India In Edinburgh: 1750s to the Present [1° ed.] 0367204037, 9780367204037

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India in Edinburgh

India in Edinburgh: 1750s to the Present, as the title suggests, is an extremely fascinating book. The Editor of the volume, Roger Jeffery has brought together 10 original, well-researched and well-written essays which bring to life the presence of India in the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh. On the surface Edinburgh is a purely Scottish city: its ‘India’ past is not easily visible. Yet, from the late 17th century onwards, many of Edinburgh’s young men and women were drawn to India. The city received back money and knowledge, sculpture and paintings, botanical specimens and even skulls! Colonel James Skinner, well-known for establishing Skinner’s Horse, brought his sons to Edinburgh for their schooling. Though Sir Walter Scott visited India only in his imagination (and tried to stop his own sons going there) he crafted a dashing India tale involving Tipu Sultan. The money from India helped create Edinburgh’s New Town, Edinburgh’s internationally-renowned schools (whose former pupils careers ranged from tea-planters to Viceroys) and people who came to Edinburgh from India established Edinburgh’s second women’s medical college. There are many such hidden stories of Edinburgh’s India connections. In this pathbreaking book they are brought to life, using novel approaches to look at Edinburgh’s past, to see it as an imperial city, a city for which India held a special place. Focussing on the interactions between individual lives, social networks and financial, material, cultural and social flows, leading experts from Edinburgh’s history provide fascinating detail on how Edinburgh’s links to India were formed and transformed.

Roger Jeffery is Professor of Sociology of South Asia at the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught since 1972. He has written widely on aspects of north Indian society, based on intensive fieldwork in villages north-east of Delhi, as well as on health policy in South Asia. Among his edited collections are volumes on social aspects of forestry, women’s education and fertility, aspects of contemporary Uttar Pradesh, and processes of marginalisation of ethnic and religious minorities in India. His current work focuses on the footprint of India in Edinburgh; with Hauke Wiebe he has developed two on-line walking tours (accessed through curiousedinburgh.org), featuring Indian connections in the city.

India in Edinburgh 1750s to the Present

Edited by

Roger Jeffery

First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Roger Jeffery; individual chapters, the contributors; and Social Science Press The right of Roger Jeffery to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-20403-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-32688-2 (ebk) Typeset in Minion Pro by Manmohan Kumar, Delhi 110035

Contents

Preface & Acknowledgements Contributor biographies List of Tables List of Maps and Illustrations 1. Introduction – India in Edinburgh: 1750s to the Present Roger Jeffery and Duncan Money

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2. The Benefits to Edinburgh and Leith from East India Company Connections: c. 1725–c. 1834 George McGilvary

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3. Orientalist collecting of Indian sculpture Friederike Voigt

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4. India associations in Scotland’s National Galleries: From Tipu to the Trenches and Simla to Surrealism Anne Buddle

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5. A history of Indian collections at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh: In 22 Objects Henry J. Noltie

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6. The Skull Room: Craniological past of Edinburgh and India Ian Harper and Roger Jeffery

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7. Edinburgh schools: Suppliers of men for Imperial India in the long 19th century Hauke Wiebe and Roger Jeffery

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8. Edinburgh University, the Indian Civil Service and the ‘Competition-Wallahs’ Avril A. Powell

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9. Medical Education for Women in Edinburgh: The India Connection, 1869–1914 Roger Jeffery 10. Afterword: An Indian in Edinburgh Bashabi Fraser Appendix: Some prominent Edinburgh families with Indian connections Index

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228 239

Preface and Acknowledgements

I2013. Having spent most of my academic career studying India from

FIRST CONSIDERED A PROJECT TO INVESTIGATE ‘EDINBURGH: AN INDIAN CITY?’ IN

Edinburgh, I wanted to reverse the telescope and look at how India had affected the city where I have lived for over 40 years. From a casual glance, Edinburgh might seem to have few connections to South Asia: its ‘India’ past is easily missed. On digging a little below that surface, however, it became increasingly clear that to do so would be a mistake. Many young men and (later) women born or educated in Edinburgh were drawn to India or had thought about India as a fertile field for missionary endeavour or for jobs. They established multi-dimensional flows, with India as an important source of money, ideas, scientific specimens, curios and art objects: it has been a key part of the imagined and material worlds of the city’s inhabitants. As the India project developed, and this book shows, I have been lucky to find other enthusiasts who have shared their knowledge about sculpture and paintings, botanical specimens, schools, and the lives of Edinburgh’s ‘India-returned’. Money from India helped create and sustain Edinburgh’s New Town and Edinburgh’s internationally-renowned University and schools, whose former pupils’ careers included tea-planters as well as Viceroys. Even those who did not leave were affected: the 19th century author Sir Walter Scott visited India only in his imagination, but he crafted three novels with India themes. Edinburgh’s other famous 19th century author, Robert Louis Stevenson, had three maternal uncles who worked in India; he played with his ‘Indian’ cousins surrounded by Indian curios at his grandparents’ house. I am grateful to many people for their assistance in getting this far. Hauke Wiebe has been a constant source of support and enthusiasm, and his encyclopaedic collection of information on Edinburgh continually throws up new India-related gems to be cherished. All the other authors

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of this volume have also willingly and cheerfully contributed their time, energy and their specialist knowledge on different parts of the IndiaEdinburgh relationship to help make the volume, I hope, much more than the sum of its parts. Professor Margret Frenz provided important inputs at the beginning of the process that led to this work, and Dr Zahra Shah offered some very helpful suggestions on the Introductory chapter. We are grateful to the excellent archivists and librarians in Edinburgh who have provided help when needed, often beyond the call of duty, especially those in the National Library of Scotland, the University of Edinburgh’s Special Collections, the National Museums Scotland, the National Galleries Scotland, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Those beyond Edinburgh are too numerous to mention. We are also grateful for permission to reproduce the illustrations that appear in the book: to National Museums Scotland, National Galleries Scotland, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Royal Society of Edinburgh, David Cheskin, the University of Edinburgh Library Special Collections, University of Edinburgh, and the Great Scottish Tapestry Charitable Trust. If you like this book and want more information, please consult the web-pages at https://www.ed.ac.uk/india-institute/india-in-edinburgh and follow the two on-line walking tours of Edinburgh that Hauke and I developed, at www.curiousedinburgh.org. Map1 in the Illustrations at the end of the volume shows the locations of some of the more important locations mentioned in the book (Fig. 1). Roger Jeffery, Edinburgh, January 2019

Biographies of contributors

Roger Jeffery is Professor of Sociology of South Asia at the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught since 1972. He has written widely on aspects of north Indian society, based on intensive fieldwork in villages north-east of Delhi, as well as on health policy in South Asia. Among his edited collections are volumes on social aspects of forestry, women’s education and fertility, aspects of contemporary Uttar Pradesh, and processes of marginalisation of ethnic and religious minorities in India. His current work focuses on the footprint of India in Edinburgh; with Hauke Wiebe he has developed two on-line walking tours (accessed through curiousedinburgh.org), featuring Indian connections in the city. Duncan Money is a Post-doctoral Fellow of the International Studies Group, University of the Free State. He was awarded his D.Phil. in 2016 from the University of Oxford for his thesis on a social history of white migrants on the Zambian Copperbelt. His research focuses on connections and migration between mining regions in and around the British Empire and has been published in the International Review of Social History and the Labour History Review. George K. McGilvary is an Honorary Post-doctoral Fellow of the Scottish Centre of Diaspora Studies, University of Edinburgh. Major works include a biography of Laurence Sulivan MP (1713–86); a monograph dealing with East India Company (EIC) Patronage, the Scottish Elite and the British state in the Eighteenth Century. Further publications contend with Scottish-EIC connections, EIC patronage and the impact of Scottish nabobs on Scotland. Others analyse the commercial activities of the Scottish elite in Scotland, London, South-East Asia and China. Friederike Voigt is senior curator of the Middle Eastern and South Asian collections at National Museums Scotland. Her research focuses on Iranian

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material culture and museum practices of collecting. In her exhibition ‘Indian Encounters’ (2014–15) she explored artefacts as evidence of people’s fortunes in the changing relationships between Great Britain and India during the 18th and 19th centuries. Her interest in the questions of identity and cultural heritage have inspired collaborations with artists and commissions of artworks such as ‘Casualty of war: A portrait of Maharaja Duleep Singh’ by British-Sikh artists The Singh Twins. Current projects include a study of the influence of Scottish Enlightenment ideas on the production of colonial knowledge in India. Anne Buddle was a Curator at the V&A, and Registrar from 1993 at the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS). She curated ‘Tigers round the Throne’ (Zamana Gallery, London 1990); ‘The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India, 1760–1800’; (NGS, 1999), both with publications, and ‘Indian Interlude’ (NGS 1997). She is now NGS Collection Advisor and continues to identify and develop Collection links with India. Henry Noltie worked from 1986 to 2017 as a curator and taxonomist at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh of which he is now a Research Associate. For 14 years he worked on the Flora of Bhutan project, of which he wrote two of the volumes. From 2000 his work was on historical aspects of the herbarium and illustrations collections of the RBGE, especially relating to India, which combined nomenclatural research with historical and art-history studies and the mounting of exhibitions at Inverleith House. This resulted in a series of publications on Scottish East India Company surgeons, and the botanical drawings they commissioned from Indian artists in the late 18th and early 19th century. The last of the Indian monographs consisted of three volumes on the collections of Hugh Cleghorn (1820–95), a pioneering Forest Conservator, but also the source of one of the largest groups of botanical drawings and many important books in the RBGE collection. Ian Harper is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh and is currently the recipient of a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Grant. Among his recent publications are Development and Public Health in the Himalaya: Reflections on healing in Contemporary Nepal. Routledge, London, 2014; and Ian Harper, Toby Kelly and Akshay Khanna (eds) The Clinic and the Court, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015. Hauke Wiebe divides his time between information management for the civil service and guiding tourists all over Scotland: both are fields of his

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passion and expertise. He started working on oral history in Calcutta in 2002 and has been researching the subject of Edinburgh-India relations in libraries, archives and on the ground in both Scotland and India since 2011. He has been an Honorary Fellow of the Edinburgh India Institute since 2012. Avril A Powell is Reader Emerita in the History Department at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. Her work has been mainly on the socio-religious history of South Asia. Publications include a monograph, Scottish Orientalists and India: The Muir Brothers, Religion, Education and Empire (The Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2010). She is currently researching the National Indian Association’s strategies for the education of Indian women in the late nineteenth-century. Bashabi Fraser is a poet, children’s writer, translator and editor. Her publications include Raga & Reels (2012), Scots Beneath the Banyan Tree: Stories from Bengal (2012), From the Ganga to the Tay (2009), Bengal Partition Stories: an unclosed chapter (2006), Tartan & Turban (2004) and A Meeting of Two Minds: The Geddes–Tagore letters (2005). She is joint director of the Scottish Centre of Tagore studies and taught English and creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University until September 2018.

List of Tables

1.1:

People reported as born in India or Ceylon in census returns for Edinburgh, 1851–1901

7.1:

Summary data on the involvement of former pupils with India 7.2: Boys aged 6–18, born in India, living in Edinburgh and its immediate suburbs, by census year 1871–1901 and residential arrangements 7.3a: Careers of former pupils in India, early 19th century 7.3b: Careers of former pupils in India, middle to late 19th century 7.3c: Careers of former pupils in India, early 20th century 7.4: Men from the Cadell family educated at the Edinburgh Academy, 1824–1914 9.1:

9.2:

People reported as ‘medical student,’ ‘student of medicine’ or similar, Edinburgh, 1881, 1891 and 1901 Censuses, by country of birth and sex Ethnicity of names of India-born medical students in Edinburgh, 1881, 1891 and 1901

16 139 141

142 142 143 148 196

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List of Maps and Illustrations

1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12:

13:

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Map of Edinburgh, c. 1890 Map of Edinburgh’s environs Main Gallery, Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, 1884 Figure of Avalokiteshvara, north-east India, 10th–11th century, National Museums Scotland Marble leogryph (vyalaka), Chandravati, India, 14th century, National Museums Scotland Figure of Indra, Java, 8th–9th century, National Museums Scotland Marble image of Vishnu, India, early 19th century, National Museums Scotland Silhouette portrait of Lord Minto, National Galleries of Scotland Photograph of Indian Troops Marching, Princes Street, Edinburgh, by John Moffat, National Galleries of Scotland Mughal drawing, Untitled (composite camel), National Galleries of Scotland Specimen of butterfly pea (Clitorea ternatea) collected in India in 1700, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Watercolour of sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), by an unknown artist, Shimoga, 1846, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Specimen of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), grown from seed collected in 1866, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Photograph of the skull room, Anatomy Museum, University of Edinburgh Drawings of Tibetan Skull, 1907, Royal Society of Edinburgh

250 251 251 252 252 253 253 254 254 255 255 256

256

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Etching of boys playing in front of the Edinburgh Academy, 1823–1836 Photograph of plaque to John Gilchrist, Heriot’s College Portrait of Principal Sir William Muir, 1896, University of Edinburgh Cartoon of Principal Sir William Muir, 1903. University of Edinburgh Portrait of Elsie Inglis, Great Scottish Tapestry, stitched in 2016 by Fiona Kirton, Jo Macrae and Deborah Ramage

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1 India in Edinburgh 1750s to the Present Roger Jeffery and Duncan Money

Introduction Who in India or Algeria today can confidently separate out the British or French component of the past from presenting actualities and who in Britain or France can draw a clear circle around British London or French Paris that would exclude the impact of India and Algeria upon these two imperial cities? (Said 1993: 19)

Ecultural treasures and inhabitants have been thoroughly imbued with DINBURGH IS AN IMPERIAL CITY. ITS BUILT ENVIRONMENT, INSTITUTIONS, HISTORY,

Britain’s imperial connections. This is especially true of Edinburgh’s lengthy, on-going engagement with India, the subject of this volume. The impact of this connection has been persistently under-appreciated, and the implications of Edward Said’s stimulus has not percolated very far into histories and understandings of Edinburgh. In taking seriously Said’s question, this volume aims to provide new understandings of Edinburgh’s history and the significance of India’s place within it. It should be noted at the outset that this volume does not focus on the presence of people of South Asian origin living in Edinburgh, on which much has already been written (e.g. Nye 2013). Shompa Lahiri (2000: 137– 40) describes the tussle at the beginning of the 20th century over control of the Edinburgh Indian Association, the first association of Indian students in Britain. Edinburgh attracted many Indian medical students from the 1880s until the first World War, and they formed most of those people of Indian origin living in the city up to the 1960s. While relationships between Indian students and other city residents were generally peaceful on the surface – and some led to marriages with local women – a dispute arose in the 1920s when Indian students were refused admission to restaurants and dance halls. This was aired in the House of Commons in 1927 and

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the debate revealed racist attitudes towards the Indian students as well as some support for their cause (Mukherjee 2010: 59; Scotsman 1 June 1927). In recent times, and compared to Glasgow or Dundee, Edinburgh does not have a large South Asian origin population. In general, Edinburgh residents are probably no more welcoming to South Asians than those in other parts of Scotland or the UK (but see Chapter 10 of this volume). We return to this at the end of this opening chapter. ‘Edinburgh in India’ has been well-studied. Edinburgh played several key roles in the growth of the (English) East India Company (EIC) into the dominant imperial power in the Indian sub-continent by the middle of the eighteenth century, when the EIC was transformed from its trading origins into an institution that, by 1858, directly governed two-thirds of the land area and three-quarters of the population and indirectly controlled the rest. Scots played a crucial role in this process. It is well-known that they were over-represented in the Indian army, among officers, civil servants, doctors and other scientists, missionaries, teachers and some parts of the commercial operations that developed (Bryant 1985). Within this relationship, Edinburgh provided a node that operated in two directions. Until recruitment to the EIC was opened up on the basis of merit, Scots from throughout the country came to Edinburgh for school and university education, for medical training, and to curry favour with those whose influence might get them valuable – but very risky – positions as Company servants of one kind or another. While some died before they returned from India and others settled elsewhere in Britain on their return, many diligently maintained links with Edinburgh. They wrote about their experiences, in letters and journals, some of which were published (often by the big Edinburgh publishing houses), while others remained in private circulation, among friends, families, kirk missionary societies or scientific associations. Their acquired wealth transformed parts of the city and its institutions. Some of those who returned came to Edinburgh, not only for a few years of quiet retirement but often also to engage in commercial activities, political and academic debate and social reform. Others brought or sent back riches of a different kind – collections of art, archaeological prizes, the spoils of war and commerce conducted on unequal terms, or explorers’ reports and scientific specimens that were used for teaching or as examples to fuel intellectual debates in the University, the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, or – after 1884 – the Scottish Geographical Society. These institutions had, and continue to maintain, strong links with Indians trained or otherwise connected with Edinburgh members; for example, 43 Fellows of the Royal

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Society, and 26 honorary degree-holders from the University have Indian names, eleven of the latter since 2010. The links between Edinburgh and India in the long nineteenth century thus provide an apt and revealing contribution to the contemporary refocusing of imperial history. Historical understandings of Scotland and of British cities have increasingly considered the imperial and global influences on their development and daily lives, but none of this local turn has examined the history of Edinburgh. Moreover, while the contribution of Scotland and Scottish people to British imperialism is widely accepted by historians, the influence of this imperial contribution on Scotland itself – and in particular, of specific parts of the Empire at different periods in different ways on different cities – has yet to be appreciated. Edinburgh is not only a ‘Scottish’ city but, in some important ways, an ‘Indian’ one. In this Introduction we attempt to justify these claims about the relative absence of India from the histories of Edinburgh and of Scotland, as well as of Edinburgh’s absence from accounts of imperial cities. What follows is an overview of India’s involvement in the development of Edinburgh, providing a context for the rest of this book, concluding with a brief overview of the sequence of chapters and how they relate to each other.

Histories of Edinburgh Existing histories of Edinburgh have hardly considered the impact of imperial or other non-European influences on the city’s development. When mentioned at all, imperial influences are often treated in a cursory or even dismissive manner. The only mention of India in Michael Fry’s history of Edinburgh, for instance, is an unsourced claim that the Indian connection contributed to heavy drug consumption in the city as opiate drugs ‘arrived with Scots who had served in India’ (Fry 2010: 337). In part this reflects the dearth of academic interest in nineteenth century Edinburgh. Much of what has been written about the city focuses on the eighteenth century, which is usually regarded as being more important in the city’s history. This is made explicit in Robert Houston’s work on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Edinburgh where he argued that ‘both the appearance and the social values of nineteenth-century Edinburgh were made during the years between c.1720 and c.1760 (Houston 1994: 12).1 Robert Morris and Graeme Morton call this ‘the Edinburgh problem’ 1 Houston’s major study of eighteenth century Edinburgh has no counterpart for the nineteenth century.

