BROADLEY, Alexander Meyrick. Bradpole, Dorset 19.7.1847 — Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire 16.4.1916. British Civil Servant and Lawyer in India. Son of Rev. Alexander Broadley, vicar of Bradpole, and Frances Jane Meyrick. Educated in Warminster and Marlborough and in Switzerland. After law studies at Lincoln’s Inn entered I.C.S. in 1869. Assistant, then Collector in Patna dt., Bihar. In 1872 accused of homosexual behaviour and lost his position. Avoiding England he lived more than ten years in Tunis working as lawyer and correspondent for The Times. He was good specialist of Muslim law and attracted attention defending the Egyptian nationalist Ahmed ‘Urabi. Then some years in London, but in 1889 a new scandal forced him again to leave England. Lived in Paris and Brussels. He returned in 1894 and entered business, but eventually was accused of fraudulence. Last years spent as a country gentleman writing and collecting books. Unmarried.

In Bihar Broadley surveyed the ruins of Nālandā in 1872. He made an important collection of drawings of sculptures, now kept in Calcutta and Patna museums.

Publications: “On the Identification of various Places in the Kingdom of Magadha, visited by the Pilgrim Chi-Fah-Hian (A.D. 400-415)”, IA 1, 1872, 18-21, 69-74, 106-110 (Faxian); “The Buddhistic Remains of Bihar”, JASB 41:1, 1872, 209-312.

– Much unrelated to India.

Sources: Not in Br. Biogr. Arch. 1st and 2nd Series, not in N.U.C.