Maratha-Grabs-and-Gallivats-attacking-an-English-Ship

Colonel John Biddulph (25 July 1840 – 24 December 1921) was a British soldier, author and naturalist who served in the government of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Biddulph was born in 1840, and was the third son of Robert Biddulph. He was educated at

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

, and at the age of 18 joined the

19th Lancers The 19th Lancers is an armoured regiment of the Pakistan Army. Before 1956, it was known as 19th King George V's Own Lancers, which was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was formed in 1922, by the amalgamation of 18th King ...

and proceeded to India where he served in

Awadh Awadh (), known in British Raj historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a historical region in northern India and southern Nepal, now constituting the North-central portion of Uttar Pradesh. It is roughly synonymous with the ancient Kosala Regio ...

during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

. Afterwards, he joined the political department of the government of

. Between 1873 and 1874 he accompanied

Thomas Douglas Forsyth Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth (7 October 1827 – 17 December 1886) was an Anglo-Indian administrator and diplomat. Early life Forsyth was born in Birkenhead on 7 October 1827. He was the tenth child of Thomas Forsyth, a Liverpool merchant. His ...

, Thomas E. Gordon,

Henry Walter Bellew Henry Walter Bellew MRCP (30 August 1834 – 26 July 1892) was an Indian-born British medical officer who worked in Afghanistan. He wrote several books based on his explorations in the region during the course of his army career and also studied ...

Ferdinand Stoliczka Ferdinand Stoliczka (Czech language, Czech written Stolička, 7 June 1838 – 19 June 1874) was a Moravian palaeontologist who worked in India on paleontology, geology and various aspects of zoology, including ornithology, malacology, and herpe ...

, Henry Trotter, and R. A. Champman on the

Second Yarkand Mission The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

– an expedition across the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

Chinese Turkestan Chinese Turkestan or Chinese Turkistan, is a geographical term or historical region corresponding to the region of the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang (south of the Tian Shan mountain range) or Xinjiang as a whole which was under the rule of ...

.1917. "The Amir Yakoub Khan and Eastern Turkestan in Mid-Nineteenth Century."

Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

. Vol. 4. No. 4. pp. 95-112. During this journey, Biddulph collected numerous specimens of birds and mammals, including an unknown species of ''

Podoces The ground jays or ground choughs belong to a distinct group of the passerine order of birds in the genus ''Podoces'' of the crow family Corvidae. They inhabit high altitude semi-desert areas from central Asia to Mongolia. Ground jays show adapt ...

'' which was later named in his honour by

Allan Octavian Hume Allan Octavian Hume, Order of the Bath, CB Indian Civil Service, ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British political reformer, ornithologist, civil servant and botanist who worked in British Raj, British India and was the founding spirit ...

as ''

Podoces biddulphi Xinjiang ground jay (''Podoces biddulphi'') or Biddulph's ground jay, is a species of bird in the family Corvidae. It is endemic to China. It is not larger than an adult human's hand and has a brownish white coat of feathers. Since 2004, the Inte ...

''. In 1877 Biddulph was posted at

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

, in the extreme north-western corner of

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

, and remained there until 1881. During this period he corresponded on ornithology with Hume and his observations and research in this region were published in two papers in the ''

Ibis The ibis () (collective plural ibises; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...

''. After holding many posts as

British Resident A resident minister, or resident for short, is a government official required to take up permanent residence in another country. A representative of his government, he officially has diplomatic functions which are often seen as a form of in ...

at various princely states and serving for four years on the staff of the

Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...

, Lord Northbrook, Biddulph retired from the service in 1896. He died on 24 December 1921 in Grey Court, London, aged 81.

Writings

Biddulph wrote several works about India and about the history of the British presence there including biographies of

Stringer Lawrence Major-General Stringer Lawrence (February 1698 – 10 January 1775) was a British army officer who served as the first Commander-in-Chief of Fort William from 1748 to 1754. Origins Lawrence was born at Hereford, England, the son of John Lawre ...

and

Joseph François Dupleix Joseph Marquis Dupleix (; Unknown – 10 November 1763) was Governor-General of French India and rival of Robert Clive. Biography Dupleix was born in Landrecies, on January 23, 1697. His father, François Dupleix, a wealthy '' fermier gén� ...

.New General Catalog of Old Books & Authors
/ref> These books and his ''Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh'' are listed as references for several articles in the

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. So ...

. *''

Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh ''Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh'' is a book written by Colonel John Biddulph and originally published in 1880. The book was one of the first written in English which provided an insight into the languages, social customs and general characteristics ...

'', 1880 *''The Nineteenth And Their Times'', 1899 *''Stringer Lawrence, The Father Of The Indian Army'', 1901 *''The Pirates Of Malabar, and An Englishwoman In India...'',1907 *''Dupleix'', 1910

References

External links

* *
Duplieix
by Colonel John Biddulph, 1910 {{DEFAULTSORT:Biddulph, John British biographers British ornithologists British writers Historians of India British diplomats British people in colonial India Central Asian studies scholars 1840 births 1921 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Naturalists from British India