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and argue that Glasgow increasingly dominates Scottish historiography after 1800 (Morris and Morton 1994: 94). The histories of Edinburgh which do exist largely place developments in the city firmly within a Scottish context, a tendency perhaps expressed most clearly in Alexander Youngson’s influential The Making of Classical Edinburgh (1966). Youngson begins his original preface by claiming that Edinburgh ‘owes its singular character to the late and sudden flowering of Scottish culture’, and that ‘Edinburgh is the visible expression’ of a distinctively Scottish post-eighteenth-century history (Youngson 1988: ix). In the preface to the 1988 edition, he does concede there might have been some wider influences, namely it is ‘not unlikely’ that the Enlightenment and influential men returning from Italy and Italian landscape painting could have inspired Edinburgh’s New Town (Youngson 1988: xiii-xiv). There is little on international links in the book, however, and why someone might have named India Street from 1819–23 or India Place in 1823 passes without comment (Youngson 1988: 208, 214). Subsequent historical work has continued in a similar manner and has emphasized first and foremost influences of Scotland on Edinburgh, along with a supporting, though less important, role for European developments. The volume on urban change in Edinburgh and Glasgow from 1730–1830 edited by Thomas Markus with Honor Mulholland examines the effects of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution on urban development in Edinburgh and Glasgow, but the essays in it primarily ‘explore the significance of certain Scottish developments’ (Markus and Mulholland 1982: 6). George Gordon’s edited volume is even clearer, tracing a distinctively Scottish urban experience and placing nineteenth and twentieth-century Edinburgh in a comparative framework with only Aberdeen, Glasgow and Dundee. Essays on a disparate range of topics, including poverty, literature, residential segregation, architecture, politics and conservation, say little on influences from outside Britain (Gordon 1985). More recent work continues in the same vein, giving primacy to developments within Scotland. Richard Rodger’s The Transformation of Edinburgh is one of the few works dealing explicitly with Edinburgh in the nineteenth century, though the book ranges from the 1590s to 1914. Rodger is interested in how legal and institutional structures shaped Edinburgh. He stresses the role of the ‘distinctive elements of Scottish society [which] became more deeply embedded’ after the Act of Union in 1707. Urban development and change in Edinburgh are seen as closely related to dynamics within Scotland and England (Rodger 2001: 12–13,

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507). Rodger’s chapter on the nineteenth century in the 2005 edited collection Edinburgh: The Making of a Capital City follows the same argument, as does the other chapter on the nineteenth century in this collection by Lou Rosenburg and Jim Johnson on the Old Town (Rodger 2005; Rosenburg and Johnson 2005). Developments within Edinburgh and Scotland and their influence on the production of the particular characteristics of Edinburgh are explored, but there is no interest in the role of influences from outwith Scotland. Even where the international connections of Edinburgh in the nineteenth century are brought in, the focus tends to be on European connections. John Lowrey, for instance, examines the links between Edinburgh’s development, classical Greek ideas and landscape paintings (Lowrey 2001). Lowrey touches on some individuals who propagated the idea of Edinburgh as the ‘Athens of the North’ after returning to the city after travelling in Italy and Greece, but the same line of argument could be made for those who sojourned in India before coming to live in Edinburgh – who quite possibly numbered as many as those who undertook Grand Tours. Similarly, Sian Reynolds used Edinburgh’s French connections to contest the idea that Edinburgh was, culturally, in the doldrums in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Reynolds 2007). She unpicks how Edinburgh’s intellectual climate, buildings and art were influenced by connections with Paris. There is little on India in the book – perhaps because Indian influences were almost entirely visible within buildings, rather than in their external design.2 In parenthesis we note that one of the key figures Reynolds identifies as making and sustaining the connections between Edinburgh and Paris – Patrick Geddes – was not only a Francophile but also had a deep interest in India, spending several years living in Bombay before moving to the South of France and continuing to communicate extensively with Rabindranath Tagore (Fraser 2005, Chapter 10 in this volume). There appear to be no substantive references to Indian influences on Edinburgh in the existing literature. Similarly, histories of significant institutions in Edinburgh have been examined within a Scottish context, with international influences left unexplored (see, for example, Prior, 1998, on the National Gallery). So, in his history of the formation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783, Steven Shapin argued that it was ‘the result of a complex nexus of local political, social and institutional forces’ (Shapin 1974: 36). Even more surprisingly, Elspeth Lochhead attributed the success 2 We are grateful to Clare Sorensen, of Historic Environment Scotland, for this insight.

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of the Scottish Geographical Society (SGS) in the late nineteenth century, to ‘the general intellectual climate in Scotland’ and did not dwell on the possibility that international connections encouraged the formation of a society dedicated to geography (Lochhead 1984: 79). This is a strange oversight, given that the Society’s opening address was given by Henry Morton Stanley, the explorer of Africa, and that there was also a strong interest in Asia. Freeman’s account of the early years of the SGS notes that the ‘scramble for Africa’ was only one expression of the imperialism of the later period, which included colonial expansion and actual settlement across the globe (Freeman 1984: 56). The overlap of missionary activity, ‘India-returned’ and interest in mapping is obvious from the membership of the SGS committees – dominated by Edinburgh residents – as well as from the topics discussed in its meetings.3 Histories of Edinburgh, then, in the sources they cite for influences on its development, have tended to be parochial – even if the city itself was not. As a part of a nation heavily imbricated in the collective British Imperial endeavour, it could hardly be otherwise.

Scotland and empire The international dimensions of Scottish history have provoked a longstanding interest, mainly because of Scotland’s history of migration, but the historiography of Edinburgh has lagged behind that of Scotland more generally. Scotland, along with Ireland and Norway, sent out proportionately more emigrants than any other part of Western Europe during the nineteenth century (Devine 2012: 87). Histories of Scotland in an imperial and global context have focused heavily on this migration, with the bulk of the historiographical attention following the migrants themselves. This is part of a wider trend, as Robert Bickers has noted: just as the white settler societies ‘garnered the largest share of empire migration, they have also received the largest share of scholarly attention’ (Bickers 2010: 2).4 Consequently, the historical experience of Scottish migrants in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is well-documented 3 See the early issues of the Scottish Geographical Magazine. In the first two years of its publication, as well as many papers on African and Scottish topics, four dealt with India and its borders. 4 This edited collection contains a chapter by David Washbrook on the British community in India from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. It is a good illustration of how the British World perspective obscures the specific and often different historical experiences of Scottish migrants.

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(the literature is vast, but see Ray 2005 and Prentis 2008). A recent addition to the literature that focuses on Scotland and Africa has the apparent attraction of offering a look at both ends of the connection, though most of the chapters focus almost exclusively on Scotland in Africa, and the book has little to say on the reverse (Adogame and Lawrence 2014). Much of this literature is primarily concerned with the impact of Scottish settlers on their new locales or about their notions of identity (see, for example, Bueltmann 2011; McNabb and Rider 2006; Devine and McCarthy 2017). Less is known about how the experiences of these migrants, many of whom retained connections or returned to Scotland, affected Scotland itself, apart from how this involvement might have affected Scottish integration into a British state project. The role of India within this process of imperial expansion has been highlighted, because the EIC was used as a patronage system to benefit Scots during the eighteenth century and to quell discontent with Scotland’s incorporation into the Union (McGilvary 2008). By the early nineteenth century, several different groups of Scots had embraced a British national identity as a result of their engagement in Empire (Colley 1992). This work has emphasised how involvement in British imperial expansion shaped national identity in Scotland and how Scottish identity endured and changed in colonial settings (Forsyth 1997; MacKenzie 2011). Christopher Whatley provides a good account of these attachments to the homeland in his book on how emigrants played leading roles in keeping alive the memory of Robert Burns (Whatley 2016). Accounts of these engagements have often involved a warmly celebratory slant on the Scottish contribution to the British Empire. For instance, James Parker acknowledged that his chapter on Scottish economic activities in India ‘has been concerned primarily with the positive aspects of Scottish involvement in the economic development of India’ (Parker 1985: 216). The impact of Scottish people and Scottish ideas on other parts of the world, including India, appears to be well-understood. But the relationship between the imperial experience and the domestic history of Scotland remains under-explored. Morris and Morton noted this already in 1994: ‘although we have considerable knowledge of the Scots abroad, we are not so well-informed about the effects of this diaspora on Scotland itself ’ (Morris and Morton 1994: 92–93). Two decades later this was still the case: Tom Devine began one of his 2012 works by noting that although there was a considerable literature on Scots overseas ‘much less attention has been given to how expanding settlements overseas were crucial to Scotland’s own national history’ (Devine 2012: xiii-xiv). This may be because the

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influence of Scottish overseas settlement on Scotland has been subsumed by the ‘British World’ debate, which emphasized the connections between settler societies and Britain and called for metropole and settler colonies to be considered in a single unit of analysis (see, for example, Darwin 2012). It is easy to see how a perspective that stressed a shared sense of Britishness, and one that has been very influential since the early 2000s, could overlook a distinct sense of Scottish migrants and sojourners influencing Scotland (MacKenzie 2008). Some work has looked at how imperial civil servants and settlers from different nations in the British Isles interacted variably with the British Empire, but this remains relatively limited compared to the wider literature on the British World (see, for example, Jones and Jones 2003). Two historians have, however, produced substantial and very influential work on the links between Scottish imperial history and Scotland in the nineteenth century: John MacKenzie and Tom Devine. For both men, this is part of a much wider historical output. Fittingly, together they produced a major effort to connect domestic and imperial Scottish history from the eighteenth to the twentieth-centuries: Scotland and the British Empire (MacKenzie and Devine 2011). Devine’s 2012 book on the ‘Scots diaspora’ also contains substantial sections on the nineteenth century. He contends that Scots were ‘a global people’; that their spread was ‘never limited to the formal empire as migrants and adventurers’; and the book is replete with examples of Scots in other imperial spaces, including India (Devine 2012: xiii). He suggests there are useful comparisons to be made between the experience of Scots in different parts of the world and at different times, pointing to a potential parallel between Scottish men in nineteenth-century India, and Scottish sojourners in eighteenth-century Bengal and the Caribbean ‘who also endeavoured to come home as soon as a fortune had been made’ (Devine 2012: 83). Indeed, not only parallels: David Deas Inglis, father of John Forbes David Inglis and grandfather of Elsie Inglis (see Chapter 9) was born in South Carolina, on a slave estate established by his father, and (after education in England) went to India in 1796. Devine’s book contains a scattering of references to India and to Scottish soldiers, businessmen, financiers, civil servants and missionaries there, though these are necessarily brief in such an ambitious and wideranging work. Nonetheless, he provides life histories of two men whose careers in India opened manifold opportunities to acquire power and wealth who then returned to Britain and used their financial clout in politics and commerce. William Jardine (1784–1843) and James Matheson

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(1796–1878) were Scottish founders of the massive conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings. Both men were educated at Edinburgh University, then utilized family connections to secure jobs in India, where they quickly became wealthy through the opium trade with China. Both became involved in national life when they returned to Britain: Jardine became an MP for Ashburton in Devon while maintaining a country estate in Perthshire and an upmarket address in London, and Matheson became an MP for Ross and Cromarty, in which capacity he was skewered by Disraeli in Sybil (MacKenzie and Devine 2011: 79–83). Snapshots such as these provide an example of how the lives of many prominent Scots were thoroughly imbued with Indian connections. The point here is a wider one, however. If it is true of Scotland that it ‘is no longer sustainable’ to ‘separate domestic from imperial history’ (MacKenzie and Devine 2011: 4), then such a view should equally apply to the history of Edinburgh.

Imperial cities Alongside the development in the histories of Scotland, parallel trends are evident in the histories of cities in Britain and Europe. Historians have an increasing awareness of and interest in the imperial connections of cities, and the impact of these connections on the cities. In the last two decades, historians of different Europeans cities have made common claims that the imperial dimension of these cities has been under-appreciated or overlooked. A similar claim could be made about Edinburgh. Significantly, however, this historiography does not include any consideration of Edinburgh, although there has been work on other cities in Scotland. The greater appreciation of the imperial connections of urban spaces, at least among English-speaking historians, dates to the early 1990s. In 1990 Anthony D. King noted that there was, at that time, little awareness in the history of urbanization in Britain that this urbanization had occurred as part of wider international processes (King 1990b: 69). The framework for the history of British cities was still firmly a national one and kept apart from the histories of ‘third world’ cities. The significant question, for the present volume at least, which King raised was: whether the real development of London or Manchester can be understood without reference to India, Africa, and Latin America any more than can the development of Kingston (Jamaica) or Bombay be understood with reference to the former (King 1990b: 78).

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Historians increasingly came to flesh out and substantiate these theoretical claims. Felix Driver and John Gilbert’s edited volume Imperial Cities, for example, begins with a declaration that ‘the form, use and representation of modern European cities have been shaped by the global history of imperialism in ways that continue to matter’ (Driver and Gilbert 1999: 3). Their volume includes six chapters on London as well as chapters on Rome, Paris, Vienna, Marseilles, Seville and Glasgow. That there are six chapters on London in Imperial Cities is unsurprising: London has attracted the greatest interest from English-speaking historians examining imperial connections. Jonathan Schneer devotes an entire book to examining the global connections of London in just one year, 1900, where he makes a strong case that such connections are vital to understanding London: imperialism was central to the city’s character in 1900, apparent in its workplaces, its venues of entertainment, its physical geography, its very skyline; apparent, too, in the attitudes of Londoners themselves (Schneer 1999: 13).

In his book Global Cities (King 1990a), King selects London to fleshout the arguments he makes in Urbanism, Colonialism, and the World Economy, and he notes in Global Cities that his earlier work on urbanization in India prompted him to investigate imperial influences on British cities (King 1990a: xi). Other port cities come next after London, for historians interested in imperial connections, for obvious reasons. MacKenzie’s chapter on Glasgow in Imperial Cities argues that ‘Scots negotiated their identity in relation to the worldwide connections of empire’ and supports this by pointing to the plethora of imperial connections in terms of commerce, migrants, missionaries, imperial exhibitions, art galleries and intellectual societies from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries (MacKenzie 1999: 233). His argument that the imperial dimension has been ignored is repeated in a volume on the imperial past of Liverpool, where the editors complain that this past has been overlooked because it is ‘inconvenient’ (Haggerty, Webster and White 2008). The book covers a broadly similar period to the one covered in this book on Edinburgh – from the mideighteenth century to the 1970s – and four chapters cover the influence of empire on Liverpool through imperial exhibitions, migrants and African objects in Liverpool’s museums. In the concluding chapter John MacKenzie compares Liverpool to Glasgow.

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But other Scottish cities had global links apart from Glasgow. For Dundee, Stewart (1993) provides an introduction, but of particular interest is Anthony Cox’s book on the relationship between Dundee and Calcutta generated by the jute industry (Cox 2013). Cox is mainly interested in class formation, industrial developments and political radicalism in both places, and his work supports an argument that involvement in India helped constitute aspects of Scottish society. Cox’s main contribution is to tease out how Calcutta influenced Dundee by providing methods of social control developed and tested in Calcutta and then deployed to pacify ‘the perpetually obstreperous lower classes of Dundee’ (Cox 2013: 7). Finally, there has also been some work on the global connections of Aberdeen by John Hargreaves, as part of a series marking the 500th anniversary of the foundation of its University (Hargreaves 1994).5 Academic interest in the impact of Scotland’s imperial connections has also addressed the impact on some rural areas of Scotland, mostly in the form of skilled or elite sojourners returning ‘home with enough capital to remedy the lack of material or social status that had prompted their emigration in the first place’ (Mackillop 2005: 234). Such ‘nabobs’, as they were pejoratively known by contemporaries, often sought to use wealth generated in India to acquire or revive landed estates (Mackillop 2005; Grant and Mutch 2015) or, occasionally, to use the funds for broader community projects (Grosjean 2005). Much of this work, however, focuses on the eighteenth century (McGilvary 2012); in Chapter 2 of this volume, George McGilvary takes the story into the early nineteenth century, with a focus on those who came to Edinburgh and its hinterland. By the end of the century, patterns were very different, reflecting the bureaucratization of empire. What is abundantly clearly, then, is that while historians of Scotland are fully aware of the role of Scots abroad, they have so far been less willing to investigate the role of ‘abroad’ in Scotland’s own development as a nation across the long nineteenth century. Even where this has taken place, the case of Edinburgh is conspicuous by its absence. This may be a result of definitions of imperial cities: Driver and Gilbert, for example, offer a variety of phrases, decrying the previous focus on ‘public, architectural face of empire’ and the ‘ceremonial landscapes’ of London – the imperial exhibitions and museum galleries (Driver and Gilbert 1999: 6). On these scores, Edinburgh does not look very imperial. But in this book it is 5 There is comparable work on the reciprocal influence between Oxford and the British

Empire, which specifically includes a consideration of India, see Symonds (1991).

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argued that if attention is turned to Edinburgh, India must be the preeminent example of how the city was influenced by Britain’s, Scotland’s and the city’s engagement in empire. This is not to deny the significance of Africa: probably the ‘imperial’ Scot best known to generations of Scottish and other school-children is David Livingstone (1813–73), the medical missionary and explorer of central Africa. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the Scottish Government – in its efforts to define an international role in the field of development aid – selected Malawi, India and Pakistan as appropriate foci of interest during the Scottish National Party’s first majority government, 2011–16. In this volume some aspects of the ‘India’ attachments – treating India as an idea, as an imagined entity whose borders were by no means always coterminous with present-day India, even with the addition of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma (now Myanmar) and Sri Lanka – are explored. India, or the East Indies, might include, sometimes and for some purposes, the whole area relevant to the activities of the EIC, i.e. including present-day Singapore and Malaya, sometimes Aden and Bushehr, in present-day Iran, certainly Afghanistan.

Edinburgh’s involvement in the lives of people who went to India Edinburgh and its environs were where some of those who went to India were born, educated or visited during their youth. It was a place they wrote letters to, and for some it was a place they retired to – either to properties in the city itself, or within its intellectual, social, political and economic hinterland of the Lothians and Fife. Relatively few people experienced all these relationships – i.e., being born in Edinburgh, having most or all of their education in the city, maintaining links with friends and family in the city and then returning to Edinburgh after their time in India. More commonly, people experienced only some of these, or had a strong connection with Edinburgh only for shorter periods of time. An example from the beginning of the nineteenth century of very-short-lived visitors is the Buller family. Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881), later a dominant intellectual figure in early- to mid-Victorian London, tutored Charles and Arthur Buller in Edinburgh in 1822–23. Their father, Charles Buller, of Morval, Cornwall, was in the revenue department of the EIC’s service, and the boys were both born in Calcutta. Charles was entered at the University of Edinburgh for part of the session in 1821–22, and then again in 1822–23. For some of this time, the Buller family lived in Perthshire, and Carlyle

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accompanied them to London briefly in 1824–25, parting suddenly from the family, then returning to Scotland to continue to woo Jane Welsh in Haddington (Courtney 1886). There were many others like them in the city. There were already enough ‘old India hands’ in the city in the late eighteenth century that William Robertson, Edinburgh University’s longstanding Principal, could write a book including sections on contemporary India, a place he himself never visited, relying heavily on those among his friends, ‘some Gentlemen who have filled important stations, civil and military, in India’ (Robertson 1996 [1791]: iii). Contributions to some of the novels of Sir Walter Scott were also made by ‘Old India hands’: many of them played prominent roles in his circle of friends and family. These were soldiers and administrators who had made their money in India. While writing the Indian sections of his novel The Surgeon’s Daughter, Scott noted: Colonel Ferguson’s absence is unlucky. So is Maxpopple and half a dozen Qui His besides, willing to write chits, eat Tiffing and vent all their pagan jargon when one does not want to hear it and now that I want a touch of their slang, lo! there is not one near me (Scott, Journal, p. 342, entry for 22 August 1827).

Scott also noted that ‘our younger children are as naturally exported to India as our black cattle were sent to England’ (Scott, Letters, 7: 185: Letter Lord Montagu, June 1822) – and, like the cattle, some of them died en route, while others died soon after arrival. But some returned to live in and around the city. Scott himself had many friends and relatives who spent time in India, including his brother Robert. The Colonel James Ferguson mentioned above was the son of the philosopher (and founder of sociology) Adam Ferguson. Returning to live in Huntlyburn, on the Abbotsford estate, in 1823, after 25 years’ service in India, he supplied Scott with many details used in The Surgeon’s Daughter. Scott also drew on the account of a trial instigated in Madras in 1792 by one of his own cousins, David Haliburton, who dined with Scott during the writing of the novel (Scott 2003 [1827]: 363, 364). He also had many neighbours in George Square with Indian connections (Tait 1984). Edinburgh’s other famous 19th century author, Robert Louis Stevenson, had three maternal uncles who went to India. He played with his ‘Indian’ cousins during summer visits to his grandfather’s house, the manse in Colinton, where evidence of the Indian connection could be seen in the toys and bric-abrac around the house.

