18 February 1862 until his death. The son of Henry St John-Mildmay, 3rd Baronet he was born at Dogmersfield Park. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. He held ...

of Shawford House, Hampshire. Like all civil servants until the introduction of Competitive examinations in the 1850s, Clerk had studied at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ** Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an internatio ...

in Hertfordshire, being posted to

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

as a writer in 1817. Early in his career he worked in the Political and Secret Department of the Government, and most of his subsequent work was in that line. He thus worked as an Assistant to the President in Rajputana and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, before being posted as Political Agent at

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-are ...

and subsequently at

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

in 1839 and

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

in 1840. In 1843, he was posted as

Lieutenant-Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a " second-in-com ...

of the

North-Western Provinces The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdo ...

(present day U.P.). He was then appointed Governor of Bombay from 1848 to 1850. Subsequently, he worked outside India, helping establish the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

between 1853 and 1856 and then became the first Permanent

Under-Secretary of State for India This is a list of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State and Permanent Under-Secretary of State, Permanent Under-Secretaries of State at the India Office during the British India, period of British rule be ...

, a position which replaced that of the Examiner at

East India House East India House was the London headquarters of the East India Company, from which much of British India was governed until the British government took control of the Company's possessions in India in 1858. It was located in Leadenhall Street ...

when the Government of India was looked after by the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. He was Governor of Bombay for a second time from 11 May 1860 to 24 April 1862. After this, like a lot of eminent personnel in the civil and military line, he was appointed as a member of the Council of India. He remained there until 1876. He died in London at his residence, 33 Elm Park Gardens, on 25 July 1889."Deaths." ''The Belfast Newsletter'', p. 5. 29 July 1889

Family

In 1827, Clerk married Mary (died 26 November 1878), widow of Colonel Stewart. Their son was Sir Godfrey Clerk and grandson Sir George Clerk.

References

;Attribution

External links

*
The India List and India Office List By India Office, Great Britain

Bombay place-names and street-names; an excursion into the by-ways of the history of Bombay City
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clerk, George 1800 births 1889 deaths Governors of Bombay British East India Company civil servants Members of the Council of India Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Lieutenant-Governors of the North-Western Provinces Permanent Under-Secretaries of State for India