FITZCLARENCE, George Augustus Frederick, First Earl of Munster. London 29.1.1794 — London 20.3.1842. British Officer and Traveller. Illegitimate son of William IV and Dorothea Bland (née Jordan, from Ireland). Served as officer in Napoleonic wars and 1815-18 in India. Major-General. Earl and Privy Councillor 1833. Married 1819 Mary Wyndham (1792–1842),…
FITCH, Ralph. 1550? — London (?) 1611. English Merchant and Traveller in India. In February 1583 left London with other merchants of the Levant Company (with John Newberry as leader) with the purpose of opening trade with India. They travelled through Tripolis, Aleppo (May), Baghdad and Basra to Ormuz (September),…
FIRTH, John Rupert. Keighley, Yorkshire 17.6.1890 — Linfield, Sussex 14.12.1960. British Linguist and Phonetician. Professor in London. Educated at Keighley. Studied history at Leeds University (M.A. 1913). A brief time Lecturer in History at City of Leeds Training College, then joined Indian Educational Service in 1914, just before the war.…
FINCH, William. 15?? — Baghdad ?.8.1613. British Merchant and Traveller in India. Native of London. He came to Surat with Hawkins in 1608 and had to stay there because of an illness, but joined later Hawkins in spring 1610 at Jahangir’s court and spent one and a half year in…
FIELD, Dorothy (Mrs. Norman Dudley Short). 1884 — 1968. Lady. British Writer, Musician and Woman Activist. In 1923-27 reporter for The Times Educational Supplement. She was much interested in Theosophy, but did not join the Society. Her book on Sikhism was based on Macauliffe’s work. In 1922 she married Norman…
FERGUSSON, James. Ayr 22.1.1808 — London 9.1.1886. British (Scottish) Architect and Historian of Indian architecture. Son of Dr. William F. (1773–1846), a noted army surgeon and medical author, educated at Edinburgh High School and at Hounslow. He came early to Calcutta and served at Fairlie, Fergusson & Cny, where his…
FERGUSSON, John. 17?? — Cape of God Hope 4.9.1773 (?). British Colonial Officer in India. Captain. The author of the first English Hindustani dictionary in 1773, describing the colloquial speech of soldiers for the use of officers, mixing together different forms of language (but with some preponderance of Magahī). Early…
FERGUSON, Donald William. Colombo 8.10.1853 — Croydon near London 29.6.1910. British (Scottish) Journalist and Scholar of Sri Lankan History (especially of Colonial Period). Son of —> Alastair M. F. (d. 1892) and Anne Mackerras. The father came to Ceylon in 1837, was a long time the chief proprietor and editor…
FAWCETT, Frederick. 1853 — Vienna 20.7.1926. British Civil Servant and Ethnographer in India. Served in Kerala, Superintendent of Malabar Police. Retired before 1911 as Deputy Inspector General of Police in Madras. An amateur archaeologist and anthropologist. Married. Publications: “On the Saoras (or Savaras), an Aboriginal Hill People of the Eastern…
FAWCETT, Charles Gordon Hill. Southsea, Portsmouth 28.6.1869 — Exmouth, Devon 7.3.1952. Sir. British Civil Servant and Historian of Colonial India. Son of Lieutenant-Colonel Rowland Hill F. and Eliza Rose Wood. Educated at Harrow, from 1888 studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1890 joined the I.C.S. in Bombay. In the end…