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There is a well-established trope that these ‘India-returned’ became wealthy bores, happy only in their reminiscences and delighting in throwing Hindustani phrases or references to their time in India into their conversations. But not all fitted this stereotype, and the balance between ex-soldiers, missionaries, medical men and scientists, administrators, and planters of opium and tea changes across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Between 1868 and 1944 there were five Principals of the University of Edinburgh; three of them had worked in India, Sir Alexander Grant (Principal 1868–85), Sir William Muir (Principal from 1885 to 1903) and Sir Thomas Holland (Principal 1929–44). The two Muir brothers, John (1810–82) and William (1819–1905), provide examples of men who found Edinburgh a congenial place to retire to, even though neither had spent much time there before going to India, having been born in Ayrshire. Their India service was long (from 1829 to 1853 in the case of John, and 1837 to 1876 in the case of William). William had spent a brief time at Edinburgh and then at Glasgow University and Haileybury, but John was educated only in Glasgow and at Haileybury. They nonetheless retired to Edinburgh from India and both died there. John devoted himself to the care of his nephews and nieces, apart from helping to establish the Chair of Sanskrit in the University. William was Principal of the University for 18 years, retiring for the second time at the age of 84. Both continued to engage in debates on Indian topics while they lived in Edinburgh, and for William ‘Of his fifteen children, all born in India, several sons served in the Indian army, though none reached their father’s prominence’ (Powell 2004a; Powell 2004b). Some used their Indian experience in teaching. Thus Henry Yule, having spent 1843–49 working on the restoration and development of the Mughal irrigation system in the North-Western Provinces and being active in the Anglo-Sikh wars of 1845–46 and 1848–49, took extended leave and lived in Edinburgh for three years. During this period, he lectured at the Scottish Naval and Military Academy (see Chapter 7 in this volume) and published several books, also writing an article on Tibet for Blackwood’s Magazine (Driver 2004). Another example was that of Henry Martyn Clark (c. 1857–1916) who was adopted in the North-West Frontier by missionaries, trained as a doctor in Edinburgh, served as a medical missionary in the Punjab but came back to Edinburgh and taught in the extra-mural medical school in the 1890s (see Chapter 9 of this volume). Part of the problem is that the picture of ‘India-returned’ is too often limited to that of the fabulously wealthy Nabobs (McGilvary 2012; Nechtman 2010; see also Chapter 2 of this volume) who have attracted

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perhaps somewhat undue attention, but who epitomize only the period from 1780–1830. Filor (2017) takes the story up to the end of the 1850s, pointing out that: Instead of being driven by a fortune as his counterpart of the second half of the eighteenth century had been, the servant of the last 50 years of the East India Company found himself bound up in the bureaucracy and comfort of a pension … Indian civil servants were increasingly no longer members of the landed gentry. Instead, civil servants swelled the ranks of the Scottish middle class, buying or renting in the urban suburbs of Edinburgh (Filor 2017: 136)

As she also points out – in a rare insight into the effect of these returnees on Edinburgh – ‘the making of the Scottish middle class was intrinsically bound up in the British Empire’ (Filor 2017: 136). The flow of ‘India-returned’ into Edinburgh seems to have peaked in the last one-third of the 19th century. The number of Europeans working in India increased steadily from the middle of the 19th century, especially once rule had passed to the British Government in 1858. The number of British soldiers and officers in the Indian army, for example, shows a rapid increase after 1857–58. Evidence for the increasing significance of ‘India-returned’ of different kinds can be found in the censuses, which record men with military titles gained in branches of the Indian Army, as well as retired missionaries, merchants, doctors and civil servants. Many of these can be identified through finding the parents of those born in India and living in Edinburgh. It is almost certainly the case that, in proportion to its population, Edinburgh stands out as the British city where the ‘India-returned’ were most numerous and influential. Considerable variation is visible in the numbers and backgrounds of such people, and the censuses allow only a partial handle on how many came, what they had done in India, and where they went in Britain. Linking children’s birthplaces with those of their parents reveals that the ‘India-returned’ did not necessarily ‘return’ to Scotland: Scots-born returnees can be found across England, and some English-born moved to Scotland. For Edinburgh, those born in India and reported in the decennial censuses as residing in the city increase steadily in number after 1851 (see Table 1.1). In 1881, at the numerical peak, 0.5 per cent of Edinburgh’s population had been born in India (including Ceylon). This compared, for example, with 0.34 per cent in Oxford, 0.15 per cent in Aberdeen, 0.1 per cent in Dundee and 0.1 per cent in Glasgow.

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These figures reflect Edinburgh’s role as an educational centre. Mothers of young families appear regularly in the Census returns, having returned to Britain to oversee their children’s schooling. Table 1.1: People reported as born in India or Ceylon in census returns for Edinburgh, 1851–1901 Census year 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901

Females 329 447 561 719 675 659

Males 214 319 404 678 668 527

Total 543 766 965 1,397 1,343 1,186

Note: these are tabulations from the search facility in Ancestry.co.uk. Duplicates (e.g. all those who were resident in the married quarters at Edinburgh Castle appear twice) have been excluded. Some may be missed because their birthplace is misspelt, for example. ‘Edinburgh’ is the area of current-day Edinburgh, i.e. civil parishes named as Edinburgh, plus Colinton, Corstorphine, Duddingston, Leith, and Portobello. Areas reported as ‘East Indies’ but which fall under South-East Asia (Singapore, Malaya, etc.) have been excluded where possible.

The Structure of this volume What has been established in this Introduction, then, is that India has been an important, under-acknowledged influence on Edinburgh since the early eighteenth century and into the twentieth. The rest of this volume takes up different aspects of these relationships at different periods and examines them in more detail. Chapter 2, by George McGilvary, draws on his unparalleled collection of data on Scottish employees in the early EIC, and focuses on the financial resources that came into Edinburgh’s social, political and economic life. Complementing the work of Eleanor Harris (2013a; 2013b) he shows how important these returnees were to investments in churches and property – and the Caledonian Canal – in early nineteenth century Edinburgh. The following four chapters deal with material of different kinds sent from India to Edinburgh. Friederike Voigt, in Chapter 3, raises the question of why Indian sculptures found their way into the collections of the different precursors of the Industrial Museum – the museums of the Antiquaries of Scotland, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh – and why they continued

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to be collected as the museum slowly transformed into today’s National Museum of Scotland. Anne Buddle’s Chapter 4 tells a different story, of the acquisition by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) of prints, drawings, paintings and especially photographs which have some association with India. These are mostly held at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. In these case studies – of the museums and galleries – one key point to keep in mind is that in neither case was there a specific remit to collect Indian material. At the National Galleries, these works were primarily collected as portraits, as landscape views or historical scenes, as aesthetic works of art or as examples of the art of photography. The association with India might be documented by the donors, photographers and collectors themselves, but it was very often a secondary consideration, and certainly not managed as an ‘Indian’ category within the broad NGS Collection. This story partly underlies the material sent to what is now the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh (RBGE), as Chapter 5 by Henry Noltie shows. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, senior staff at the garden had Indian experience; more importantly, however, the Botanic establishment in Edinburgh played an important role in training doctors who found their way to India and thence into positions as curators of botanic gardens or as foresters and returned favours to their alma mater by sending back specimens and drawings. Running parallel to these institutional links was the emergence of enthusiasts’ plant collection, where spectacular species, largely from Himalayan Asia, were planted to create pseudo-Asian landscapes. Close personal ties between some landed families and Scottish plant collectors, who sought out new species in India, Sikkim, Nepal and China, strengthened these connections. In combination, these activities are responsible for the many varieties of rhododendron, and other Himalayan plants, to be found not only in the RBGE but also elsewhere in the city.6 Chapter 6 deals with a different kind of collecting, one targeted at human skulls and other physical remains. Edinburgh’s scientific community has often seemed to be dominated by anatomists, beginning with the Monro Professors, father, son and grandson, who occupied Edinburgh’s Chair of Anatomy between 1720 and 1846. The least significant of these, the third Monro, was Professor when Burke and Hare were collecting cadavers for dissection and were notorious as ‘grave-stealers’. His reign also saw the rise of phrenology, the attempt to understand people’s characteristics through analysis of the shape 6 We are grateful to B R (Tom) Tomlinson for drawing our attention to these influences.

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of their heads. The first skulls sent to Edinburgh from India seem to have arrived between 1826 and 1832, but many more were collected by William Turner, Professor of Anatomy and a founder of anthropology, at the end of the nineteenth century. Ian Harper’s chapter illuminates how and why these skulls came into his hands. The next three chapters are concerned with how Edinburgh trained people who came and went to India. In Chapter 7, Hauke Wiebe uses the records of some of Edinburgh’s schools for the middle classes, especially the Edinburgh Academy, to show how boys and their families interacted with schools in specific ways across the long nineteenth century, leading to substantial numbers pursuing careers in India and often sending their own sons back to their academic origins. In Chapter 8, Avril Powell turns her attention to the role played by the University of Edinburgh, and its attempts to ensure that its graduates could compete with graduates from Oxford, Cambridge and London in competitions for the Indian civil services. Chapter 9, by Roger Jeffery, looks at the role that India, and ‘India-returned’ individuals, played in the debates and conflicts over the introduction of women’s medical education in the city, between 1869 and 1914. Finally, an overview from a current Edinburgh resident of Indian origin provides an additional perspective on the contemporary and longer-term significance of these relationships. As mentioned at the beginning of this Introduction, the focus in this book is not on Indian-origin residents, though they appear from time to time in these pages. Bashabi Fraser reports a largely positive view of her experience in the city, suggesting that links established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have predisposed parts of the city to take a positive interest in Indian visitors and long-term residents. Unfortunately, a claim such as this is not always the case. But one lives in the hope that the project of a tolerant, multicultural Edinburgh may be helped on its way by this volume.

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2 The Benefits to Edinburgh and Leith from East India Company Connections c.1725–c.1834 George McGilvary

Introduction

Tfound everywhere in Scotland of a veritable deluge of riches from

HIS PAPER CONCENTRATES ON EDINBURGH AND LEITH, BUT EVIDENCE CAN BE

the east, especially during the years in question. There is scarcely a field of endeavour then that was not influenced in some way by contact with India, South-East Asia and China through the portals of the East India Company (EIC). Yet even today, though this legacy is important and needs to be projected on to the national consciousness, much of it is passed-over, or given scant regard. Only recently has the impact of EIC-related wealth received serious study, yet its massive effect, especially on Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, to which almost all things gravitated, calls out for particular investigation.1 The subject is examined up to the point when the Company lost its monopoly to trade with India (1813) and then China (1833–34). How this wealth from the east was transferred also receives its first treatment here; and an assessment of the impact this bounty had on 1 See McGilvary, G.K. East India Patronage and the British State: The Scottish Elite and Politics in the Eighteenth Century (London: I.B. Tauris, 2008); McGilvary, G.K. ‘The Scottish Connection with India 1725–1833’, Études écossaises, 14 (2011): 13–32; McGilvary, G.K. ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob 1725–1833’, in Back to Caledonia: Scottish Return Migration from the Sixteenth Century to the Present (ed.) M. Varricchio (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2012): 90–108; McGilvary, G.K. ‘“Honest John” The Remarkable Career of John Drummond of Quarrel, MP (1675–1742)’, History Scotland, 15, 4 (2015): 24–30 and 15, 5 (2015): 30–35; McGilvary, G.K. ‘Scottish Agency Houses in South-East Asia, c.1760–c.1813’, in The Scottish Experience in Asia, c.1700 to the Present (eds) T.M. Devine & A. McCarthy (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017): 75–96. See also Mackillop, A. More fruitful than the Soil: Empire and the Scottish Highlands, 1715–1815 (Edinburgh: Tuckwell, 2000); Mackillop, A. ‘Europeans, Britons and Scots: Scottish Sojourning Networks and Identities in India, c.1700–1815’, in A Global Clan: Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities since the Eighteenth Century (ed.) A. McCarthy (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006): 19–47.

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the area has been attempted. The advantages bestowed would continue far into the future. In this four-part analysis, the first three sections are equal to each other in importance. The omission of one would negate everything and no benefits would have been forthcoming. The first portion concerns EIC patronage and particularly how favours were distributed in return for political support by Scotland’s elite for the Whig government of the day. It also takes in Edinburgh’s prominence in all walks of life, making it a magnet for those seeking favours. The second part looks at the sources of this wealth in the East and how it was acquired. The third explains how the riches procured there wound up in Scotland and especially the Edinburgh area. The fourth makes an estimate of the wealth introduced and demonstrates how far everything had changed in this region by the 1830s, illustrating the impact made.2

Patronage The East India Company had a monopoly over trade and shipping to India and the Far East, and the Chairmen and Directors controlled the patronage. This meant that apart from random adventurers, the only way to gain a position in any branch of the East India Company and its shipping – hence out to India – was through interest, recommendation and via the Directorate of the Company. Each year, the Chairman and Deputy Chairman had two posts each to dispense. Various Directors holding powerful positions, such as Chair of an important committee, like Finance, had one each. Everything hinged on how many positions needed to be filled at each Presidency – which in turn would release posts to the Chairs and to other Directors when available. Positions were sought at home and also from those with power in India. Laurence Sulivan, while Deputy Chairman of the Company, writing to Warren Hastings in 1773, when Hastings was Governor-General, illustrates this perfectly: ‘Many 2 Studies touching on aspects of Scots going to Asia and on the EIC’s role exist, but little on the impact of this money. See Bowen, H.V. The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756–1833 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Bryant, G.J. ‘Scots in India in the Eighteenth Century’, Scottish Historical Review, 64, 177 (1985): 22–41; Cain, A.M. The Cornchest for Scotland: Scots in India (Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, 1986); Craig, R., A. Nix and M. Nix (eds) Chronometer Jack: The Autobiography of the Shipmaster John Miller of Edinburgh 1802–1883 (Dunbeath, Caithness: Whittles Publishing, 2008); Devine, T.M. Scotland’s Empire 1600–1815 (London: Penguin, 2003); Fry, M. The Scottish Empire (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2002); Mackenzie, J.M. ‘Essay and reflection on Scotland and the Empire’, International History Review, 15, 4 (1993): 714–39.

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are the recommendations I am obliged to trouble you with. India voters expect it of me or they are affronted’.3 The Scot who wanted to go to India found these same iron-clad rules in operation no matter what generation or era he belonged to. If a young Scot was looking for position or advancement (including EIC posts – and he had no direct link to one of the twenty-four EIC Directors) it almost always meant a visit or a letter to someone in the capital who could help. The crucial point was that Edinburgh was where those who could give assistance either lived, or foregathered; it was the focal point in Scotland from which patronage was issued and where the principal EIC patronage mongers would be found. It was where power was located, the centre of politics in Scotland, of administration, law and almost everything else (though Glasgow was fast challenging its position with regard to business). It was either the home or the working residence of heads of state – the principal patronage managers. It was where academics, church leaders, judges and lawyers who could aid and abet the flow of hopeful candidates could be found. The only other direct route for anyone contemplating EIC patronage demanded a link to someone in the headquarters of the Company itself, or an influential friend in The City or Parliament with influence at India House. Gaining access within India House, to its various Courts and Committees, Directors, Proprietors, principal EIC shipping managers and commanders was a major objective. Leading members of the Scottish establishment and elite residing in Edinburgh, many on a perennial basis or keeping a town-house, benefitted from personal ties with useful sources in London. Equally, political connections were maintained with the foremost people in Edinburgh by MPs attending Parliament. Thus, a two-way influence (especially a political one) was brought to bear on the dispersal of EIC posts, which resulted in many of these heading northwards. As the eighteenth century progressed, a stream of Scottish Proprietors and not a few Directors would also be found at India House with patronage to dispense.

The Political Management System Using EIC Patronage The existence between 1725 and 1827 of a political management system in Scotland using EIC patronage was the major driving force that guaranteed 3 British Library (BL), Add. MSS. 29194, f.89, L. Sulivan to W. Hastings, 27 Mar. 1773. See also McGilvary, G.K. Guardian of the East India Company: The Life of Laurence Sulivan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2006): 41; McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 28–67.

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a great many young Scots would go to Asia. The system was initiated by the Whig government for the maintenance of good government north of the border. Merit meant little—family, wealth and property and with it electoral influence, almost everything. Positions were given to such people in return for votes vouchsafed to Scottish MPs and for support in Parliament. All ministries then used it: Walpole from 1725 to 1742, followed by all other ministries from that of Bute in the early 1760s to Lord North to the early 1770s. From 1774 Henry Dundas continued its use, then as one of Pitt the Younger’s ministry he did the same from 1784 onwards. After his death (in 1811) his son, Robert Saunders Dundas, sustained its usage until 1827. Positions on offer provided great opportunities and very quickly convinced landowners in Scotland and others who had a political interest north of the border to vote for Whig candidates in Scotland and for Whig ministries at Westminster.4

Operation of EIC Patronage System 1725–1827 John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll and then his brother, Archibald (Ilay) 3rd Duke of Argyll, were at the apex of all this in Scotland throughout the 1725 to1765 period. Until Walpole fell in 1742 they formed part of his political management machine, devoted to obtaining electoral support in Scotland for his ministry. Following the 2nd duke’s death in 1743, Ilay was in control until he died in 1765. During the years up to 1765 the Argylls were ably served in Scotland by Andrew Fletcher (Lord Milton) and his able deputy, John Mackenzie of Delvine, both based in Edinburgh.5 They and the Scottish EIC Director John Drummond in India House, London, were the prime movers in ensuring that what transpired was satisfactory to their political masters. Until 1742, when Drummond died and Walpole’s ministry came to an end, the system was totally reliant upon Drummond and his base within the Company.6 After 1742, patronage was distributed according to how Ilay and Lord Milton adjudged the political situation in Scotland. This lasted until 1765, by which date both of these magnates were dead. In the late 1760s systematised EIC patronage was in the hands of whichever group ended up controlling the Court of Directors following each April election. Nevertheless, nothing fundamental changed in patronage terms, even after the loss of direct control because of the demise of Ilay, followed by Milton’s 4

See McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): passim. Ibid: 1–120, et passim. 6 Ibid: 1–67, et passim. 5

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senility (both in 1765) then his death in 1766. Sufficient foundations were laid to ensure EIC patronage continued until the end of the 1820s.7

Patronage Content and Structure: Edinburgh Patrons and Recipients EIC patronage readily breaks down into those giving and those receiving. The patrons, that is, those able to secure the favours and dish them out, were located mainly in Edinburgh, the capital. The recipients (shown in this study) are restricted to those in the Edinburgh area. It will be made clear, however, that the region would be blessed by this bounty from the east in ways not dependent on its inhabitants. Scotland’s leading statesmen claim first place as providers of EIC patronage. It issued out of Edinburgh, where the most prominent were to be found and where they came together. The Scottish capital could not fail to be central in all that then transpired. Throughout the years these heads of state maintained the strongest connection with their London masters, aiding and securing the supply of EIC appointments through connections with the Company’s Directors and Proprietors. They came from the top layers of Scottish society. Both John, 2nd Duke of Argyll and his brother, Ilay, 3rd Duke, directed affairs until their respective demise; the years 1760–63 saw the involvement of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. Another who benefitted from his EIC connections was Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto. Charles Erskine was also involved; as was William Mure of Caldwell, a Baron of the Court of Exchequer. He represented the Bute interest in Edinburgh from 1761 and was used by James Stuart Mackenzie when acting as Scottish Minister between 1761 and 1765.8 Henry Dundas began accumulating massive patronage from 1774, using his position as MP for Midlothian. He was connected with the Argathelian EIC patronage machine through John Mackenzie of Delvine, Lord Milton’s irreplaceable lieutenant. Also, his father-in-law was Captain David Rannie (free-merchant) who as well as providing him with a fortune via his wife’s dowry, gave him insights into the working of the EIC, and especially the nature of commercial trade in eastern waters.9 Until his death, Dundas, in tandem with another Scot, David Scott of Dunninald, many times Chairman of the EIC and the leading EIC Director, retained control of these favours. His parliamentary connection (being both a friend 7 Ibid: 68–233, passim; McGilvary, ‘The Scottish Connection with India’ (2011): 13–32. 8 9

McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008), pp. 67–183, et passim. For Henry Dundas and Captain David Rannie, see ibid., passim.

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and colleague of Pitt the Younger) as well as his ties with Scott within the EIC armed Dundas with enormous privileges and power. He was also Chairman of the Parliamentary Secret Committee into EIC affairs in the early 1780s, and after Pitt’s India Act of 1784, in charge of the Board of Control until his death in 1811. Afterwards (as mentioned) EIC patronage was regulated by his son, Robert Saunders Dundas.10

Patronage Managers Next in importance when it came to EIC patronage and how it was to affect Edinburgh during the years in question were the activities of those in Scotland operating the patronage system on behalf of their political masters in Edinburgh and London. For this, Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton and John Mackenzie of Delvine proved vital. The EIC Director, John Drummond, though normally located in London was also able to provide support though his relations and various commercial connections in Scotland. The roles of EIC patron and patronage manager were shared by Dundas and his acolyte, David Scott of Dunninald from 1774 onwards. Patronage managers in Edinburgh and Drummond (and his friends at India House) provided a remarkable number of India posts for young Scots. EIC favours continued to be offered, despite the wariness among Hanoverian Whigs because of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 and its aftermath, so much so that it is estimated that by the 1750s roughly three out of every eight Writers (EIC civil servants) bound for Bengal were Scots.11 The Seven Years War (1756–63) and Chatham’s neutral attitude towards using Scottish troops (when contrasted with previous hostility to the idea) helped promote their recruitment. This influx of Scottish civil servants, doctors/surgeons, soldiers, free-merchants, captains, mates and pursers was crucial because through these individuals who survived – and their successors – wealth from the East would eventually arrive in Scotland.

Lord Milton and John Mackenzie of Delvine Andrew Fletcher, Lord Milton, Lord Justice Clerk, of Saltoun, East Lothian, was Keeper of the Signet (the state official who regulates solicitors in Scotland) until his death in 1766. He was able to tap the barrel of favours on behalf of his political masters. Although Ilay was often involved in the 10 McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017), pp. 75–96; see also McGilvary, ‘The Scottish Connection with India’ (2011): 25. 11 See Marshall, P. J., East India Fortunes: The British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1976), pp.12–3; also, McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): pp. 68–233, et passim.

