Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur John Dring (4 November 1902 – 16 June 1991) was the second

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

of the princely state of

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur (Urdu: ; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 13th largest city of Pakistan and List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, 8th most populous city of Punjab. Bahawalpur is the capital of Bahawalpur Division. Founded in ...

(now in modern

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

). He was also the senior member of the Indian Political Service in the last decades of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, Assistant Private Secretary to the

Governor-General 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 o ...

and an advisor to governments on plebiscites for two former British colonies in Africa. Dring Stadium, the site of the second

test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestigious and traditional form. Often referred to as the "ultimate test" of a cricketer's skill, endurance, and temperament, it is a format of i ...

match of the India-Pakistan test series in 1955, is named after him. He was called John throughout his life.Allen, Charles (1975) ''Plain Tales from the Raj: Images of British India in the Twentieth Century''

Early life

Dring was born on 4 November 1902 in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

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 ...

, the second child and only son of Sir William Arthur Dring and his wife Lady Jane Reid Greenshields Dring (née Ross, formerly Alston). The Dring family had been resident in India since 1830. Dring spent his earliest years in India, but was sent to school in England aged 6 years, as was customary for members of elite families in British India. He attended

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and RMC Sandhurst.DRING, Lt-Col Sir (Arthur) John
''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014) He returned to India in 1923 and joined the

Guides Cavalry The Guides Cavalry (Frontier Force) is an armoured regiment of the Pakistan Army which was raised in 1846 as Corps of Guides (India), The Corps of Guides. During more than a hundred and fifty years of military service, the regiment has earned the ...

as a lieutenant.

Political career

In 1927, Dring joined the Indian Political Service and soon became Assistant Private Secretary to 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 ...

. The Channel 4 historical drama

Indian Summers ''Indian Summers'' is a British drama television series that began airing on Channel 4 on 15 February 2015. The show details the events of summers spent at Simla (the summer capital of British India), in the foothills of the Himalayas, by a gro ...

revolves around a fictional character called Ralph Whelan who was the Private Secretary to the

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

in 1932–1935. The character of Ralph Whelan has several similarities with the real-life John Dring, who was in the same political position in the same place at the same time, with the same family history. The National Portrait Gallery of the UK holds a portrait of Dring. Dring was the Deputy Commissioner of

Dera Ismail Khan Dera Ismail Khan (; Urdu and , ), abbreviated as D.I. Khan, is a city and capital of Dera Ismail Khan District, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 10th largest city of Pakistan and third or fourth largest in the province of Khy ...

from 1935 to 1936. From 1937 to 1940, Dring served as Secretary to Sir George Cunningham, the Governor of the

Northwest Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November 1901 from ...

. He then served as

Political Agent Political Agent or political agent may refer to: *Political Resident, a representative with consular duties and political contacts with local chiefs * Political officer (British Empire), an officer of the British imperial civil administration, also ...

South Waziristan South Mahsud Waziristan District () was a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Dera Ismail Khan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, before splitting into the Lower South Waziristan District and the Upper South Waziristan D ...

from 1939 to 1942.Tripodi, C. (2016) ''Edge of Empire: The British Political Officer and Tribal Administration on the North-West Frontier 1877–1947'', Rouledge:London He was part of the Razmak column which attempted to display a show of force to anti-British tribal forces in the Waziristan campaign (1936-1939) but instead was bogged down in fighting and suffered large casualties. The failure of the Razmak column emboldened the resistance fighters resulted in a surge in their numbers. Dring was awarded the Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire in the 1943 New Year Honours. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1944. Dring was the Deputy Commissioner of

Peshawar Peshawar is the capital and List of cities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by population, largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the sixth most populous city of Pakistan, with a district p ...

from 1945 to 1947, president of the Peshawar Services club through 1948 and hosted

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

on his visit to the

North West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ) was a province of British India from 1901 to 1947, of the Dominion of Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, and of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan from 1970 to 2010. It was established on 9 November 1901 from ...

