Sir Percival Joseph Griffiths

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

CIE (15 January 1899 – 14 July 1992) was a prominent businessman who also worked for the

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 ...

Career

Griffiths passed M.A from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. A large part of his service career was spent in eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Griffiths took the charge of District Magistrate of undivided

Medinipur Medinipur or Midnapore is a city known for its history in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the West Medinipur district. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River (variously known as ''Kasai'' and ''Cossye''). ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

in 1933. He retired from the service in 1937 while deputy commissioner in

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a city in the northernmost region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the Koshi Pr ...

. Apart from his working knowledge in European languages, he was fluent in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and also knew

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

, Nepalese, and

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 ...

. After retirement he stayed in

and acted as representative for European businesses. He was knighted in 1947 and became adviser to the Indian and Pakistan Tea Association.

Books

He was a prolific writer and pamphleteer. Some of his prominent publications include: * ''The British Impact on India'' (1952) * ''Modern India'' (1957) * ''The History of the Indian Tea Industry'' (1967) * ''To Guard my People'' (1971) * ''A Licence to Trade: the History of the English Chartered Companies'' (1974) * ''A History of the Inchcape Group'' (1977) * ''Vignettes of India'' (1985)

References

External links

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
* The archive papers of Percival Griffiths are held b
SOAS Special Collections
1899 births 1992 deaths British people in colonial India Indian Civil Service (British India) officers British writers Businesspeople from Cambridge Knights_Commander_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{British-Empire-stub