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minutiae of patronage, Milton was the real patronage manager. He became increasingly powerful and ‘was sedulously courted by the ambitious’.12 He made most of his control of the Signet. As Keeper, he could choose sheriffdeputes and sheriff-clerks, all of them lawyers like himself, whose roles were crucial during the preparations for elections. Patronage was used to maintain a political interest in burghs and counties and EIC favours were much sought after.13 Milton was ably supported by John Mackenzie of Delvine, a most extraordinary lawyer who, along with others, such as George Drummond (Provost of Edinburgh) formed part of his most trusted network. By 1770 Mackenzie was Deputy Keeper of the Signet with vast electoral power (following in the footsteps of Milton who had been Keeper). After his death in 1778, Henry Dundas was in charge. Other important patrons included Andrew Stuart, MP and EIC Proprietor. He was close to Baron William Mure based in Edinburgh and in London. Members of the Edinburgh literati were his friends, such as David Hume and Sir Adam Fergusson. Most of these were domiciled in Edinburgh.14 Many large property-owners were Company Proprietors and also had an ‘interest’, that is, they carried influence, determining how Parliamentary votes were cast. Locally, they included Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Sir Hew Dalrymple and George Douglas, the Earl of Morton.15 Members of the Parliamentary Opposition also used their voting influence and EIC connection at a local level. As a Proprietor of the EIC, Sir Laurence Dundas found places for Edinburgh people like James Anderson, David Anderson and Duncan Clerk.16

Recipients of EIC Patronage – The Elite Those enjoying Company favours through the EIC patronage system were overwhelmingly from the privileged classes. Many also had their own EIC 12 Simpson, J.M. ‘Who Steered the Gravy Train 1707–1766?’, in Scotland in the Age of Improvements, Essays in Scottish History in the Eighteenth Century (eds) N.J. Phillipson & R. Mitchison (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970): 47–72; McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 1–135, et passim. 13 See also Murdoch, A.J. ‘The People Above’: Politics and Administration in MidEighteenth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1980); Sunter, R.M, Patronage and Politics in Scotland 1707–1832 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1986). 14 See McGilvary, Guardian of the East India Company (2006): 214–18. 15 McGilvary, G.K. ‘East India Patronage and the Political Management of Scotland, 1720–1774’, PhD thesis, The Open University, 1989: 65, et passim. 16 See McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 151–54, et passim.

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connection and commanded its patronage through personal channels. So far, seventy-eight individuals from the Edinburgh area have been traced. Some have been employed here to draw out trends and distinctions. Nonetheless, whatever these total numbers were (and this research is still on-going), the answer to why this region prospered so much did not really depend on them. Nearly all the wealth brought back to Scotland more or less had to come back to, or through, Edinburgh. It was not dependent on Edinburgh citizens or those living in the surrounding area, though the many who did benefit from their EIC connection helped the overall picture there. Those benefiting can be sub-divided into actual Edinburgh residents and others with an EIC connection, but not actually living in the area. Most of the latter enjoyed patronage because of property interests in the city. Many were from small surrounding towns and focussed on Edinburgh for everything: Lord Aberdour, son of Lord Morton (based in Aberdour and Dalmahoy), Robert Baird from Haddington, Alex Brown of Kirkcaldy and James Heriot of Dirleton are examples. Captain David Rannie, a free merchant, of Musselburgh and Melville Castle (the father-in-law of both Henry Dundas and of the Laird of Cockpen) and Captain David Robertson had both retired to Musselburgh by 1764. Others had a matrimonial connection with the city: Alex Pringle, of Whytebank was married to Mary Dick of Prestonfield, Edinburgh. Some thirty Edinburgh residents who provide evidence of this EIC patronage have been traced. They ranged in occupational skills from surgeons and scientists to Reverends, and they were trained to fill every occupation the EIC could offer. Many would go on to command lucrative, private commercial concerns abroad. The people involved also indicate that entire family-EIC networks were at work. Sixteen of these residents were connected to each other through separate EIC networks. At least eleven of the thirty individuals reflect the strength of the legal profession in the region. They benefitted because their fathers (or relations) provided EIC patronage for those who mattered politically. Among them were James and David Anderson, Writers in the EIC Civil Service, the sons of David Anderson, solicitor, or Writer to the Signet (WS). James Beck, also a Writer, was a nephew of James Graham WS of Damside, Fife. Robert Loch, Writer, was the son of William Loch, WS Edinburgh. George Mackay, Writer, was the eldest son of George Mackay, advocate, Edinburgh – a Jacobite. In 1744 he inherited Skibo estate from his maternal uncle.17 17 See also McGilvary, ‘East India Patronage and the Political Management of Scotland’ (1989): 65, et passim; McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): passim.

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Those handed favours because of property interests in the city and their EIC connection included Patrick Crauford Bruce, with land and housing in the Stenhouse and Hermitage parts of Edinburgh. Another was George Dempster of Dunnichen, Forfarshire, an EIC Director and Proprietor. Others, all active in EIC matters and operating from Edinburgh, included Sir Adam Fergusson from Kilkerran, Ayrshire and William Pultney Johnstone of the Westerhall family. James ‘Ossian’ Macpherson was resident in Edinburgh when he gained the patronage of Bute and of the Literati with his ‘Fragments’. His own strong EIC connections were boosted through collaboration with Sir John Macpherson and his relation, Colonel Allan Macpherson.18

Wealth Repatriation from the East Source of Riches The riches that poured into Edinburgh came from Scots occupying every branch of the EIC. Money arrived from those owning or serving on East Indiamen. It also came from free merchants and others – such as owners of indigo plantations, shipping and manufacturing based in Bengal, especially from the 1780s onward. For EIC employees, salaries were never enough and involvement in commerce of some kind was almost obligatory. The Scots gentry, with just a little cash in hand, seized the opportunities India offered from the start. By the 1780s Agency Houses in India came under the control of various Scottish entrepreneurs; and particularly important in this respect were David Scott, William Fairlie and their friends. These agencies were increasingly caught up in the export of opium to China and the purchase of tea, silks and porcelain from there to send to the market in London. This commerce brought unheard of returns (see below).19 The career of George Fothringham, a free merchant, was typical of countless younger sons who had to go abroad to earn a living. He had only £2,000 (Scots) but was intent upon embarking as a trader or free merchant. Until the 1770s, EIC servants (and people like him) were able to use the dastak (permit to trade) exempting European traders from paying customs or transit duties. Salt, opium and cotton goods were among commodities traded. But from around 1774 dastaks 18 See Maclean, J.N.M. ‘The Early Political Careers of James ‘Fingal’ Macpherson (1736– 1796) and Sir John Macpherson, Bart (1744–1821)’, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 1967; Foster, S. A Private Empire (London: Pier 9, Murdoch Books, 2010). 19 McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017): 75–96 and especially pp. 81–82, 85–88.

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were abolished. Licences to operate then had to be obtained from the Governor-General. Thereafter, the development of, and finally a profusion of Houses of Agency provided the channels by which they could continue this self-aggrandisement.20 The Scottish invasion of the EIC shipping interest in London by the 1770s brought in immense sums, much of it ending up in Edinburgh. Scots who shared in ship ownership included Charles Foulis of Colinton, his relation, Sir Robert Preston and Sir William Forbes of Edinburgh. (Preston, in turn nominated many, such as Robert Wight, to the EIC), The rise of Foulis (with the management and ownership of many ships) illustrates the spin-off taking place, bringing even more wealth. Foulis was in an excellent position to promote other Scots to the command of his East Indiamen, many of whom were from the Edinburgh and Leith area, like John Douglas.21 Another Scotsman using the port was Captain John Lennox, who from 1760 onwards commanded the Anson.22 London bankers John and Adam Drummond of Golden Square, as well as Thomas Coutts, a banker in the Strand, were others making their way into the heart of the shipping bloc in the Company.23 A similar Scottish takeover of shipbuilding and shipping operations in India was in full swing in the late 1770s, pushed on by Henry Dundas at government level and David Scott of Dunninald within the EIC Court of Directors. Yet, even before that – in the 1760s – Alex Mackenzie at Calcutta built and leased ships on his own. James Kyd bought docks there where thirty-five vessels were produced. From the 1780s onward, however, Houses of Agency (owned or controlled by Scots) predominated in this field, many in partnership with Parsis and Indians. The intense commercial demands of the period pushed everything on. The boom meant that seventy-seven ships were launched in Calcutta between 1781 and 1802. By 1802 Calcutta had a home fleet, as had Bombay, with Scots firms dominating during this shipbuilding surge.24 20 McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 52; McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017): 75–96. 21 McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 35, 79, 116–17, 119, 127, 138, 143, 153–54 and 156–57. For more on Robert Wight, see this volume, chapter 5. 22 See Tomlinson, B.R. ‘The “Empire of Enterprise”: Scottish Business Networks in Asian Trade, 1793–1810’, KIU Journal of Economics and Business Studies, 8 (2001): 67–83; Tomlinson, B.R. ‘From Campsie to Kedgeree: Scottish Enterprise, Asian Trade and the Company Raj’, Modern Asian Studies, 36, 4 (2002): 769–91. 23 See below for the Coutts and Andrew Drummond Banks. 24 See McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017): 75–96. See also McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 121–35, 153–62, et passim.

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The same pattern evolved regarding doctors of medicine and physicians from all over Scotland who made fortunes in India – which arrived sooner or later in an Edinburgh bank. From 1720 to 1757 all the Principal Medical Officers of Madras were Scots: Drs Duncan Munro, George Ramsay, Matthew Lindsay, Andrew Munro, Robert Douglas and another Andrew Munro.25 There is overwhelming evidence that the education in accounts given to many also stood them in good stead and led to riches.26 The lure of money to be made in the East rather than the Transatlantic trade influenced Edinburgh citizens as much as it did everyone else. Following Clive’s victory at Plassey in 1757, Commander William Fullerton-Elphinstone, while himself a ship’s captain, who had sailed to Virginia, decided money was to be made in the East. He made a fortune. It was a similar case with the Graham brothers. With his arrival in India from Jamaica in 1770, George (the eldest brother) took charge of the other two, John and Thomas. All three made fabulous sums. In the 1720s James Rod had already sailed to China and commanded his own ship to the West Indies. After experience and due consideration of both trades, he now asked to go 1st mate on an East Indiaman rather than command his own ship across the Atlantic.27

Remittance of Riches from the East The remittance of money from India and China – and from elsewhere in South-East Asia – was crucial. A means had to be found by which fortunes could be converted to sterling and then realised in Edinburgh. For this, reliable individuals or agents based in India and South-East Asia, as well as capable agents and banking contacts in London and in Edinburgh were necessary. However, finding the channels for remitting funds at the India end of things was always a major problem. Bills of exchange placed with the EIC were used until the early 1770s, when trading changes were made in India. When this avenue closed, other Companies such as the French and Dutch were used and usually swamped. In addition, an enormous black market in goods and gems continued. The smuggling of diamonds (or ‘brilliants’ as they were known) and of gold was never-ending. 25 Names in italics are people or families for which detailed material is available on request from the author. 26 See McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 81, and 175 for George Smith, who after such training became a free merchant in Madras, where he made a fortune of more than £50,000. 27 Ibid: 76, 153–4, 156, 159–61, 165, 169, 181, 193 et passim.

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In 1787 Governor-General Cornwallis clamped down even more heavily on the commercial activities of EIC servants and related personnel. He ended the trading rights of Company servants and stopped their privilege of sending funds home by bills of exchange. Company servants were not to be put off, however, and invested in the Houses of Agency that were springing up to execute the business from which they had been banned. By the 1820s (as mentioned above) these agencies were dominated by Scots: some 214 Scottish-owned or controlled Houses of Agency were operating in the East, mainly between 1765 and 1834 – just over 25 per cent of all named agencies.28 All commerce in the East was helped by the development of the triangular trading network of opium, silver and tea (involving India–China–Britain) that expanded ferociously from the mid1780s. This delivered colossal profits for Houses of Agency. These agencies provided the dynamism enabling enormous sums to be sent back to Britain. This lasted until the failures of 1833–34. They were replaced by ‘managing’ groups imported from the surviving London agencies. These in turn only lasted until 1840, with the advance of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Dent & Co. Sister agencies had also sprung up in London because of the nearness to money in ‘The City’ and for lobbying Parliament in the interest of freeing trade. Agency houses, particularly those in Calcutta, gravitated towards granting bills on London agencies for money advanced in India, and of course, this channel was also used to remit funds. Self-aggrandisement continued.29

Funnelling of Riches – India to London There were many remittance agencies in India: among the Scottish ones in Bengal were Thomas Anderson’s and Innes and Clarke. Madras had firms like Johnson & Mackay. Three instances illustrate the sort of activities involved. The Scot, Hugh Campbell, in the EIC Civil Service, sent diamonds home to John Drummond (resident in Norfolk Street, London) and also to Sir Thomas Brand, via William Monson, Commander of an East Indiaman and resident in the metropolis. These were in turn sold to a Mr Shales, through the broker Isaac Nimes for £1,600. In 1728 a further sum, of 1,000 pagodas [approx. £400], was remitted to John Drummond, via Campbell’s attorney, Major Roach. The Hon. Basil Cochrane, an EIC civil servant in Calcutta from 1765, was made sole agent for the management and distribution of liquors for 28 29

McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017): 75–96, especially p. 82. Ibid: 75–96.

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the Company’s Indian army. He was also able to secure spaces on East Indiamen going to London and in this way remitted his own fortune and that of his friends, such as that of David Anderson of Edinburgh. The Graham brothers, George, Thomas and John, were involved in private business with people, such as David Killican, Captain Fullerton, Thomas Motte and the firm Charteris and Menteith, among others. They remitted their fortunes home through Killican’s agency. They also introduced Scots as sub-agents, like Messrs Crawford and Duncanson, Captain Mackenzie and William Berrie. In Canton agents sold the opium brought from India to Co’Hong merchants for silver to buy tea, which was then carried on East Indiamen to EIC warehouses in London for sale. Agents there acting for Houses of Agency owned by individuals such as David Scott of Dunninald and William Fairlie pocketed the money produced from the auction.30

Funnelling of Riches – London to Edinburgh If Scots did not settle in the London area, the money accumulated, generally speaking, made its way north via London banks and agencies to Edinburgh, to its banks and financial institutions. Almost all the firms enabling these transactions were located in these two cities. It was done by what can only be described as a funnel. Even those Scots who settled around the metropolis would very often send money back to Scotland, to family in Scotland via such banks and agencies; people like Governor James Macrae, Captain Alex MacLeod and Sir Abraham Hume.31 In London, the Thomas Coutts and Andrew Drummond banks were extensively used to forward such money to Edinburgh establishments. Such concerns seldom took place anywhere else due to lack of expertise. An example of how a small bank could go wrong was the case of Douglas, Heron & Co. (the Bank of Ayr). It opened in 1769 and like the London bank Neal, James, Fordyce and Down, which it had relied upon for credit, collapsed in 1772. The excessive granting of credit not protected by limited liability and a lack of central control – the very strengths that Edinburgh was able to provide – were to blame. Many Scots lairds, most from the west of Scotland, were partially or totally ruined.32 Throughout the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth, there was a proliferation of Scottish banks, financial firms and agents in London, 30

Ibid: 79–81. McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob’ (2012): 90–108, especially p. 90. 32 See Saville, R. Bank of Scotland: A History, 1695–1995 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996). For additional background see Webster, A. Gentleman Capitalists – British Imperialism in Southeast Asia, 1770–1890 (London: I B. Tauris, 1998). 31

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such as Cochrane, Fordyce, Fisher and Grant, and even the Dutch-Scottish Hope bank. Scots like Sir William Mayne ran the family business of Mayne and Barn; Robert Mayne (Sir William Mayne’s brother) was a partner in the banking firm of Mayne and Needham. George Ross acted as agent and manager for Lord Elibank and his brother, General James Murray. He was also Sir Hew Dalrymple’s London agent in the 1750s. John Stewart doubled his activities of wine merchant in the Strand with the remittance of fortunes from India. Various Scots were also involved in an individual capacity. For example, John Davidson and his brother Henry, of Stewartfield, acted as middle-men for Company servants remitting their fortunes home. It was done using Andrew Drummond’s bank, then onwards to Mackenzie of Delvine in Scotland. John Davidson was also an agent for Sir Alexander Grant, MP, and 5th Bart of Dalvey, Elgin – an EIC Proprietor from 1765 to 1774. John Mackenzie of Delvine was helped at the London end by a brother, George Mackenzie, a leading merchant there. Delvine also enjoyed the services of two nephews in London: Colin Mackenzie worked as a broker at Mr Mayne’s in New Broad Street in 1761; Kenneth Mackenzie remitted the fortune of Major-General Sir Alexander Mackenzie of Coull in the 1760s. However, Andrew Drummond’s bank and what eventually became Thomas Coutts & Co. were the most important when it came to realising the riches coming from the East. Both banked money that had been remitted and played a vital part in the onward transmission of these funds to Edinburgh.33 Drummonds & Co., of Charing Cross, was established in 1712 by Andrew Drummond, a goldsmith, and son of Sir John Drummond of Machany. He was a Jacobite sympathiser, yet was to make a large fortune, caring for the resources of Scots nobles who were resident in London. EIC business ranked high among those named in the bank’s ledgers. Forwarding to Edinburgh money received from the East was a main occupation.34 The Drummonds (Andrew and John) had a combined EIC connection from 1717, when Andrew joined his kinsman as an EIC Proprietor. John Drummond’s support for the bank was unstinting, as demonstrated in the Company ledgers. For example, he used the bank to remit the Earl 33 The bank had several changes of name and ownership, starting as John Campbell’s bank, and finally became ‘Thomas Coutts & Co.’ In this period George Middleton was the owner. See Stokes, V.A. A Bank in Four Centuries (London: Coutts, 1981); Healey, E. Coutts & Co. 1692–1992: The Portrait of a Private Bank (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992); See also McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 128, 142. 34 Winterbottom, P. ‘Andrew Drummond’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/47581. Accessed 6 January 2019; Bolitho, H. & D. Peel The Drummonds of Charing Cross (London: George, Allen & Unwin, 1967).

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of Queensbury’s money. He also kept in touch with the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Bolitho and Peel show how his link with Walpole was also employed to keep in touch with the Scottish banks and the funnelling of India money, especially after 1727, with the creation of the Royal Bank of Scotland.35 The ledgers of Andrew Drummond’s bank disclose many members of the Scottish nobility. In the 1717–26 ledgers alone, at least one hundred and twenty-one Scots can be accounted for out of the one hundred and seventy-six itemised, a pattern that persisted down the years. Of the thirtytwo naval and military men mentioned, twenty were Scots; there were two Scots Doctors of Medicine. One firm, Messrs van Vreede & Dalrymple, signified Dutch–Scottish ties; and the bank also had an account opened by the Edinburgh Exchange.36 The Coutts’ ledgers tell a similar story. Between 1712 and 1753 there were 448 accounts belonging to Scots. Fortythree can be identified as nobles; 420 were men and twenty-four women. The accounts of regiments and the garrisons of Edinburgh, Stirling and Dunbarton were also cared for.37 Both firms present a broad picture of the Scottish aristocracy, courtiers, businessmen and their assorted hangers-on (such as agents) involved in EIC affairs and in sending money on to Edinburgh.

Receipt of Monies – Edinburgh Apart from the Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland, a host of Edinburgh Agency Houses and firms were remitting money from India. Most just added this facility to already existing businesses. Some of those involved were William Alexander, Annan & Colquhoun, MacIntosh and Hannay, a Mr Taylor ‘in the Land market’ and John Mackenzie of Delvine. Various individuals also found it rewarding work. For instance: James Cheap (though resident in St Andrews where his property, Strathtyrum, would form part of the famed golf links) used Edinburgh’s facilities to remit the fortune of his friend and neighbour, James Beck. Much of the wealth belonging to John Graham of Kinross, in the form of diamonds, was realised in Edinburgh. He had £70,000 to remit home in 1774, with £25,000 35 Royal Bank of Scotland Archives, Andrew Drummond Bank Accounts: DR/427/14, ff. 56, 58, 75, 76, 147, 244, 247, 251, 253, 420 for 1734. See also Bolitho, H. & D. Peel The Drummonds of Charing Cross: passim. 36 Royal Bank of Scotland Archives, Andrew Drummond Bank Accounts: Customer Account Ledgers 1717–22 (RR. 16X); DR/427/14, DR/427/2, 1722–23; DR/427/5/ 1725–1726. 37 John Law, when in charge of France’s finances, owed a great deal of money to the Coutts bank when the Mississippi Company Bubble burst in 1720.

