DAVIDSON, John. India 28.8.1845 — Menton, France (?) 9.9.1917. British Colonial Officer in India. Son of the physician Alexander D. and Mary Anne Blundell. Educated at Winchester College, joined the army in 1863 and the Punjab Cavalry in 1866. From 1875 assistant adjutant-general in Pañjab Frontier Force. Served in the Jowaki-Afridi expedition in 1877-78. Deputy assistant quarter-master-general, in the Afghan campaign 1878-79. Assistant quarter-master-general, in Waziri expedition 1880. In 1885-86 military secretary of Pañjab Government. In 1896-98 colonel on staff in Chitral. C.B. Apparently retired in 1898, as colonel. Married 1877 Anna Elliott, two daughters and one son.
Publications: “Some Notes on the Language of Chitral, and Idiomatic Sentences, and ten popular Stories”, IA 29, 1900, 214-220, 246-250.
– Notes on the Bashgali (Kafir) language. 13+195 p. JASB 71 Extra No. 1. Calcutta 1902.
– S. Konow: Bashgali dictionary: an analysis of Colonel J. Davidson’s notes on the Bashgali language. 307 p. Calcutta 1913.
Sources: Buckland, Dictionary; Who Was Who 1916–1928; nothing more in Br. Biogr. Arch. 1st & 2nd Series; no further works in the N.U.C. Some scraps of information were culled from Internet (family in wikitree.com), but the ice-hockey player and the entertainer of the same name make it almost impossible to trace our J.D. there.
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