John Inglis (civil Servant)
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John Forbes David Inglis (5 August 1820 – 13 March 1894) was an
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
civil servant, who became Chief Commissioner of Oudh in
North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...
. His disagreement with Lord Lytton's Afghan policy led to him being passed over for an expected promotion to be Governor of North West Province. He took early retirement and on his return to
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, he founded, jointly with his daughter
Elsie Inglis Eliza Maud "Elsie" Inglis (16 August 1864 – 26 November 1917) was a Scottish medical doctor, surgeon, teacher, suffragist, and founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She was the first woman to hold the Serbian Order of the White Eagl ...
, the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women. That association established the Edinburgh Medical College for Women at a time that women were not accepted into British university medical schools.


Early life

He was born on 5 August 1820, second youngest son of David Inglis and his wife Martha (née Money). David Inglis had spent most of his life in India as writer, or solicitor, for the East India Company. His father Alexander Inglis, who originated from Kingsmills, Inverness-shire, emigrated to
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
leaving his son David to be brought up in Scotland by an uncle. Inglis was tutored by Rev Dr Joseph Niblock, a well known Greek scholar and educator. He then won a place at the East India College at Haileybury, moving to study there in 1839. An incident at the school gives an interesting insight into the adolescence of a young man, described in later life as 'dedicated, pious, godly and 'honest'. On 29 May 1839, the Principal of the East India College at Haileybury, Charles Le Bas, wrote to Inglis' father: 'It is with unfeigned grief that I have to announce to you, that we have been under the afflicting necessity of rusticating your son for the remainder of the present term. You will doubtless recollect that, on a former occasion (Nov. 1838), I had the painful duty of inflicting on him ... a solemn Reprimand & Admonition, for joining a late, and very turbulent party, by which much mischief was done, and several students greatly annoyed and molested. His recent offence is, that ... he dined at an Inn at Hoddesdon, and returned to College in a state of very questionable sobriety ... '. From Haileybury College he went to Calcutta where he spent two years learning local languages before being posted as assistant magistrate to
Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...
.


Career in India

In 1847, he was transferred to Sealcote (now Sialcot) in the Punjab. By 1856, he was married with a young family and returned with them to Britain for prolonged leave. He returned alone to India in 1858 and, working under
Sir John Lawrence John Laird Mair Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence, (4 March 1811 – 27 June 1879), known as Sir John Lawrence, Bt., between 1858 and 1869, was a prominent British Imperial statesman and served as the Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869. Earl ...
, Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, was involved in some of the conflicts in the
Indian Rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...
, at
Najibabad Najibabad is a town in the Bijnor district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, located near the city of Bijnor. It is a major industrial centre and has national transport links via rail and roadways such as NH 119 and NH 74. History Nawab ...
,
Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city ...
and
Rohilkhand Rohilkhand (today Bareilly, Moradabad, Badaun and Rampur; ) is a region in the northwestern part of Uttar Pradesh, India, that is centered on the Bareilly and Moradabad divisions. It is part of the upper Ganges Plain, and is named after the ...
. He was made Commissioner of Rohilkhand and became a member of the Legislative Council of India in which capacity he moved to
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 ...
(now Kolkata) in 1873. In 1875, he was made Chief Commissioner of
Oudh State The Kingdom of Awadh (, , also Oudh State, Kingdom of Oudh, Awadh Subah, or Awadh State) was a Mughal subah, then an independent kingdom, and lastly a British protectorate in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the B ...
. As Inglis progressed up the ranks of the Indian Civil Service he could count among his personal friends
Sir William Muir Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces of British India. Life He was born ...
, foreign secretary to the Indian Government and lieutenant-governor 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 kingd ...
. Muir would later prove an influential friend in his role as Principal of the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
. He remained close to his former mentor Sir John Lawrence and agreed with his ideal that India should become a land 'thickly cultivated by a fat contented yeomanry, each riding his own horse, sitting under his own fig tree and enjoying his rude family comforts.' Lawrence had become
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 ...
in 1863. With such friends in high places and an unblemished record in India it was anticipated that Inglis would be promoted to be Governor of North Western Provinces. Yet with the change in Viceroy came a change in policy. The appointment of Lord Lytton in 1875 resulted in a harsher Imperial policy. Lytton ordered the invasion of Afghanistan which sparked the
Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dy ...
. This proved to be a brutal guerrilla war with much loss of life, and Inglis, regarded as a liberal by his superiors, found himself in disagreement with the policy and out of favour with the higher ranks of the Raj. He was passed over for this anticipated promotion and decided to retire, aged 56, and return with his family to Edinburgh, where his married daughter Amy had now settled. They sailed first to Tasmania to spend time with sons George, Hugh and Cecil who had settled there and in 1878 embarked on the journey to Edinburgh.