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already in Britain, to buy an estate in Scotland. Captain James Alexander Haldane’s colossal fortune from trading in saltpetre was remitted through the Scots firm of MacIntosh and Hannay. Lord Milton was very much involved in these financial activities. He was a Director of the Bank of Scotland and the Directors of the Royal Bank of Scotland often called for Milton’s advice. For instance, in 1749 he was asked what to do about reducing interest on India Bonds. At the time Milton was also dealing with the Scots banking firm in London of Campbell & Bruce. However, he was soon in league with Coutts of London. In June 1761, James Coutts thanked him for putting the Royal Bank of Scotland’s business his way.38

India-London-Edinburgh Remittances: Case Studies These studies illustrate the progress of funds that left India and turned up in Edinburgh. The first concerns John Mackenzie of Delvine’s care for Col. Sir John Cumming of Altyre, whose military service spanned the period 1765–74. It illustrates how it all worked. Cumming gave Mackenzie power of attorney over his affairs and made him his agent for remitting and investing the fortune he made in India from EIC service and from his trading exploits. Much of the Cumming money was sent home via bills of exchange. Messrs Sumner and Gregory in London and their bankers, Castels and Wheatley were used. Gold was sent home with his children who were despatched to Scotland to avoid the high risk of an early death in India. It was made payable to ‘Messrs. Drummond, to save you (Mackenzie) trouble about the exchange’.39 Cumming settled money on all his relations and through Mackenzie bought Gosford Estate, East Lothian, for £8,000. Until his own return in 1777 he continued to remit his riches home through Mackenzie, mostly gold and bills of exchange, although in 1774 diamonds were despatched worth £4,300. This was done using Thomas Anderson’s remittance agency in Calcutta, Anderson then consigning the diamonds to Delvine. In 1775 Cumming sent more gems, worth £3,600, all of which were transmitted via Drummonds bank in London and thence to Mackenzie of Delvine in Edinburgh. That same year another two consignments of diamonds were despatched via Drummonds bank, worth £3,600 and £8,660 respectively. These were followed by a further £11,000 in bills and silver. 38 The numerous and detailed sources for these claims are on my databases. Queries about individuals and companies mentioned can be verified by me on request. 39 McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 87.

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All of this was entrusted to Mackenzie and not once was Cumming disappointed. On his return home this nabob added to his Gosford estate; he bought more houses in Edinburgh: in George Square, Abbeyhill, Easter Road, and also in Leith. He had fortune, estate and property, with more money still to come from India where it enjoyed a splendid rate of interest. Such was Mackenzie’s involvement that he became accustomed to working alongside fellow Scots in remitting funds from India. Captain David Rannie was served, and he maintained connections with Drummond’s bank.40 Col. William Baillie (of Dunean) provides another illustration. During his military service he sent money home via his agent in India, John Ogilvie, and used Andrew Drummond’s bank. Commanders Robert Munro and William Fullerton-Elphinstone brought home Baillie’s diamonds and muslins in their ships. David Mitchell, of the Scots firm Annan & Colquhoun, acted as his attorney and remitted his fortune to Scotland. In Fort William, Bengal, the EIC Writer, William Stair Dalrymple passed his bills of exchange through the Scottish firm of Innes and Clarke, resident in Calcutta. His London agent was the Scot, David Findlay. Sir Gilbert Elliot, statesman and EIC Proprietor, dealt in EIC stock through Coutts Bankers, London. His agent was Charles Taylor, who in 1769 handled over £2,800 of his money. Again, demonstrating how everything worked can be noted in the actions taken by John Lauder, a Writer at Fort St George, Madras. In 1727 he gave John Drummond’s cousin, Mr Ramsay, money to remit home. Lauder now asked Drummond to repay this by sending the sum to Mr Archibald Robertson, his agent in Edinburgh, who was his brother-in-law. This example of the transference of funds was later mirrored in the activities of the three Hannay brothers who operated in the 1765 to 1774 period. Ramsay Hannay was a free merchant trading to China and also involved in the ‘Coastal’ trade of India. He was the brother of Sir Samuel Hannay, MP and London Merchant who remitted his brother’s money home. The third brother, Col. Alexander Hannay of the East India Company’s army, shared with James Fraser a contract for supplying elephants to the Nawab of Oude. He too used his brother, Samuel for remittances. Miscellaneous other firms and individuals operating in Scotland, London and India were also involved, such as: Charteris and Menteith, Messrs Crawford and Duncanson, Morse and Monson, and Scott, Pringle and Cheap.41 40

Ibid: 87–89, 242, footnote 71. For further reading, see Price, F.G.H. Handbook of London Bankers: With some Account of their Predecessors (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co, 1890– 41

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Illustrations of Edinburgh Fortunes Prior to 1834 It is believed that roughly half of all those who proceeded east during those years would never return, but any estate belonging to the deceased was conscientiously remitted home to his family. For example, William Rigg (cousin of Sir Hew Dalrymple) died in Bencoolen, Sumatra in 1746. He left £1,200 to his father, which was sent home. Many brought back unheard-of fortunes, like the £300,000 of John Johnstone, banked in Edinburgh and elsewhere.42 Others returning enriched were James Cheap, the son of James Cheap, merchant in Leith, with a medium-sized fortune of £22–25,000.43 Another was his relation, Thomas Cheap (eldest son of George Cheap, Collector of Customs at Prestonpans) who used his moderate fortune to become an EIC Proprietor then a Director. Both Captain David Rannie and Captain David Robertson brought back fabulous sums – around £100,000 in the case of Rannie. Sir William Forbes also returned with immense funds. Among many other interests he became part-owner of several East Indiamen, including, in 1787, the General Elliot. The Graham brothers (already mentioned) the sons of John Graham, an Edinburgh merchant, became obscenely wealthy. Their combined fortunes amounted to over US$300,000. They bought most of the land around Kinross and the mansion there. The Grays, father and son (both named George Gray) were in India. The father had been a Surgeon at Fort William, Calcutta and returned enriched. Young George became a Writer at Calcutta after his studies at Edinburgh University. He survived the ‘Black Hole’ and returned to Edinburgh to enjoy his fortune. They were also connected to Coutts Bank, London. Lastly, Captain William Fullarton-Elphinstone must be mentioned because of the staggering funds he accumulated. The list will grow, as more and more fortunes are uncovered.44 91); Saville, R. Bank of Scotland: A History 1695–1995 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996); Joslin, D.M. ‘London Private Bankers, 1720–1785’, Economic History Review, 7, 2 (1954): 167–86. 42 See McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 199; Rothschild, E. The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011). 43 See Bodleian Library, Oxford, MSS Eng. Hist. c/269, ff. 29–42, L. Sulivan’s Letterbook to his son, April 1778, for the size of a fortune made in India needed ‘to live as a gentleman’ in mid-eighteenth-century Britain. Large fortunes averaged £70,000, medium ones £30,000, and small ones £15,000. 44 See also McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 48–183, 209–31.

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Value of Remittances – 1750s-1834 Assessing the value of the wealth remitted in these years becomes hazardous (and for the Edinburgh region alone almost impossible). What has been discovered so far applies to the whole country and is a part of ongoing research. It is possible that from the 1750s to the 1780s, £500,000 per annum entered Scotland from Asia. From the 1780s onwards this would have been nearer £750,000 per annum and increasing each decade because of the build-up of Houses of Agency, many of which were held or controlled by Scots.45 By 1830 there was a massive increase in Scottish-owned businesses there, like ship-building, indigo plantations and insurance, so much so that all told, some £45 million was probably brought back by the 1830s.46 The bulk of these funds either passed through Edinburgh financial institutions or remained there to gather interest and be used.47

Change and Improvements: A Commercial World Created For most people in Scotland the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a time to forget. Post-1707, the country suffered the travails of widespread economic and social discontent, of dislike of the Union and its aftermath, all mired with Jacobitism. When this scene is contrasted with the hope and abundant material gains realised by the first quarter of the nineteenth century the change is startling. This was no better exemplified than in Edinburgh, Leith and their environs, and the wealth pouring in from Asia explains a great deal. It largely clarifies why in this era a burgeoning middle-class was being added to the existing aristocracy and why an agricultural and industrial explosion took place in Scotland dating from the 1760s.48 Post-Culloden, there was a growing acceptance of the Great Britain concept, particularly in Edinburgh, which was gaining economically from the Indian connection and largesse from elsewhere. By the end of the eighteenth century its citizens were very much part of a new commercial society. The money links between Edinburgh and London 45

McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017): 75–96. See also McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 184–202. 47 McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob’ (2012): 90–108. Multiply by 100 for the approximate value of this money today. 48 McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 186; see also Harris, E.M. ‘The Episcopal Congregation of Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh 1794–1818’, PhD thesis, University of Stirling: Stirling, 2013. 46

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continued to be very strong. They formed the world’s leading centres for banking, politics and social clubs. In Edinburgh there was an East India Club. The environment created in Scotland was probably also partly instrumental in developing features of what came to be called ‘The Scottish Enlightenment’. Banks, agencies and commercial institutions, like the York Building Company, promoted industry and commerce. The remittances, the gold and diamonds flowing in from Asia (not necessarily only from the hands of Scots) were being invested in Edinburgh (and elsewhere in Scotland). These funds from the East helped activate agricultural improvements: long leases and improving landlords were funded – all in a very short space of time. The enclosure movement and stock improvements went forward, hand in hand. Market gardens flourished; diet improved all round. Edinburgh’s new Botanical Gardens saw the importation of very useful plants. From the second half of the eighteenth century onwards the impact of this money became more and more apparent, illustrating that a new world was begun. More canals and bridges were built, including the Union Canal, using India money from people like Sir Laurence Dundas, with a £10,000 stake.49 The Port of Leith was expanded; collieries and waggonways opened, such as the one at Tranent. In places like Prestonpans, salt pans and potteries now operated; commodities and manufactures of various descriptions appeared, such as muslins (cashmere) – all using funds from the Indies. A new commercial infrastructure and urbanisation was being born, funded by this money. Skills that stemmed from EIC training, India experience and previous military and naval activities accompanied those who returned.50 East Indiamen and other ships and sailors were arriving in Leith with tea, spices and porcelain. Lord Belhaven remarked upon several EIC ships going by Dunbar to Leith – and that this was a pretty common occurrence. ‘The Edinburgh assembly’, he said, ‘was pretty full of Captains, mates, supercargoes’. They were seen on ‘Leith Sands’ and in ‘Auld Reeky’.51 Roads and overland connections with London were improved, much of it paid for 49

McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 151–52.

50 See McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob’ (2012): 90–108; McGilvary, G.K. ‘John

Drummond of Quarrel, East India Company Patronage and Assimilation of Scottish Jacobites 1725–1780, in Jacobitism, Enlightenment and Empire, 1680–1820 (eds) D. Hamilton & A.I. Macinnes (London: Chatto & Pickering, 2014): 141–57, 249–54; McGilvary, ‘Scottish Agency Houses’ (2017): 75–96. 51 See National Library of Scotland (NLS) 16659, f. 196, Belhaven to Milton, 8 July 1748.

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by local landlords enjoying Indian money – who were able to implement tolls for recompense. Churches began to feel the benefits from India money. Between 1794 and 1818, Charlotte Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh felt the effect of donations from congregation members who had made their fortunes in the East. Twenty-three individuals introduced money that came from this source. Nine were ‘significantly wealthy’. An Andrew Falconar returned from the East with £120,000. His friend and fellow worshiper, Robert Downie, invested copiously in the City.52 Christian missionary activities were also awakened, though kept in check by the Company’s leaders until the early nineteenth century. The impact of the Indian connection was reflected in culture, dress, language, literature and the arts. Children who were the issue of Scots and Indian bibis were seen in Edinburgh. Tea drinking flourished, spices gave added taste. Words were added to the vocabulary. Edinburgh’s institutions also changed: The university, museum, libraries, art galleries, monuments and street statues (and the Cowasjee bas-relief in Old College) now reflected the East Indies connection.53 In the 1780s the Mirror newspaper referred to what it called ‘the ‘Mushroom Family’, which has sprung up overnight as the result of Indian wealth’. It spoke of the old traditional landed classes and their values now being pitted against the new commercial ones represented by nabobs and EIC Proprietors, and of their increasingly important role in Scottish social and political life.54 The suggestion has been raised that this connection with India and the civilisations of South-East Asia was not such a good thing; that upon their return nabobs were a corrupting influence; that British culture and beliefs suffered. This view is difficult to sustain, however, as far as the Scottish part of Great Britain is concerned. Nabobs were quickly incorporated into general social life: seen in salons, at balls and on the golf courses in Leith, Musselburgh and St Andrews.55 52 Harris, E.M. ‘The Episcopal Congregation of Charlotte Chapel’ (2013): 159–64, et passim. 53 The Cowasjee bas-relief is in the main stair to the Playfair Library, Old College, University of Edinburgh. 54 Quoted in Dwyer, J. & A.J. Murdoch ‘Paradigms and Politics: Morals, Manners and the rise of Henry Dundas, 1770–1784’, in New Perspectives on the Politics and Culture of Early Modern Scotland (eds) J. Dwyer, R.A. Mason & A.J. Murdoch (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982): 211–27. 55 McGilvary, ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob’ (2012): 95–98; Karras, A.L. Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740–1800 (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press 1992); Nechtman, T.W. ‘A Jewel in the Crown? Indian Wealth in

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Conclusion A fitting way to conclude this survey might be to portray some of the great houses and estates surrounding Edinburgh that owed so much to EIC money. They demonstrate the impact being made and give some comprehension of the massive changes being wrought. By the start of the nineteenth century at least forty-six nabobs or persons associated with the EIC owned forty-three landed properties contiguous with the city and with Leith. These estates were either purchased or improved by EIC money originating in India, South-East Asia or China. These magnificent mansions formed a necklace of properties along both shores of the Firth of Forth and its immediate interior (see Fig. 2). Edinburgh City was similarly transformed by Edinburgh residents who availed themselves of this bounty. Starting on the east coast, the first property is Dunglass, owned by Alexander Hall. It lies on the edge of the North Sea, a little south of Dunbar. The Winterfield property, acquired by the EIC servant, George Mackay, is in Dunbar itself. Next, in North Berwick, the traveller enters the estate of Sir Hew Dalrymple and then that of his son, Captain William Dalrymple, who had extensive EIC connections, and lands and mansions that reflected the wealth this brought. Voyaging westwards to Haddingtonshire, now East Lothian, the chain of properties and great country houses that profited by these links includes the domains of Balgone and Prestongrange, belonging to George Suttie, 3rd baronet, EIC Director and Proprietor. The Ballancrieff estate, near the county town, Haddington, was owned by Lord Elibank (Patrick Murray), an EIC Proprietor. The Hailes estate benefitted from the EIC activities of Stair Dalrymple and Sir John Dalrymple, so much so that they deserted Hailes Castle, near East Linton, and moved into the mansion now known as Newhailes near Musselburgh. (They also owned Leuchie house, southeast of North Berwick and the Bargany Estate in Ayrshire). Other properties and great houses in East Lothian, equally blessed were the Chesterhall estate near Gladsmuir that had belonged to Peter Wedderburn, which passed to his son Alex. Wedderburn, 1st Baron Loughborough, 1st Earl of Rosslyn, an EIC Proprietor. Mention should also be made of William Rigg of Garnelshiel, James Heriot (Junior) of Dirleton, Dr Colt of Inveresk and ship commanders David Rannie and David Robertson of Musselburgh. Domestic Britain in the Late Eighteenth Century’, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 41, 1 (2007): 71–86; Nechtman, T.W. Nabobs: Empire and Identity in EighteenthCentury Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

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Midlothian comes next, with Saltoun, owned by Andrew Fletcher, the Lord Milton, steeped in EIC patronage and business; Gosford, home of Alex Wedderburn (and later in the 1770s by Colonel Sir John Cumming of Altyre). This is followed by Carberry, belonging to Dr J. Fullerton. All were EIC servants at one time or another. Also in Midlothian was Alexander Callander of Prestonhall, Pathead. Clustered in and around Edinburgh were Chesterhall, home of Peter Wedderburn, Inch Park, belonging to John Mackenzie of Delvine, Vogrie Park, housing the Dewars (who married into David Anderson’s family). Travelling further west, the Dalkeith estate of Henry Scott Duke of Buccleuch gave way to Pittendreich, Lasswade, the home of Andrew Melrose, tea merchant in Edinburgh and Leith. Then on to Melville Castle, which belonged to Captain David Rannie and was given as part of a dowry to Henry Dundas. From thence to the lands of Cockpen owned by Archibald Cockburn, 2nd Laird of Cockpen: he too received riches from Captain David Rannie, via the dowry that came with his wife, Janet Rannie; they were parents of the celebrated Henry Lord Cockburn. Cockpen lay near Arniston, home of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, patron of family and friends he sent to the Indies. One of those was Gabriel Rankin, who came back to Penicuik. West Lothian had its fair share of properties blessed by the influx of India-born wealth, such as Dalmahoy, home of the Earl of Morton, Hope Park and Sir Thomas Hope, Hopetoun House with the Earls of Hopetoun. An estate at Torphichen and another at East Calder both belonged to Lord Sandilands and his son, Captain Sandilands, commander of an East Indiaman. Houston House (and its estate) at Uphall was home to the Shairp family; and Polkemet, near Whitburn, was owned by William Baillie. All these properties on the southern edge of the Forth prospered because of wealth from India. It was a similar picture on the northern shore. Estates of Fife lairds with EIC connections benefitted hugely. Travelling eastwards, Pitfirrane (west of Dunfermline) belonged to Peter Halkett, an EIC Factor. Balbirnie was home to John Balfour. The House of Falkland was owned by Professor John Bruce and then by his Eurasian niece, Margaret, whose father sent back money from India to his brother. William Hamilton’s estate was at Kinghorn, Sir John Law owned Clatto, Cupar. Balcarres House (and the Lindsay family) was situated just north of the village of Colinsburgh in the East Neuk. Balcomie was purchased by John Scott MP, a Proprietor of EIC stock. It and Scotstarvit (also full of Scotts) all benefitted from the India connection, as did James Beck at Damside, and James Cheap at Strathtyrum. Still in the St Andrews area was Wellfield, which belonged

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to James Beck, an EIC Factor, while the Stravithie estate was owned by Hugh Cleghorn (see also Chapter 5 in this volume). All these properties owed their existence or rude health to treasure that originated in the East. Additional benefit to the Edinburgh area came from the regions adjacent to the capital. Separate from the Fife estates mentioned, a minimum of nine nabobs, resident in the rest of Fife and Kinross, such as the Grahams of Kinross House and estate, owned thirteen properties. Twenty-four occupied twenty properties in Stirlingshire and Central Scotland. In the eastern borders nine returned EIC servants owned thirteen properties. In other words, Edinburgh and its surrounds also benefited from recipients of this EIC abundance (not necessarily estate owners) from areas further away. By the 1830s, estates and their owners from all over Scotland were benefitting from the largesse stemming from the East Indies and China. My latest research shows that at least 187 Scottish families held some 227 properties, spread all over the country, either bought with or improved by money that originated in the East.56 The funds for their purchase and improvement came initially to Edinburgh, which was the epicentre for most funds pouring into Scotland originating in the East Indies. From there, the money fanned out to the individual estates and mansions scattered around Scotland. Many propertied people, including those with fortunes enlarged through India money, kept town-houses and mansions in Edinburgh and Leith. These were quality buildings. Whole areas profited, like Edinburgh’s New Town, filled with sumptuous homes, in places like Charlotte Square and George Street. Entire stretches of Edinburgh’s Southside, George Square, Abbeyhill, The Grange, Morningside, Corstorphine and Ravelston were improved with India money.57 The people and estates catalogued here illustrate that the Edinburgh gentry had seized the opportunities India offered. Nabob money bought or improved the properties, the right thing to do in an era of rising land prices. Funds from Eastern sources found various homes: they were invested, placed in Scottish banks, they purchased local and/or Bank of England shares and EIC stock as well. Because of India’s high interest rates a great deal returned there – to be syphoned off later. In this way EIC money was massively influential in transforming the Edinburgh area and largely responsible for the material benefits seen. It was 56 From the author’s databases. This does not include all the separate country mansions, only some of which have been included here. 57 These details are selected from an on-going data bank, researched and maintained by the author. They can be verified on request.

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an impressive input and would have appeared so to the bulk of the capital’s population. Finally, it is argued that the evidence supports the view that money from the empire in the East (and that from the transatlantic trade, especially in sugar and tobacco) helped bring about Scotland’s agricultural and industrial revolutions, dating from the 1760s. It does not appear to have been possible using only home-based funds.58

58 For more on this argument see McGilvary, East India Patronage and the British State (2008): 186–96. See also Harris, E.M. ‘The Episcopal Congregation of Charlotte Chapel’ (2013).

