OLDHAM, Charles Evelyn Arbuthnot William. Galway 15.9.1869 — 18.11.1949. British (Irish) Scholar and Civil Servant in India. I.C.S. 1885-1919. Son of Charles Aemilius Oldham (1831–1869), a geologist working in India, and Evelyn King, nephew of —> Thomas Oldham. Educated at Galway Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1885 joined I.C.S. and went to Bengal. From 1906 Director of Agriculture, 1908 Secretary to Government in Financial and Municipial Department. From 1911 District Officer in the newly founded Province of Bihar and Orissa, then Commissioner of Patna Division. In the end Member of Board of Revenue, retired 1919. C.S.I. 1918. In 192?-31 Assistant Editor and 1931-34 Editor of the IA. In 1935-41 Honorary secretary and 1941-49 Honorary Vice-President of R.A.S. Mainly interested in languages (Maithilī, Magahī and Bhojpuri), ethnology and archaeology of Bihar.
Publications: Edited: “The Journal of Dr. Francis Buchanan (afterwards Buchanan Hamilton) from the first November 1812 to the 26th February 1813, when carrying out his Survey of the District Shahabad”, JBORS 11:3-4, 1925, 1-392; Journal of Francis Buchanan kept during the Survey of the District of Bhagalpur in 1810-11. Ed. with notes and introd. by C. E. A. W. Oldham. 259+40 p. Patna 1930.
– “Sir Aurel Stein, 1862–1943”, Proc. Br. Acad. 29, 1945, 20 p.
– Numerous reviews in the JRAS; administrative writings.
Sources: E.H.C. Walsh, JRAS 1950, 102f.; briefly Who Was Who 1941–1950; Wikipedia with photo; not in D.I.B.
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