in 1946. Following the

Partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...

in 1947, Dring served as the Prime Minister of

, a Muslim-majority princely state. He was Bahawalpur's second Prime Minister, and last Prime Minister of British origin, and served from 1948 to 1952. Dring oversaw a transformation in the way of life of the people of Bahwalpur from a desert to a pastoral way of life. He supported and encouraged the Nawab in the developing over a dozen treaties with the British, in the mutual interests of both parties. The

Princely State of Bahawalpur State of Bahawalpur was a state in the Punjab region of South Asia that existed as a sovereign polity from 1748 to 1833 and as a princely state, under subsidiary alliance with British India and later Dominion of Pakistan, from 1833 to 1955 ...

was abolished in 1955 and its people and land became part of Pakistan. Dring Stadium in Bahawalpur is named after Dring. It was a stadium ahead of its time and was the only complete stadium in Pakistan at the time.Samiuddin, Osman (2014) ''The Unquiet Ones: A History of Pakistan Cricket'', Delhi:HarperCollins Publishers India The stadium hosted a test match in the first India-Pakistan test cricket series in 1955 and was the training ground for the first Pakistan cricket team tour of England in 1954 After his tenure as Prime Minister was complete, Dring was knighted in the 1952 Queen's Birthday Honours. Like many former British residents of India, he went to Africa after Partition. In 1955, he was appointed as advisor to the

Governor of the Gold Coast This is a list of colonial administrators in the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) from the start of English presence in 1621 until Ghana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. In addition to the Gold Coast Colony, the governor of the Gold Coast ...

on possible plebiscite arrangements in

Togoland Togoland, officially the Togoland Protectorate (; ), was a protectorate of the German Empire in West Africa from 1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta Region of Ghana, approximately 90,400&nb ...

, drawing on his experiences in the transition of Bahawalpur from princely state to part of Pakistan. The plebiscite resulted in the

British Togoland British Togoland, officially the Mandate Territory of Togoland and later officially the Trust Territory of Togoland, was a territory in West Africa under the administration of the United Kingdom, which subsequently entered a union with Ghana, pa ...

being integrated into

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. In 1959 he fulfilled a similar role as advisor to the

Governor-General of Nigeria The governor-general of Nigeria was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in Colonial Nigeria from 1954 to 1960, and after Nigerian independence in 1960, the representative of the Nigerian head of state. The office was created ...

in the lead-up to the British Cameroons plebiscite. The result was the Muslim-majority Northern Cameroons voting to join

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and the Christian-majority

Southern Cameroons The Southern Cameroons was the southern part of the British League of Nations mandate territory of the British Cameroons in West Africa. Since 1961, it has been part of the Republic of Cameroon, where it makes up the Northwest Region and Southw ...

voting to join the newly independent country of

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Return to the UK

On his return to the UK, Dring was appointed a Justice of the Peace and was the Chair of the Havant Bench for several years. He was elected to the

Hampshire County Council Hampshire County Council (HCC) is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hampshire in England. The council was created in 1889. The county council provides county-level services to eleven of the thirteen districts geo ...

and finished as Chairman of the Police Authority. In 1973 he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire.

Personal life

On 12 October 1934 in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, Dring married Marjorie Wadham of the family who founded

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

. The couple had two children. After Marjorie's death in Oxford in 1943, Dring married Alice Deborah Marshall (née Cree) in Shimla in 1946. She was known as Deborah. John and Deborah Dring were two of the subjects of Charles Allen's oral histories of British India, ''Plain Tales from the Raj''. Dring died in Purbrook, Hampshire, England on 16 June 1991, aged 88 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dring, John 1902 births 1991 deaths People educated at Winchester College Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Administrators in British India Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire British Indian Army officers Prime ministers of Bahawalpur (princely state) British expatriates in Pakistan Indian Political Service officers Deputy lieutenants of Hampshire