3 Orientalist Collecting of Indian Sculpture Friederike Voigt

Introduction

Iexhibition at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh (hereafter N MARCH 1973, THE HIGH COMMISSIONER OF INDIA FORMALLY OPENED AN

‘the Museum’) which was dedicated exclusively to Asiatic sculptures.1 Originally, the Director of the Museum had written in this respect ‘with the concurrence of the Scottish Office’ to the last Viceroy of India, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–79), who, however, declined the invitation.2 Despite the wider Asian focus of the display, the majority of the exhibits came from India, which explains the aspiration for a representative with a strong India connection. The exhibition presented an impressive set of over fifty large-scale metal and stone sculptures, Buddhist and Hindu, all from the Museum’s own holdings (Coia 1973: 30). By stressing the size and importance of the collection, the exhibition curator, Jennifer Scarce, was able to secure them a space in the most prominent location of the whole Museum – the grand, airy structure of the Main Hall, or Grand Gallery as it is now called. This achievement was a result of the fortunate combination of her curatorial astuteness and opportunity. The Museum was one of only four institutions in the UK to respond to the invitation from the Royal Asiatic Society to celebrate their 150th anniversary by organising an exhibition (Anon. 1974: 197). Scarce judiciously took this event as a 1

Since its inception as the Industrial Museum of Scotland in 1854, the Museum has changed its name several times. It was renamed the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art in 1866 and became the Royal Scottish Museum in 1904. The amalgamation with the National Museum of Antiquities in 1985 created the National Museums of Scotland. In 2006, they were incorporated in National Museums Scotland, an umbrella organisation for several national collections. 2 Invitation letter dated 3 October 1972. Asiatic Sculpture exhibition file, Department of World Cultures, National Museums Scotland.

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chance to draw public attention to the Museum’s valuable collection of Indian stone sculpture, most of which had not been on display for more than thirty years, since the Museum closed at the outbreak of World War II. It would have seemed entirely fitting for the Museum to produce a display on the art of Asian sculpture if for nearly a century its primary collecting focus had not been technology and the industrial arts. Where did this – in the Director’s words – ‘fine but little known collection of Indian sculpture’ come from?3 What role would large Indian stone sculpture have played in an industrial museum setting? If it was not within its scope, how was it acquired and who brought it to Scotland in the first place?

Indian stone sculpture in the collection of the Museum Indian material has come into the Museum since its inception as the Industrial Museum of Scotland in 1854. Forming an important part of the British Empire, India was an obvious source for the worldwide collecting of industrial specimens, from raw materials to finished products. Indeed, fifty minerals from India were the second entry in the main acquisition register. Such contributions had to be actively sought. George Wilson (1818–59), the Museum’s first Director, was also Regius Professor of Technology at the University of Edinburgh, a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (from 1845) and, from 1855–57, President of the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts. Wilson deployed his academic and private network to collect industrial materials from all over the world for the Museum. Among the Scots in the Indian civil and military service who supported this mission of national significance for Scotland were well-known names such as Alexander Hunter (1816–90) and Alexander Christison (1828–1918). Hunter held an appointment as Resident Surgeon in Madras but was far more interested in an artistic career. In 1850, he founded the Madras School of Industrial Arts and he stayed in charge as its superintendent until his retirement in 1873. The School of Art was an obvious partner for the Edinburgh museum and Hunter supplied Wilson with materials and tools which were used and produced in the Madras school: samples of raw materials such as dyes, shell-lac and silk; pattern books for textiles, modern and historical pottery, samples of Indian paper and the fibres for making it, and a complete set of tools used in wood carving. The scope of industrial collecting had not been defined yet and the idea of a comprehensive illustration of manufacturing processes invited 3

Ibid.

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the contribution of a wide range of objects. Alexander Christison, son of Sir Robert Christison (1797–1882) was, like his father, a surgeon, but was obliged to take on a series of other roles during his career in India (1851–82). While posted at Agra, he became assistant inspector of the opium factory in Ghazipur, and was therefore in a position to provide the Edinburgh museum with specimens and models illustrating the preparation of opium. Economic botany was yet another important area of collecting. Dr George Buist (1804–60), born in Forfarshire and educated in St Andrews and Edinburgh, became editor of the Bombay Times in 1839. He sent Indian food plants together with rocks and minerals and weapons following the disarmament after the Indian Rebellion. At a much smaller scale the Museum acquired fine pieces of craft from India. Joseph Fayrer (1824–1907) donated, amongst other pieces, a silver and gold embroidered cashmere coverlet he had received from the King of Oude for his valuable service (Fayrer 1900: 105). An assistant surgeon since 1850, Fayrer became Residency surgeon at Lucknow in 1853. He made his donation to the Museum while he was on furlough in Edinburgh in 1858–59 to visit his wife’s family and to obtain an MD from the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School. The Museum’s financial means for purchases were insufficient to supplement these donations and represent the whole range of industries comprehensively. From its beginning, loans were therefore used strategically to complement what was held in the permanent collection to enhance visitor experience. When the new museum building at Chambers Street was opened in 1866 it provided a dedicated space to display loans. As the Edinburgh newspaper the Scotsman remarked, this soon became a popular destination: The first and upper rooms in the north-east corner of the building, above the lecture-room, contain often very special attractions, for in these the loan specimens are mostly exhibited, and novelties never fail to attract the great majority of Saturday evening visitors. (Scotsman, 5 March 1868: 6)

The Museum benefited from Edinburgh’s position as a sub-national capital, and governmental sources provided splendid assemblages of Indian craftsmanship. A ‘large and exceedingly costly collection of Indian jewels, works in metal, wood, &c., and textile fabrics’, loaned by the Secretary of State for India, was one of the first exhibitions to attract a notably large number of visitors (Annual Report 1866: 254).4 Individuals also lent 4 The Annual Reports appear in the Parliamentary Papers, relevant years. They are collected in a bound volume in the Library of National Museums Scotland at 069.09411 RSM P.

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materials, sometimes on a long-term basis. The influential collector of Indian art, Charles Seton Guthrie, of Scotscalder (1807–74), repeatedly made available valuable items from his splendid collection, which he had assembled during his time in India as an officer in the Bengal Engineers between 1828 and 1857. On his death, in a familiar pattern, much of this material was lost to Edinburgh and went to London where it was auctioned at Christie’s. In 1879, the Museum successfully petitioned to be the first Scottish venue for an overwhelmingly popular show of the treasures with which the Prince of Wales was presented during his tour of the Indian subcontinent in 1875–76. The very large increase of visitors during the past year is undoubtedly due to the attractions of the collection of Indian gifts so graciously lent by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. (Annual Report 1879: 602)

A selection of this material returned to the Queen’s Gallery in Edinburgh in 2017, as part of the celebrations marking 70 years of Indian independence. A range of lenders provided the Museum with a variety of Indiarelated material in the 1880s. The most substantial of these loans were plaster casts of architectural ornaments; several large collections of Indian textiles from the Science and Art Department in London; and architectural drawings and photographs from Gujarat offered by the Archaeological Survey for Southern and Western India. The Great Hall of the Museum, which was completed in 1875, became dedicated to a comparative display of architectural casts. Not a loan but an expensive acquisition, and one of the most impressive items of the Great Hall, was the replica of the gate of the Great Stupa in Sanchi (Swinney 2014: 139–40, 146). Illustrations of the time show the gate in different locations in the Great Hall. By the 1890s it had found its final position in a prominent location at the top of the steps leading up from the main museum entrance into the Great Hall where it greeted visitors when they entered the building (Fig. 3). Despite the expectation that it would form an attraction across Europe for the public and scholars alike, the cast was destroyed when the Museum closed in 1939. Other casts from India, such as those of Graeco-Buddhist carvings from north-west India in the collection of Lahore Museum, which the Edinburgh museum had received from Mr Lockwood Kipling, were disposed of in 1944. The first occasion on which the Museum bought a significant number of Indian objects was from the sale of the collection of Robert Mayne (1782–1867) in Edinburgh in 1859. This sale presented an opportunity

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not to be missed for the newly established Industrial Museum to acquire high-quality works of art, available at its doorstep. More than £9,000 (in today’s value) were spent on 86 items – the largest and most significant purchase of Indian material in the institution’s 19th century history – plus a few more Egyptian, Chinese and Roman antiquities. Given the scale of this acquisition, the Museum might have had first refusal. For Mayne, many of these objects had a historical value; others such as the metal casts, carved wood and stone sculptures from India and Sri Lanka had been, in an Orientalist scholarly way, a source of information on Indian mythology. However, with an industrial concept of collecting their appreciation shifted from an antiquarian interest to understanding them as superior examples of craftsmanship which could be studied for the technical accomplishments in the working of their respective materials. It was not until 1882 that the first large stone sculpture, a figure of the goddess Parvati (accession number A.1882.33), was donated by a Mr H. Clark from Liverpool. His relation to the Museum is not clear, nor is his connection to the Madras Army General Sir Robert Cadell of Cockenzie (1825–97), who delivered the sculpture to the Museum. This was followed by the donation of a small 10th century stone slab carved with a female figure (A.1883.68.1) by Dr Murray Thomson, professor of chemistry at the Thomason College of Civil Engineering in Roorkee. In 1887, the Museum purchased, together with other bronze and alabaster Hindu sculptures, an impressive but somewhat damaged Pala-period Avalokiteshvara (A.1887.160) from the Edinburgh auction house A. Dowell’s. The Museum seems to have embraced an opportunity with this purchase, possibly inspired by significant acquisitions of Indian sculpture made by the British Museum in 1872 with the gift of the John Bridge collection and the distribution of the India Museum collections between the major London museums in 1879. By then the plaster cast of the Sanchi Gate was on display in the Great Hall and the growing interest in architecture and architectural decoration as one area within the arts might also have had an influence on such a decision. However, these items remained the only Indian sculptures until 1905, when the Museum bought the head of a Jain statue (A.1905.4) and received the following year two carved stone columns from the Gaur-Pandua region in West Bengal as a gift from Reverend W.G. Allan (A.1906.4–A.1906.5). Two further items, the figure of an attendant (A.1910.115) and an image of the goddess Lakshmi (A.1914.126), were donated by a Mrs Jacob from Bournemouth in 1910 and Constance Nisbet Hamilton Ogilvie of Winton Castle, East Lothian in 1914, respectively. A significant group of

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eighteen carved slabs of Gandharan carvings came through Colonel A.A.J. Johnstone in 1913. Individual pieces of Gandharan material continued to come into the collection until the early 1950s, the most important being a large image of a seated Buddha (A.1933.155), bought by Arthur Edward Anderson (1870–1938) and donated to the Museum in 1933. Anderson was a connoisseur and benefactor with no direct link to India, who donated art to many museums and galleries across the UK. A turning point in the direction of collecting and display was the evacuation of the Museum during World War II. Post-war reorganisation recognised the shift in the collections, now of the Department of Art and Ethnography, from ‘largely illustrative of industrial arts and design’ in the early years of the Museum to more ‘representative of the arts, […] and craftsmanship’. The display of the worldwide collections was rearranged in the centre of the Museum, in the Main Hall, where it provided the comparative background for the Scottish examples of art and design. The ‘early Indian carvings’, a reference which is likely to have included stone sculptures, were regarded amongst the finest material in these collections and displayed in the Oriental section (Allan 1954: 65). In 1955, the Museum received a bequest of two Pala and two Gandharan sculptures (A.1955.69–A.1955.72) from Joseph Charles French (1883–1954). These sculptures had been on loan to the Museum before. In the same year it also bought two sculptures from Elgin Museum (A.1995.206; A.1955.207) and negotiated the purchase of a mosque niche from Gaur (A.1958.80), which was concluded in 1958. More transfers arrived from local museums and galleries in the 1960s, such as Dumfries (A.1960.997–A.1960.998), Arbuthnot Museum (A.1966.356) and the Burgh of Hawick Museum (A.1970.999). After the appointment of Jennifer Scarce as the curator for Asia in 1963, the Museum also made some judicious purchases mainly from the London auction house Spink & Son. In total six pieces – friezes, architectural elements and free-standing sculptures – covering different styles, regions and time periods were acquired (A.1964.556; A.1968.494; A.1970.261; A.1970.262; A.1971.704; A.1975.265). This search through the Museum’s records has demonstrated that it acquired very few Indian sculptures on its own account before World War II. Only after the 1950s, partly in competition with art dealers and larger institutions such as the British Museum, did it manage to secure sculptures from local Scottish collections, and make purchases in the 1960s-1970s. What arrived from other museums was opportunistic but together with the targeted purchases after 1945 reflected a change in direction towards an art historical view of Indian sculpture. However, these limited holdings

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of a little more than twenty pieces would not have justified their appraisal as ‘a fine but little known collection of Indian sculpture’. We must look elsewhere, therefore, to find out how more than fifty fine Hindu and Buddhist sculptures from the Museum’s own collection could be displayed in the 1973 exhibition curated by Jennifer Scarce.

Indian stone sculpture in Edinburgh collections Between 1854 and 1956, as a result of the specialisation of Edinburgh’s public collections, the Museum became home to the holdings of large Indian stone sculpture of three of the city’s leading learned societies and academic institutions: the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (SAS) and the Natural History Museum of the University of Edinburgh (hereafter ‘University Collection’). The RSE had already orientated their collecting towards natural history and science at an earlier point: the so-called 1828 agreement with the SAS settled that the two societies would pass to each other ‘whatever articles might be in their possession but more particularly adapted to the Enquiries of the other’ (Waterston 1997: 54). Sculptures given to the RSE reached the Museum therefore through the SAS’ collection, while those of the latter came first on loan together with other non-European comparative material in 1922, and were finally transferred under the 1951 ‘Disposal of Surplus Material Order’, resulting in the SAS collections focussing thereafter solely on Scottish history and archaeology (Stevenson 1981: 204). The early collections of these three organisations were connected in other ways. Under its First Charter of 1783 the RSE could not hold property and donations of ‘natural production and artificial rarities’ were therefore housed in the University Museum (Anon. 1790: 17). Although its Second Charter of 1811 resolved this problem, the RSE did not reclaim its earlier possessions (Waterston 1997: 6). Together with the transfer of the University Collection in 1854, the Museum thus received pieces which were donated originally to the RSE, as a few old labels confirm. Between the late 18th century and 1922, the three institutions shared amongst them more than thirty large Indian stone carvings, which seemed to have been received less accidentally than some other foreign artificial rarities in their collections. For none of them, however, was it a primary concern to pursue this material. Periods of accessioning were therefore followed by periods of deaccessioning. Though at a smaller scale, these circumstances applied to local museums across Scotland; as we have seen some of them transferred or sold their Indian stone sculptures to the

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Museum in the 1950s-70s. This raises the question of how these sculptures became available in Scotland and who were the people who donated them. Due to the repeated transfers most of the sculptures arrived at the Museum with minimal information on their provenance. In the following I disentangle the intertwined institutional histories to associate with each sculpture a name, ascertain if possible the connection of their donors to India, and discover the motivations and circumstances of their collecting.

Sculptures in the collection of the Royal Society of Edinburgh In the absence of a comprehensive catalogue, the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (hereafter Transactions) is the best source of information about the donations the RSE received after its foundation in 1783. The lists of donations published in the Transactions report only for the year 1819 a gift of ‘sculptures of Indian idols’ (1823: 534). Although these lists are known to be incomplete, neither can Charles Waterston’s reconstructed catalogue of the RSE’s collections, for which he analysed additional documentation, identify further Indian sculpture (Waterston 1997: 145–192). It is conceivable that some of the RSE’s early donations of Indian sculpture might be amongst the pieces which are catalogued as ‘University Collection’ today. There is no reason to assume that any sculpture was kept in the RSE’s collections after 1828, as the agreement from that year formalised what had already been a custom: a group of Burmese idols sent by George Swinton (1780–1854), Secretary to the Government, from Calcutta in 1825 was passed to the SAS immediately after their receipt. The RSE kept only two of them, potentially for the analysis of the resinous substance they contained. Another three fine marble statues of Burmese gods (A.1956.585–A.1956.587), which Swinton sent in 1827, were transferred under the new arrangement (Waterston 1997: 163–65). The sculptures donated to the RSE in 1819 are the earliest documented examples of large Indian stone sculpture in Scotland: four figures of Buddhist and Hindu deities, which the donor, Captain Francis Simpson (1760–1831), had brought back from India in 1800 (Cadell 1823: 381). Two of these figures show Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara in the form of Khasarpana with one face and two arms. One is a standing Khasarpana, or ‘sky-flyer’, flanked by four deities: on his proper right Tara, holding a lotus, and Sudhanakumara, with his hands folded in adoration; and on his proper left the four-armed Bhrikuti and Hayagriva, with a protruding belly (A.1956.564). Although both of the arms of the Bodhisattva are broken off, a small figure of Sucimukha, or ‘needle-mouth’, kneeling at the pedestal, suggests that Khasarpana’s proper right hand was held

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in the gesture of charity (varada mudra). Sucimukha, a hungry ghost, received the nectar flowing from the fingers of the Bodhisattva’s hand, as a sign of his infinite compassion with all living beings, and thus is liberated from his doomed existence. The second figure of Khasarpana is seated on a double lotus in the pose of ease (A.1956.565, Fig. 4). He is accompanied by three of the above-mentioned deities – Tara, Bhrikuti and Hayagriva. The third sculpture of this group is a Buddha Shakyamuni sitting on a lotus throne underneath the Bodhi tree. The Buddha has his right hand in earth-touching gesture (bhumisparsha mudra) and holds the left in meditation. The earth goddess which he called to witness his enlightenment is represented in the centre of the plinth (A.1956.566). The fourth sculpture is the image of an eight-armed Chamunda, sitting on the corpse of a man (A.1956.574). Representing the fiery energy of nature, Chamunda is depicted with an emaciated body, protruding eyes, snakes around her neck and in her piled hair, and wearing a garland of skulls. In her proper right hands she carries a sword, a skull-cup, a knife and a drum; one of her proper left arms rests on her leg; with another one she holds a mace, while licking on her fingers; in the two remaining hands she carries a bell and holds a severed head. The collector of these four sculptures, Francis Simpson, was born in Fife. Nothing seems to be known about his childhood, nor how and when he arrived in India. He appears as a free mariner in the mercantile service, the first time in 1789 as the commander of the country ship Carnatic, and then again from 1792 to 1801 as the captain of the ship Carron. On both occasions he traded between India and China for Bruce, Fawcett & Company, one of Bombay’s leading merchant houses. Information on free mariners in the intra-Asian trade is scarce. As a personal account of his life in India does not seem to exist, it is not possible to establish when, how and why Simpson acquired the four sculptures. Stylistically, they can be attributed to the Pala period of the 8th-12th century, from the Bengal and Bihar region of north-east India. We can only speculate that he picked them up in Calcutta on one of his voyages between Bombay and China. In 1802, Simpson was dismissed from the service: the proximate or publicly-stated cause was that he had kept inadequate records of his journeys.5 He had already, in 1801, acquired the estate of Plean near Stirling and retired there, building a two-storey mansion. His decision to settle in Stirlingshire might have been influenced by the networks he had built in India. One of the founders of Bruce, Fawcett & Co., Patrick Crawford 5

British Library, India Office Records IOR/E/4/889, pp. 51–2.

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Bruce (1748–1820), was the fifth son of Sir Michael Bruce, 6th Baronet of Stenhouse.6 His family owned the land along the river Carron which had become crucial for Scotland’s industrialisation and the foundation of the Carron Iron Works in Falkirk in 1759–60 (Hamilton 1928: 185–93). In 1803, Simpson married Jane Sophie Cadell (1785–1806), the sixth child and only daughter of William Cadell (1737–1819), the original manager and one of the founders of the Carron Iron Works. Simpson kept a lifelong close relationship with her brother, William Archibald (1775–1855), who possessed the estate of Banton adjacent to Plean. It is not known if the sculptures were ever kept in Plean. When Simpson donated them to the RSE in 1819, William Archibald Cadell, who had been a fellow since 1812, acted as an intermediary. There is no record but it is likely that they were transferred to the SAS under the agreement of 1828 (Waterston 1997: 160).

Sculptures in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries The SAS items on loan to the Museum from 1922 included 17 Indian and three Burmese sculptures, which were permanently transferred and registered in 1956. Most of the sculptures arrived with insufficient descriptions. Except for the images of Buddha, all other sculptures were vaguely identified as ‘figure of a deity’, ‘female or male figure’, or in better cases ‘figure of a Hindu goddess’ or a ‘Hindu deity’. As there is no single numbering system or a catalogue, the first Account of the Institution and Progress of the Society (Smellie 1782) and the lists of donations from 1784– 1830 and 1830–51 published in Archaeologica Scotica, or Transactions of the Society, volumes III (1831) and V (1890), respectively, provide the best overview of additions to the Society’s collections before they became national property in 1851. After 1851, some information in the object records and the acquisition lists in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries (hereafter Proceedings) overlap and make it easier to identify the sculptures now in the Museum’s collection. Further cross-referencing with published works, including William Archibald Cadell’s ‘Description of some Indian Idols in the Museum of the Society’ (Cadell 1823) (hereafter ‘Description’) has finally made it possible to identify source names for 13 out of the 17 Indian sculptures, including the four from Francis Simpson. Following Simpson’s donation to the RSE, Cadell, who occupied himself with scientific and antiquarian research, set himself to identify the four 6 http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790–1820/member/bruce-patrickcraufurd-1748–1820 – Accessed 2 July 2018.

