John Peter Lucius Gwynn (22 June 1916 – 14 September 1999) was a British civil servant, whose career spanned the colonial

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

, the independent

Civil Services of India In India, the Civil Service is the collection of civil servants of the government who constitute the permanent executive branch of the country. This includes servants in the All India Services, the Central Civil Services, and various State Ci ...

, and the

British Civil Service In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service is the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supports His Majesty's Government, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government, which is led by a cabinet of ministers chosen ...

Early life

His father was

John Tudor Gwynn John Tudor ("Jack") Gwynn, CIE, ICS (13 November 1881 – 17 May 1956) was an Irish-born British civil servant in India and cricketer. Early life and cricket career The seventh son of the Very Rev John Gwynn D.D. and Lucy Josephine O’Brien ...

, at that time a serving member of the

(ICS), later to become a ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' correspondent and writer on Indian affairs. His mother was Joan Elton Sedding, daughter of the architect

John Dando Sedding John Dando Sedding (13 April 1838 – 7 April 1891) was an English church architect, working on new buildings and repair work, with an interest in a "crafted Gothic" style. He was an influential figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, many of wh ...

.
Irish Times
', Dublin, 30 November 1999 Gwynn's first five years were spent in

Madras State Madras State was a state in the Indian Republic, which was in existence during the mid-20th century as a successor to the Madras Presidency of British India. The state came into existence on 26 January 1950 when the Constitution of India was ad ...

in India. In 1921 his father retired from the ICS on account of increasing deafness and the family returned to Britain. Peter attended the

Dragon School The Dragon School is a private school across two sites in Oxford, England. The Dragon Pre-Prep (children aged 4–7) and Prep School (children aged 8–13) are both co-educational schools. The Dragon Prep School was founded in 1877 as the Oxfo ...

in Oxford until his father took over Baymount Preparatory School in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

as proprietor/headmaster and the family settled in Ireland. Peter then attended

St Columba's College, Dublin St Columba's College is a co-educational independent day and boarding school founded in 1843 located in Whitechurch, County Dublin, Ireland. Among the founders of the college were Viscount Adare (who later became The 3rd Earl of Dunraven and M ...

and went on to study

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, where he took his BA Honours (first class, with gold medal) in 1938.

Indian Civil Service career

Gwynn spent a year training for the

and studying

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

before entering the service in November 1939. He was posted in

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

and worked in the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

-speaking part of that province which later became

Andhra State Andhra State (IAST: ; ), created in 1953, was the official name of the State of Andhra Pradesh until 1956. The state was formed from Telugu-speaking districts of the erstwhile Madras State, which form two distinct cultural regions – Rayalas ...

and then part of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

.''The Hindu'', Chennai, 16 June 2016 After

Indian Independence Act 1947 The Indian Independence Act 1947 ( 10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 30) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that partitioned British India into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The Act received Royal Assent on 18 July 194 ...

in 1947 Peter Gwynn opted to stay on in the civil service under the new

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

. In 1959 Peter Gwynn married Patricia Margaret “Peggy” Satur, daughter of Andrew Satur, a businessman of

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

. The couple had two sons, John Jude Lucius Gwynn (born 1960) and Robert Charles Patrick Gwynn (born 1963). Peter Gwynn became Secretary in the Education Ministry of Andhra Pradesh and was instrumental in the introduction of compulsory primary education in that state. After that he served as Second Secretary in the Board of Revenue until his retirement from the ICS. When he retired in 1968 he was apparently the last remaining British member of the service.Diary in ''The Times'', London, autumn 1968 In addition to his official duties Peter Gwynn contributed in his spare time to the cultural life of Andhra Pradesh, helping to found the

Telugu Academy Telugu Academy, known as Telugu And Sanskrit Akademi in official materials and some sources (from ), can refer to two institutes set up to promote the use of Telugu and develop, preserve and modernize the language. The original one was set up by th ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

and serving as a member of the governing body of the

Salar Jung Museum The Salar Jung Museum is an art museum located at Dar-ul-Shifa, on the southern bank of the Musi River, India, Musi River in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It is one of the List of museums in India, notable National Museums of India. ...

Later life

In 1968 the family moved to England where Peter Gwynn entered the UK civil service as a

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...

under secretary, remaining in post until his final retirement in 1976. During his retirement he worked on his linguistic projects, compiling a Telugu grammar book in conjunction with Professor

Bhadriraju Krishnamurti Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (19 June 1928 – 11 August 2012) was an Indian linguist who specialised in Dravidian languages. He was born in Ongole in the Madras Presidency of British India (now in Andhra Pradesh, India). He was the vice-chancellor ...

(''A Grammar of Modern Telugu'', Oxford University Press, 1985) and completing a dictionary of the Telugu language (''A Telugu-English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, 1991). Peter Gwynn died in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

, Kent on 14 September 1999.

Works

* ''A Grammar of Modern Telugu'' (1985) (with Prof.

) * ''A Telugu-English Dictionary'' (1991)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwynn, J P L 1916 births 1999 deaths Dravidologists 20th-century Indian linguists Indian Civil Service (British India) officers British people in colonial India Lexicographers Linguists from the United Kingdom