Personal life

On 7 February 1846, he married Harriet Lowes Thompson, one of nine daughters of George Thompson, an East India Company administrator. She was eighteen at the time of their marriage. They had six children in their 'first family' George David (b. 1847), Amy (b. 1848), Cecil (b. 1849), Hugh (b. 1851), Herbert (b. 1853) and Ernest (b. 1856). In 1856, Inglis arranged to take the family home to Britain for a period of leave of three years. This proved to be a prolonged journey which took 4 months to reach Bombay and a further 4 moths by sailing ship round Cape Hope to reach England. He was recalled early to India in 1858 because of the Indian Rebellion and returned leaving his family in Southampton. George, Hugh and Herbert were sent to school at Eton, Cecil to Uppingham and Ernest to Rugby, while Amy was looked after by relatives. Once they were settled and events in India were back to 'normal', Harriet Inglis returned to India in 1863 and they had the 'second family' of three further children, Eliza Maude (known as Elsie) (b. 1864), Eva Helen (b. 1866) and Horace (b. 1868).
Elsie Inglis Eliza Maud "Elsie" Inglis (16 August 1864 – 26 November 1917) was a Scottish medical doctor, surgeon, teacher, suffragist, and founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She was the first woman to hold the Serbian Order of the White Eagl ...
, who would become the most famous of his children, was born in the Himalayan
hill station A hill station is a touristic town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The English term was originally used mostly in Western imperialism in Asia, colonial Asia, but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by ...
town of
Naini Tal Nainital (Kumaoni language, Kumaoni: ''Naintāl''; ) is a town and headquarters of Nainital district of Kumaon division, Uttarakhand, India. It is the judicial capital of Uttarakhand, the Uttarakhand High Court, High Court of the state being ...
, in the state of
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
, When the Inglis family moved to Tasmania the Inglis girls were tutored by Miss Knott, a disciple of
Dorothea Beale Dorothea Beale LL.D. (21 March 1831 – 9 November 1906) was a suffragist, educational reformer and author. As Principal of Cheltenham Ladies' College, she became the founder of St Hilda's College, Oxford. Early and family life Dorothea Beale w ...
, a pioneer of education for women.


Edinburgh and medical education for women

In Edinburgh Inglis arranged for Elsie to attend the new
Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women The Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women was founded by Sophia Jex-Blake in Edinburgh, Scotland, in October 1886, with support from the National Association for Promoting the Medical Education of Women. Sophia Jex-Blake was appointed as both t ...
which
Sophia Jex-Blake Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake (21 January 1840 – 7 January 1912) was an English physician, teacher, and feminism, feminist. She led the campaign to secure women access to a university education, when she began studying medicine at the Universit ...
had started in 1886.Roberts, Shirley (1993)
''Sophia Jex-Blake : a woman pioneer in nineteenth century medical reform''
London: Routledge. pp. 174–179. .
OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...
br>27770044
/ref> When Elsie Inglis emerged as the leader of a group of students who rebelled against what they perceived as Jex-Blake's over severe discipline, Inglis with his daughter, formed the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women. Supporters included his former colleague Sir William Muir, now returned from India as Principal of the University of Edinburgh. The Association established the Edinburgh Medical College for Women, which opened in 1889. The influence of the Association was such that within two years they were able to endow two wards for the teaching of women medical students at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which had previously refused to allow the teaching of female students. Elsie Inglis went on to become a surgeon, a prominent figure in the suffrage movement and founded the Scottish Women's Hospitals which saw service behind front lines in the First World War. Inglis continued to write almost daily letters, full of encouragement and support, to his daughter Elsie, until his death in 1894. Over 20 years later, speaking at a large meeting at the Criterion Theatre in London in April 1916, she acknowledged the importance of his role in her life. 'If I have been able to do anything -whatever I am, whatever I have done - I owe it all to my father.' Inglis is buried in
Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...
, Edinburgh.John Forbes David Inglis, 1894; Burial, City of Edinburgh, Scotland, Dean Cemetery; citing record ID 133608890, ''Find a Grave'', http://www.findagrave.com .


References


Further reading

* Lawrence, Margot (1971) ''Shadow of Swords: A Biography of Elsie Inglis:'' London, Joseph {{DEFAULTSORT:Inglis, John 1820 births 1894 deaths British East India Company civil servants Indian Civil Service (British India) officers British people in colonial India Scottish orientalists