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sculptures (Cadell 1823). This is a happy coincidence as his ‘Description’ is so far the only source which provides evidence of Indian stone sculptures held in other institutions in Edinburgh before 1820, the year when his paper was read before the RSE. Cadell consulted several collections with reference material, including the British Museum and the Repository of the East India Company (EIC) at India House in London. In the SAS holdings he mentioned one figure, ‘a man standing with four arms holding weapons’ (Cadell 1823: 383). It was probably the Society’s only Indian sculpture at that time as he discussed it more generally than in direct comparison to one of Simpson’s figures. The only sculpture amongst the items formally transferred to the Museum in 1956 that matches Cadell’s description is a late 8th to early 9th century Vishnu, which John Conran Irwin (1917–97), Keeper of the Indian Section at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1959–78, attributed to Kerala (A.1956.577). None of the pre-1820 SAS donation lists give account of such a figure. There is however a note of a communication read at the SAS meeting on 22 December 1817 by Alexander Walker on the ‘Affinity between the Sclavonian and Hindoo Mythologies’ (Archaeologia Scotica 1831: 171). Walker (1764–1831) joined the EIC service in 1780. Making his career in the Bombay Army, he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1808 and eventually that of BrigadierGeneral in 1822. He was involved in long expeditions to Travancore and Malabar, occasions on which he could have obtained this sculpture. At his stately home Bowland House south of Edinburgh, which he bought after his return from India in 1810, Walker kept ‘a large collection of Indian curiosities, notably of representatives of the Hindoo pantheon’ (Hardy 1890: 59), while three carved Indian stone slabs were set in a wall to the rear of the house.7 With Major Edward Moor (1771–1848), author of the Hindu Pantheon and an intimate friend, he shared an interest in Indian literature, languages and mythology (Moor 1832: 50; Moor 1834: 68f.). Surgeon George Meikle (1788–1838) donated ‘Two Indian (Hindoo) idols and nine sacred paintings, highly ornamented’ on 22 December 1834 (Archaeologia Scotica 1890: 30). Meikle started his professional career as an assistant surgeon in the EIC in 1807 following his medical training at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. Attached to the Madras Establishment, he served for many years at the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad (Montgomery 1865: 131f.). The donation was made while Meikle was on furlough in Edinburgh between 1831 and 1834. 7 https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/200351320–bowland-house-including-gardencottages-walled-garden-and-garage-block-galashiels-and-district-ward#.W99DaxH7TIU. Accessed 4 November 2018.

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During this time, he investigated the presence of cholera in Scotland as a member of the Edinburgh Board of Health, together with other surgeons of the Madras Medical Service and Sir Henry Jardine, a great supporter of the SAS (Bell 1832: 223). Meikle became not only a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries but also an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1833, proposed by Sir John Robison (1778–1843). Meikle had met Robison in Hyderabad where Robison supplied the Nizam and his army with European merchandise and rendered his services as an engineer. Robison returned to Scotland in 1815 after more than ten years in India (Marsden 2016). He donated an ‘Indian idol’ to the SAS on 24 January 1842 (Archaeologia Scotica 1890: 48). The minimal descriptions of both donations prohibit a decision on which of the seven sculptures with no provenance in the SAS collection Meikle and Robison might have contributed. The first donation traceable in the Society’s Proceedings came from Claud Hamilton (c. 1806–unknown), a Scottish East India merchant. Hamilton became a fellow of the SAS in 1858 and the following year presented a model of a ‘sandstone Hindu temple from Mirzapore, Benares’ and a relief showing two seated figures from a temple in Bindrachal, Rajasthan (Proceedings 1862: x, 251). The latter can be conclusively identified as a carved panel of red sandstone (A.1956.573), while the only model of a Hindu temple (A.1956.580) in the SAS’ collection is made of a different stone. In 1861, the antiquarian James Thomas Gibson Craig (1799–1886), another fellow of the SAS and, at the time of the donation, its vice-president, gave two large marble pieces showing guardian lions (Proceedings 1863: 299). Gibson Craig had bought them from the sale of the collection of Robert Mayne two years before. The note in the 1863 Proceedings suggests that Mayne returned with them from India; it also claims that they came from the ruins of the ancient city of Chandravati, ten miles south-east of Abu, where they formed part of a Jain temple (A.1956.568, Fig. 5; A.1956.569). From 1812–22 Robert Mayne was the purser of, successively, the EIC ships Lady Carrington and Atlas on voyages between England, India and China (Hardy 1820: 303, 326, 340, 351). A Scotsman from Fife, he left the Company’s civil service in 1831 (Asiatic Journal 1831: 170) and settled in Edinburgh’s New Town. Until 1858, Mayne lived in Melville Street, next to his elder brother John (1778–1845), who had made a military career in the Bombay Army. In 1851, Mayne was elected a fellow of the SAS, although his passion for antiquities had started much earlier. While in the Company’s service

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he had brought together his own collection of rare and curious items. Mayne’s collection is an interesting case in many respects. The collection of a naval officer, it points out even more the opportunistic nature of antiquarian collecting; what he relates on individual items often reveals his fascination with the intrinsic historical value of the items he acquired. The Company’s trade to Canton gave him the opportunity to obtain Chinese curiosities and souvenirs such as porcelain figures, spectacles or a pair of lanterns. On the voyage of the Atlas back to England in 1822, he bought Napoleon Bonaparte’s dinner table in St Helena. This had become available after the exiled emperor’s death the year before. To secure it, he employed the services of Mr Darling, a merchant on the Island and contractor for Napoleon’s residence at Longwood. Mayne donated the table to the library of the University of Edinburgh in 1844, fitted with plaques detailing its acquisition history (Anon. 1998: 27). Later in 1822, Mayne bought some mummy figures from Giovanni Battista Belzoni’s (1778–1823) excavations in Egypt. The items had gone on sale after the closure of Belzoni’s exhibition in London in June. As mentioned above, Mayne’s collection was sold in 1859 but the Museum obviously had not considered the two marble sculptures from Chandravati for purchase on that occasion. By the time they arrived in the Museum they had been passed on twice, from Mayne to Gibson Craig and then to the SAS. The reconstruction of their trajectory brings us closer to the central question of when Mayne might have acquired these sculptures. James Tod (1782–1835), a Scottish EIC officer and Oriental scholar, claims to have been the first European to locate Chandravati. On his journey back to England in June 1822 Tod camped near the antique site; however, due to bad health he could not visit the place in person but sent a group of his entourage to explore the ruins. According to Mrs Colonel Hunter Blair, who accompanied her husband and made sketches of the ruins as part of Charles Colville’s party in 1824, Tod brought back some antiquities from Chandravati. Tod, Colville and members of their respective parties are possible sources for Mayne’s acquisition of the two marbles. However, Tod also reports that Chandravati was in decay and that marbles from the site were being sold to everybody who had taste and money (Tod 1839: 130; 134). This makes an acquisition date before 1822 equally possible. The latest likely date is 1831, when Mayne returned to Scotland. On 10 May 1886, through Dr John Pringle (1817–98), a fellow of the Society since 1878, the SAS received a finely sculpted marble fragment of a female figure playing the veena (A.1956.576). It was donated by the Reverend Kenneth Macdonald (1832–1903) who had obtained this figure

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from a Jain temple at Amber, Jaipur. According to the accompanying information in the Proceedings the sculpture had ‘fallen and its upper portion was acquired from the priest of the temple by the Donor’ (Proceedings 1886: 220). Kenneth Macdonald spent more than forty years of his life as a missionary of the Free Church of Scotland in Calcutta. In 1865, a few years after his arrival, he embarked on a tour through the north of India to visit missions between Lucknow and Delhi. Showing a keen interest in the architecture of these places, he may well have obtained the sculpture on this occasion (Macphail 1905: 76). Macdonald’s relationship to Pringle, who was in the Indian Medical Service from 1840 to 1867, is not yet clear. The last piece for which the Proceedings and the entry in the Museum register provide a donor’s name is a stone figure of a Hindu deity (A.1956.572). It was presented by Alexander Wood Inglis (1845–1929), secretary of the Edinburgh Board of Manufactures, together with other items, including an Egyptian deity, in 1887 (Proceedings 1888: 172). This carving could have been from his collection or that of his father John, Lord Glencorse (1810–91), who was Lord Justice-General of Scotland. Neither son nor father seems to have had any direct or indirect connection to India. However, John was widely known for his connoisseurial taste and the costliness of his collection which included ‘paintings and bronzes and other objects of art from all quarters’ (Watt 1893: 297).

Sculptures in the collection of the University of Edinburgh In 1854, together with the University’s collection of natural history, the Museum received 14 Indian and Burmese stone sculptures. The Museum’s register for the ethnographical material received from the University Collection, probably compiled in the 1880s, provides short descriptions for each figure but no information on donors. Under Robert Jameson (1774– 1854), Regius Professor of Natural History and Keeper of the University Museum since 1804, the first catalogue of the University Collection was compiled between July 1812 and May 1813. The catalogue was continued by annual lists, ‘Additions to the College Museum’ (held in the Museum’s Library), which were a measure of progress of the museum’s growth for the city’s Council. Neither for the years before 1812 nor up to 1820 do the catalogue and the annual lists mention any Indian sculpture in the University Collection. However, when Cadell visited the University Collection between late 1819 and early 1820 he found comparative material for two of Simpson’s sculptures. His descriptions are detailed enough to identify them as a 9th century image of Durga from Bihar (A.UC.115), and an 11th-12th century seated Buddha from north-east

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India (A.UC.46) (Cadell 1823: 384, 390). Given their omission from Jameson’s documentation, these two sculptures might have belonged to the RSE and would have been deposited in the University before 1811. Furthermore, Cadell described the Buddha figure as made from a different stone than other idols of ‘dark-coloured porous lava’ from Java in the University Collection. The only figure from Java in the Museum collection which is sculpted from lava is an 8th-9th century figure of Indra riding on an elephant (A.UC.111, Fig. 6). Handwritten notes on an undated drawing of this figure in the British Museum identify it as originating from Gunung Prau, Java and attest that it once was in the ‘Asiatick Museum in Calcutta’.8 The drawing comes from the collection of Sir Thomas Raffles (1781–1826) who, whilst Governor of Java from 1811–15, had the architectural remains of Gunung Prau (Dieng Plateau) surveyed. It is likely that Raffles added the note about the sculpture’s whereabouts to the drawing after he had donated it to the Asiatick Museum, although their records list Raffles only as the donor of a collection of Javanese weapons (Annandale 2004 [1914]: 15). ‘Figures of the Hindu deities’ were one of the recognised collecting areas of the museum when it was founded by the Asiatic Society in 1814 (Annandale 2004 [1914]: ii). The Society provided Hindu and Buddhist images donated by members at various times to form the basis of its archaeological section (Annandale 2004 [1914]: 29). The image of Indra can have been only briefly in Calcutta before it was sent on to Edinburgh. It is not possible to ascertain which other sculptures in the University Collection might have been regarded as Javanese, and therefore been received pre-1820. From 1822, for nearly a decade, the curator of the University Museum produced Weekly Reports (held in the Museum’s Library) which have been used as an additional source to track donations of Indian sculpture. Unfortunately, acquisitions listed in the Additions to the College Museum differ sometimes from those in the Weekly Reports and there are discrepancies between the donations received by the University Museum and the sculptures which were actually transferred in 1854. This is particularly problematic in the case of anonymous donations with generic descriptions in the documentation such as a ‘stone figure from India’, received in January 1823. It might be one of the three unallocated sculptures of a 12th century seated Buddha from Bihar (A.UC.109), a 8 British Museum, registration number 1939,0311,0.8.9. I am grateful to Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer, retired curator of South and Southeast Asian art in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, for making me aware of Raffles’ drawings in the collection of the British Museum.

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sandstone carving of Hanuman (A.UC.112) or an 8th century sandstone figure of a Bodhisattva (A.UC.117), but without further evidence it will not be possible to narrow this down any further. Other anonymous donations can be matched as the Weekly Reports give sufficient clues. This includes three large slabs from a frieze, carved with figures in alto relief, which arrived from India by the ship Alexander in August 1823 (A.UC.134.1–3). In June 1826, the University Museum received a marble figure of Parvati (A.UC.49): ‘The small box … found to contain a small marble image of the Goddess Bhowana, of elaborate workmanship, and in good preservation.’ The identification of the sculpture suggests that the sender must have provided some information either with the image or by separate correspondence. Unlike the RSE and SAS, which often received donations through their fellows, Jameson had to build a network of supporters at home and abroad. While he sent out appeals and instructions for the collecting and preservation of natural specimens he did not seek actively to acquire Indian sculpture. It seems that the representation of India through curiosities was more of a concern to his benefactors. A square stone slab bearing a Sanskrit inscription (A.UC.108) illustrates this network in India and the unrecorded receipt of objects by the University very well. Since its transfer to the Industrial Museum this slab has been invariably described as ‘inscription relative to the last Hindu king of Delhi. From the ruins of the palace of Prithuriraja at Asi (or Hansi)’. Thanks to this precise identification it has been possible to establish its acquisition source, which had been lost for two hundred years. The slab was given to Colonel James Tod by his friend Colonel James Skinner (1778–1841) when he left his post at the Maratha court in 1815. In a paper Tod read on the historical significance of the slab before the Royal Asiatic Society in 1824, he states that the stone was presented to the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings (1754–1826), in 1818. Tod had only a copy of the text on which he based his paper but was not aware what had happened to the original (Tod 1824: 133, 135). The Marquis of Hastings and Lady Hastings were generous supporters of Jameson’s museum and visited the newly opened galleries on their trip to Scotland in 1824. The slab might have been sent by them together with an earlier donation of natural history material and other curiosities or brought as a gift on the occasion of their visit. Another unsolicited donation was delivered by Dr Thomas Inglis in May 1825. This image of the ‘god Boodh, from the great Pagoda in Rangoon’ had been entrusted to his care by Dr John Adam of Calcutta (1793-1830). The relation between Jameson and Adam is not clear, but

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Inglis was Adam’s colleague in Calcutta and a friend of Dr John Tytler, who had asked him to accompany his late sister’s bequest to the Edinburgh University. This sculpture (A.UC.45) was sold by the Museum in 1946. In 1824, Dr Samuel Sproul (1776–1829) wrote to Professor Jameson from Bombay informing him about his intention to donate, ‘for the purpose of being deposited in the Museum’, a marble image of the god Vishnu (A.UC.48, Fig. 7). The shipment with this probably contemporary sculpture arrived in June the following year and was reported as being ‘of great beauty, and in perfect preservation’ (Weekly Report, 4 June 1825). This is the only case for which we have evidence that a donated sculpture was displayed, first in the so-called New Rooms of the museum and from 1827 in the Upper Gallery on the east side of the college. Sproul joined the Bombay Army as an assistant surgeon in 1797. When he took part in a military expedition to Kathiawar in 1808, he became friendly with Alexander Walker. Sproul married Walker’s nice Eliza at Bowland House in 1818. It is unknown if he collected Indian antiquities in the same way as Walker, but his membership in the Literary Society of Bombay and the Asiatic Society testify to his interest in the subject matter generally. Interestingly, the Weekly Report from 23 April 1825 mentions three cases with curiosities, addressed to Robert Mayne, which were forwarded to Jameson by his agent at the EIC’s baggage warehouse. Although it is not clear if they included sculptures, this entry confirms Mayne’s link to the University prior to his donation of Napoleon’s dinner table and his involvement in the shipping of Indian antiquities before he settled in Edinburgh in 1831. In addition to sculptures from India and Burma, the Weekly Reports state on several occasions the delivery of sculpture from Java. In December 1822 images of Javanese deities arrived in the ship Palmyra and were waiting in the baggage warehouse of the EIC in London to be sent to Edinburgh. Unfortunately, these images were not mentioned again in the records and there is no evidence in the collection that such a group of sculptures was ever received. A certain Mr Maitland, Clifton Hall donated ‘Three remarkable pieces of sculpture from Java’ according to the Additions to the College Museum for the years 1823–24. These could be the three figures of door guardians (dvarapala), numbered today as A.UC. 113, 114 and 116. The Weekly Report for December 1823 lists in turn ‘Idols from Ceylon’, presented by J[ames?] Maitland, Edinburgh, Princes Street, although the entry is ambiguous with regard to their size and material. The Weekly Reports and annual Additions to the College Museum provide evidence of the reception of further sculptures. Although they

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cannot be identified, they show the quantity and frequency with which religious figures were donated: Indian deities presented by Lady Hastings in 1820–21; a Burmese idol taken at Rangoon, 1825; a Burmese idol from the Pagoda at Prome given by Mr Charles Baxter in 1826; two small Indian images, 1826; a female figure in marble, seated and nearly of full size, withheld in 1826 by Jameson from a consignment addressed by George Swinton to the RSE (Weekly Reports 9 June 1827; Waterston 1997: 163f.), and finally, ‘a fine Indian idol of the God Vishnu’, presented together with its yellow umbrella by Mrs Monteith Carstairs in 1848–49. In summary, Indian sculpture arrived in Scotland at least from 1800. Examples in public collections can be traced back to before 1811. Donations reached a peak in the 1820s but continued less frequently in the following decade. It has been possible to separate the dating of donations of sculpture to Edinburgh institutions from the dates of their acquisition by individuals in India, and to narrow down the latter to a period between 1800 and 1830. Cadell’s visits to collections in London prove that the interest in and practice of collecting Indian sculpture was not singular to Scotland. A very early example of European engagement with Indian sculpture is Sir William Hedges’ (1632–1701) acquisition of a Palaperiod Vishnu from a temple on the island of Sagar, at the mouth of the Ganges, which he donated to Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum in 1686–87. An extreme case was Charles Stuart (1757/58–1828) whose stone sculptures, which he had amassed during his life in India from 1777 until his death in Calcutta in 1828, amounted to more than 150 lots when they were sold at Christie’s London in 1830 (Lynch 1988: 176; Willis 1997: 252–55). In the last section I will therefore address the question of the intellectual context that encouraged and informed the involvement of scholarly administrators and military men with the collecting and studying of Indian sculpture during that period.

Orientalist interest in Indian sculpture The Orientalist scholar William Jones (1746–94) laid the foundations of Hindu mythology as a topic of learned interest in the West. On his way to India in 1783, to take up a post as judge on the Supreme Court at Fort William, he listed ‘Hindu gods’ as a subject of the studies to conduct while he was living there (Wilks 1835: 7ff.). Following conversations with prominent Brahmins during a journey through Bengal soon after his arrival he wrote his ground-breaking essay ‘On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India’ for which he drew on his classical knowledge (Jones 1798).

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In this essay he compared the Greco-Roman with the Hindu pantheon, showing the parallels between their gods and concluding that in a variety of ways they expressed the same powers of nature. This syncretic approach, chosen to familiarise his European reader with an alien concept, was taken further in his nine ‘Hymns to Hindu Deities’, published between 1784 and 1789 (Franklin 1995). These provided verse descriptions of four gods and five goddesses and at the same time emphasised the utility of such knowledge in relation to the implementation of the imperial project (Sugirtharajah 2003: 18–20). With the foundation of the Asiatic Society in 1784, Jones created a forum to encourage his fellow colonial administrators to bring together useful knowledge on Indian subject matters. William Chambers’ (1746–93) account of the sculptures and ruins at Mavalipuram (Mahabalipuram) published in the first volume of the Asiatick Researches, the Society’s organ, shows that an interest in Hindu mythology predated Jones’ work but also that his writings provided the necessary theoretical framework to make observations like those of Chambers meaningful. An interpreter to the Supreme Court in Bengal and one of the founding members of the Asiatic Society, Chambers had visited Mahabalipuram for the first time in 1772 and agitated for its proper documentation due to its unquestionable historical and aesthetic value (Chambers 1798: 158). In 1803, John David Paterson (dates unknown), another founding member of the Society, set himself the task to develop further the Egyptian side of Jones’ comparative approach in the ‘Gods of Greece’ (Paterson 1808: 47). A judge in Dacca, Paterson did his scholarly work as a pastime, as did most of the other contributors, who were employed as administrators or served in the military of the EIC. For more than fifty years, the leading English-speaking publication on Indian deities was Edward Moor’s The Hindu Pantheon. This comprehensive work, first published in 1810, was undertaken after Moor’s return to England, based on a collection of paintings and sculptures Moor had brought together during his military service in the Bombay Army. The book went through several editions and helped to popularise knowledge on Indian mythology to such an extent that the ‘Hindu pantheon’ became a basic feature of travel books, topographies and histories of India. In her Letters on India, a book intended to provide travellers to India with essential information on the country’s history, religion and science, Maria Graham (1785–1842) dedicated one chapter exclusively to Hindu mythology (Graham 1814). Referring to the leading scholars in the field, including Jones and Moor, she endeavoured to give

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the reader an intelligible account of the deities of Hindustan. Before her first visit to India, Graham had spent 1806–07 in Edinburgh, where she mixed with the leading intellectual figures at the tail end of the Scottish Enlightenment, Dugald Stewart in particular (Gotch 1937: 71–85). Jones’ theoretical research guided the interest amongst the EIC employees, informed collectors who had never visited India and steered public discussions in Edinburgh as Walker’s and Cadell’s papers demonstrate. Its influence shines through in the identification of objects: Thomas Sivright (1783–1835) donated ‘three Indian paintings, representing symbols of Eastern theology’ to the SAS in 1828 (Proceedings 1849: 126) and the Museum’s acquisitions from Robert Mayne were described as ‘chiefly mythological’. Even as late as 1887, the donation by Alexander Wood Inglis to the SAS of an Indian and an Egyptian deity could be seen as an effect of Jones’ comparative approach. One of the best documented examples of an EIC employee collecting Indian sculpture that came to Scotland is James William Grant (1788– 1865). Born at Wester Elchies in Morayshire, Grant joined the civil service of the EIC aged 17, receiving his appointment as a Writer in 1806 (Prinsep 1844: 146ff.). As was customary, on his arrival in Calcutta he entered the College of Fort William, to be educated in the native laws and languages, deemed essential for discharging his future administrative responsibilities. Grant excelled in writing Persian. After passing his exams he started his duties as an assistant to the collector of Cawnpore (Kanpur) in 1810. Only two months later, he was appointed as an assistant to the commercial resident at Bowleah (or Bauleah), at which point his career seems to have changed from a judicial and fiscal direction to a mercantile one. For more than a decade, as commercial resident, he oversaw different EIC factories in Bengal, including the valuable silk manufacture in Malda. In 1834, he followed Walter Nisbet, who had died in service the previous year, as export warehouse keeper in Calcutta (Prinsep 1844: 265). In addition, he was in charge of the Board of Trade and became a member of the Board of Customs, Salt and Opium and of the Marine Board in 1842. All these positions enabled him to trade privately yet within EIC regulations. In covenanted service, Grant served the EIC for the best part of his life, retiring in 1849. Grant was a man of many talents and interests. In addition to his administrative responsibilities he took on duties as officiating superintendent of the Botanical Garden in Calcutta and as a member of the so-called Tea Committee in 1834. Privately, he pursued astronomy

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and painted. Bessie Campbell Fenton, who lived with Grant and his family in Malda in 1827, mentioned that he made sketches of Gaur, the ancient capital of Bengal near Malda (Fenton 1901: 140). Fenton’s recollections do not include any reference to Hindu or Buddhist sculptures in Grant’s possession. However, it is very likely that Grant obtained the sculptures, which he later sent to Scotland, while he lived in Malda from 1822 to 1832. His grey basalt mosque niche, today in the collection of the Museum, is said to come from the Small Golden Mosque at Gaur (Mitra 2010: 41–43). Grant’s wife, Margaret Wilson Gamrie, returned with their children to England in January 1830.9 Part of her baggage could have been some or all of her husband’s sculptures. They were recorded as a curiosity for the first time in the New Statistical Account of Scotland in 1835, to be seen in the grounds of Grant’s estate at Wester Elchies. A footnote provides the missing information on their provenance, stating that they were sculptured stones from a Hindu temple at Gaur (Gordon 1835: 70). Where exactly the sculptures were displayed at Wester Elchies is not possible to reconstruct: the manor house was destroyed in the 1970s. However, we know from other private homes such as Bowland House that stone sculpture was kept outside. Abbotsford, the home of Walter Scott (1771–1832), still has a sculpture from Java in the wall of the south garden. This figure of a door guardian was likely acquired by Scott in the early 1820s.10 During his lifetime, Grant gave several smaller sculptures as gifts to friends.11 In 1852, he donated nine Hindu sculptures and the mosque niche from Gaur to the local museum in Elgin. These sculptures, including friezes, architectural fragments and images of deities from the Pala period, were transferred in the 1950s and 2016 to the British Museum and National Museums Scotland, respectively. A small pamphlet by Grant, in which he discusses eight of these sculptures, is undated and it is not clear if it was meant to accompany his donation to Elgin Museum. His deliberations on the iconography of the sculptures testify to his familiarity with the two main sources on Hindu mythology – Moor’s Hindu Pantheon and Jones’ ‘Hymns’. He quotes from the ‘Hymns’, following Jones’ model, to illustrate the nature of Indra. A glimpse of his personal experience in India becomes visible when he provides local information on the goddess Durga whose 9 British Library, India Office Records IOR/L/MAR/B/14S: Minerva: Journal (20 Mar 1829–4 May 1830). 10 This information was kindly provided by Kirsty Archer, Abbotsford House, 28 August 2018. 11 Personal communication, Tomas Christie, April 2017.

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image is ‘annually paraded through the streets of every town in Hindostan during the period of the Doorga poojah’.12 By the 1830s these Orientalist views seemed outdated. Charles Coleman, of Maidstone, who had the largest collection of Hindu figures and deities in England at that time, wrote about Hindu mythology, largely based on Moor’s Pantheon and illustrated with examples taken from his own collection (Coleman 1832). He claimed that there was a lack of knowledge of the manners, customs and beliefs of India even though India was part of the Empire. In trying to enlighten and tackle this ignorance he noted that his own views were shared by James Tod, Sir William Jones, Sir John Malcolm, Sir Stamford Raffles, Dr Wilkins, Colonel Wilks, Messrs Marsden, Elphinstone, Colebrook, and many others of the ‘most distinguished writers and oriental scholars of the age’ but that ‘the taste of society did not follow them’ (Coleman 1832: vii). Moor agreed: his obituary of General Alexander Walker bemoaned (t)he indifference, amounting almost to apathy, with which communications on literary, scientific, and other subjects connected with our Indian empire are received in England, … The religion, mythology, politics, statistics, natural history, etc., of those regions that were formerly deemed so interesting, and which have become, and are becoming, more and more nationally important to us, can now command a very small portion, indeed, of the attention of the reading, reflecting, or inquisitive public of England (Moor 1832: 25).

In 1838, Montgomery Martin still followed the custom of including a section on the ‘Attributes of the Principal Hindoo Deities’ in his book on eastern India and referred his readers to Coleman’s book in case they desired to learn more about Hindu theology. However, the tone had changed. Jones’ enthusiastic examination of Hindu mythology, pledging the usefulness of being acquainted with the nature of individual deities to the European reader, had turned into a warning against such knowledge: The foregoing brief analysis of the Hindoo trinity and their consorts will suffice, for the reader would doubtless not desire a further description of the 300,000,000 deities who branch off from the preceding Brahma, Vishnu and Siva; sufficient has been said to demonstrate the basis of the Hindoo mythology, the sects embraced under whose faith are extremely 12 Pamphlet by James Grant, manuscript, Elgin Museum, register number 1999.19.362.

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numerous, all tending to prove that when man attempts to materialize spirit, there is no end to the absurdities and inconsistencies into which he may be led. (Martin 1838: XXVIII).

For several decades from the 1780s, India and Scotland were intertwined by the interest of a significant number of men and women in the study of Indian mythology and deities, and the collection of their illustrations in antique and contemporary sculpture. But by the late 1830s the ‘Anglicist-Orientalist controversy’ had seemingly been conclusively won by the Anglicists (MacFie 2002: 50–59).

Conclusion The exhibition curated by Jennifer Scarce in 1973 approached the sculptures focussing solely on the iconographic explanation of the objects. Establishing the provenance of each of these sculptures by linking them to individual names and personal histories provides an opportunity for thinking again about how the India-Edinburgh and more broadly IndiaScotland connections can be re-imagined for contemporary audiences. A network of people closely related to both places sent these sculptures as illustrations for an introduction to Hinduism that might mitigate some of the worst predilections of those who supposed India to be lacking in significant cultural achievements. They are colonial objects but, located as a group in the Museum, they offer insight into micro-processes of Empire. Thus, the transfer of the remaining Grant sculptures from Elgin to the Museum in 2016 was an appropriate decision because it enabled more of his original collection to come together. A fruitful attempt at interpreting museum objects as testimonies of personal experiences of Empire was the exhibition ‘Indian Encounters’ at the National Museum of Scotland in 2014. It contrasted mementoes brought back by Archibald Swinton (1731–1804), a captain in the EIC’s army at the time of Britain’s military expansion into India, with the belongings of Maharaja Duleep Singh (1838–93), the first Sikh to live in Britain after being forced to surrender to the EIC when it took over Punjab in 1849. The exhibition shone light into an important period of world history through which Edinburgh and India were linked and which needs our increased efforts to be remembered in all its facets. As part of the exhibition, the Museum commissioned a new painting ‘Casualty of War: A Portrait of Maharaja Duleep Singh’ by renowned artists The Singh Twins which put his jewellery in the context of Sikh heritage in Britain. For a group of young Sikh from

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Glasgow the exhibition became a source to find out about their cultural roots in Scotland and to create their responses to the historical objects from a contemporary Scottish Sikh perspective (Voigt et al. 2017). As with this exhibition, so also this chapter will, I hope, provoke more responses – neither celebratory nor blindly hostile – to the Museum’s material evidence of Edinburgh’s entangled history with India.

References Allan, D. 1954. ‘The Royal Scottish Museum.’ The Museums Journal 54 (3): 64–67. Annandale, N. (ed.). 2004 [1914]. The Indian Museum 1814–1914. Calcutta: Trustees of the Indian Museum. Anon. 1790. ‘General Meeting 22 January 1787. Donations to the Society.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh II: 17. . 1974. ‘Anniversary Meeting Sesquicentenary.’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 195–205. . 1998. ‘Napoleon’s table. Omniana, the University’s hidden treasures no 5.’ EDiT. The University of Edinburgh 14, summer: 27. Archaeologia Scotica, or Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 1831, III. Appendix. . 1890, V. Appendix. Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australasia. 1831, IV (NS), Jan.-April. Bell, G.H. 1832. Treatise on Cholera Asphyxia, or Epidemic Cholera, as it appeared in Asia, and more recently in Europe. Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: Longman & Co. Cadell, W.A. 1823. ‘Description of some Indian Idols in the Museum of the Society.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh IX: 381–92. Chambers, W. 1798. ‘Some account of the sculptures and ruins at Mavalipuram.’ Asiatick Researches 1: 145–70. Coia, E. 1973. ‘Asiatic Sculpture.’ Scottish Field May: 30. Coleman, C. 1832. The Mythology of the Hindus. London: Parbury, Allen. Fayrer, J. 1900. Recollections of my Life. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons. Fenton, B.C. 1901. The Journal of Mrs Fenton: A Narrative of her Life in India, the Isle of France (Mauritius), and Tasmania during the Years 1826–1830. London: Edward Arnold. Franklin, M.J. 1995. Sir William Jones: Selected Poetical and Prose Works. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Gordon, G. 1835. ‘Parish of Knockando.’ New Statistical Account of Scotland, (ed.). J. Gordon, Vol. 13. Edinburgh, William Blackwood & Sons; London: Thomas Cadell. pp. 60–82 Gotch, R.B. 1937. Maria, Lady Callcott. London: John Murray.

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Graham, M. 1814. Letters on India. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; Edinburgh: A. Constable and Co. Hamilton, H. 1928. ‘The Founding of Carron Ironworks.’ The Scottish Historical Review 25 (99), April: 185–93. Hardy, C. 1820. A Register of Ships, Employed in the Service of the Honorable the United East India Company, from the Year 1760 to 1819. London: Black, Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen. Hardy, J. 1890. ‘Report of the Meetings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, for the year 1887.’ In History of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. Alnwick: Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. pp. 13–80. Jones, W. 1798. ‘On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India.’ Asiatick Researches 1: 221–75. Lynch, B. 1988. ‘Irish Patrons and Collectors of Indian Art.’ The GPA Irish Arts Review Yearbook. pp. 169–184. Macfie, A.L. 2002. Orientalism. London: Routledge. Macphail, J. 1905. Kenneth S. Macdonald, Missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, Calcutta. Edinburgh and London: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. Marsden, B. 2016. ‘Robison, Sir John (1778–1843).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/23895. Accessed 20 October 2018. Martin, M. 1838. The History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India. London: W.H. Allen and Co. Mitra, P.K. 2010. ‘Rediscovering Gaur: Source Material in the Public Collections of the United Kingdom.’ Journal of Bengal Art 15: 9–48. Montgomery, H.B. 1865. ‘A record of the Medical Officers who served under the late Hon’ble Court of Directors, and subsequently under the British Government, in the Presidency of Fort St. George – from 1759 to 1863, inclusive.’ In The Madras Quarterly Journal of Medical Science. Vol 8. H.B. Montgomery (ed.). Madras: Adelphi Press; London: Robert Hardwick; Edinburgh: MacLachlan & Stewart; Dublin: Fannin & Co. pp. 115–61. Moor, E. 1810. The Hindu Pantheon. London: J. Johnson. . 1832. ‘Brigadier-General Alexander Walker, of the Bombay Army.’ The Annual Biography and Obituary XVI: 24–50. . 1834. Oriental Fragments. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Paterson, J.D. 1808. ‘Of the Origin of the Hindu Religion.’ Asiatic Researches VIII: 43–87. Prinsep, H.T. 1844. A General Register of the Honourable East India Company’s Civil Servants of the Bengal Establishment, from 1790 to 1842. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press. Smellie, W. 1782. Account of the Institution and Progress of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Stevenson, R.B.K. 1981. ‘The Museum, its Beginnings and its Development. Part II: The National Museum to 1954.’ In The Scottish Antiquarian Tradition. A.S. Bell (ed.). Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd. pp. 142–211.

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Sugirtharajah, S. 2003. Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective. London: Routledge. Swinney, G. 2014. ‘Collecting legacies: national identity and the world-wide collections of National Museums Scotland.’ Review of Scottish Culture 26: 132–47. Tod, J. 1824. ‘Translation of a Sanscrit Inscription, relative to the Last Hindu King of Delhi, with Comments thereon.’ Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1 (1): 133–54. . 1839. Travels in Western India. London: Wm. H. Allen. Voigt, F., R. Nicolson and L. Bennison. 2017. ‘“Panjab Connections”: A Young Roots Heritage Project at National Museums Scotland.’ Journal of Museum Ethnography 30: 24–48. Waterston, C.D. 1997. Collections in Context: The Museum of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Inception of a National Museum for Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland. Watt, J.C. 1893. John Inglis Lord Justice-General of Scotland. A Memoir. Edinburgh: William Green & Sons. Wilks, S.C. 1835. The Life of Lord Teignmouth, Selections from Sir William Jones’s Works, and Occasional Notes. Vol. II. London: John W. Parker. Willis, M.D. 1997. ‘Sculpture from India.’ In A.W. Franks, Nineteenth-century Collecting and the British Museum. M. Caygill and J. Cherry (eds.). London: British Museum Press. pp. 250–61.

4 India associations in Scotland’s National Galleries From Tipu to the Trenches and Simla to Surrealism Anne Buddle

Introduction

Igift of nearly 1,000 items, a collection of photographic material – books,

N JUNE 1985, THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY RECEIVED AN EXCEPTIONAL

albums, prints, stereocards, ambrotypes, and daguerrotypes – assembled over forty years by Peter Fletcher Riddell and given in his memory to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (SNPG), by his wife. In her catalogue Introduction to the first exhibition of these works, Sara Stevenson wrote: It is impossible to categorise the collection in any simple way, except as a collection of photographic material relating to the period between 1843 and 1918 … The scale varies between the miniature tintypes and the two and a half-foot high copy ... and the importance of the material veers between the work of lesser studio photographers and the work of the giants in the field. Geographically the photographers range across the world from Edinburgh to the Philippines, from Melrose to Trichinopoly, and the subject matter travels from peaceful domesticity to war ... photography as an art and as a business, photography as a social and psychological force.1

These observations not only apply to the Indian material – about 15 per cent – in the Riddell Collection: they also apply to a whole range of other associations with India, scattered through the Collection of the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS), from Tipu to the trenches and Simla to Surrealism. India@NGS is also ‘impossible to categorise in a simple way’, because it has topics ranging from peaceful domesticity to war. Some works were created by ‘giants in the field’ (Turner; D.O. Hill; Paolozzi; Jamini Roy) and about 20 per cent of the Collection is by artists 1 Stevenson, Sara and Julie Lawson. 1986. Masterpieces of Photography from The Riddell Collection. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland. p. 9.

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as yet unidentified. The NGS does not count ‘India’ among its acquisition criteria. There has never been an ‘India’ category in the Collection, but over the last 120 years, India-related objects have been acquired as 17th century etchings; as 18th century topographical drawing; as portraits of Scots who have left their mark on Scottish history; and as the work of modern and contemporary artists. In 2017, the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence provided an incentive to investigate India@NGS, and to make the first formal survey of this material. The project is neither complete nor comprehensive. There are many gaps in cataloguing. Early descriptions and transcriptions are inconsistent and may be inaccurate, which complicates an India@NGS data-search. This currently yields over 1,000 entries but includes 181 records for longreturned exhibition-loans, including works by Stubbs, Cartier Bresson and Marilyn Silverstone. Nearly 75 per cent of all the identified India references are the works of four photographers: 386 entries relate to four volumes of photographs by Leslie Hamilton Wilson; the Riddell Collection adds a further 167 entries, with smaller groups by David Octavius Hill (39) and Samuel Bourne (36). Where the keyword ‘India’ is omitted from the title, such as in portraits of ‘Robert Clive’ or photographs of Kabul, Lahore and Rangoon i.e. pre-1947 India, these entries do not register in an initial search. Any India@NGS statistics must therefore remain indicative, at least until documentation and digitisation of all identifiable material has been completed. The earliest documented India@NGS acquisitions are the portrait prints given by William Fettes Douglas in 1885, and a bequest of prints from William Finlay Watson in 1886. Some gifts, like the drawing from Rev. Atkinson (1892) and the oil portrait of Sir John Malcolm (1893), came from the family. A decorative manuscript, stamped prominently (twice) ‘Trustees for Manufactures &c in Scotland’, was probably acquired for The Trustees’ Academy, established in 1760, as an example of oriental decoration. The text, transcribed for the NGS ‘Indian Interlude’ exhibition,2 is a letter in Arabic, sent from Morocco to George III, and dated 1179 AH i.e. 1764–65 A.D. Although not an ‘Indian’ object, in the strict geographical definition of that term, it is mentioned as an interesting, early reference to the wider Islamic world. An early purchase, in 1910, was the artist’s plaster of a standing statue of the 10th Earl of Dalhousie, by Sir John Steell, and in the same year, 2 Exhibition. ‘Indian Interlude.’ National Galleries Scotland (NGS), National Gallery. 10 November 2007–3 February 2008. No catalogue. The translation was kindly made by Dr Saad Al-Khamis.

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Sir George King’s portrait roundel was bequeathed to the SNPG. From the late 1920s, with the exception of the War years 1942–45, India@NGS purchases appear almost annually. Relevant acquisitions in 1950 included Mrs Macqueen Ferguson’s gift of 14 portrait prints, and 11 photographs by D.O. Hill from the Elliot Collection Bequest. Thereafter, purchases with Indian associations appear every other year and include Paolozzi’s plaster reliefs and Redpath’s ‘Indian Rug’ both acquired in 1965. A gift of 12 historic portrait prints was received from Aberdeen University in 1961. Current acquisition records have no relevant entries for the 1970s, until Jim Ede’s donation (1977) of three etchings of Indian dancers at the V&A Museum, by Paul Gangolf. A surge of India@NGS acquisitions appear in the 1980s: the Riddell Collection and Patrick Cave Browne’s gift of photographs in 1985; photographs by Fred Bremner and the Forbes Mackay album in 1987. A very rare example of early photography in India was acquired in 1986: a daguerreotype dated July 1844, and now very fragile indeed. It shows Sir Thomas Wilkinson, political resident in Nagpur (1839–44) and was possibly taken to commemorate his retirement. The figure seated with him is almost certainly the Raja of Nagpur, Raghuji III. More recent India@NGS acquisitions include a framed silhouette (Fig. 8) of the 3rd Lord Minto (1996); the Leslie Hamilton Wilson albums (1998); Harvie’s miniature portrait of Governor-General Lord Moira, from the Society of Antiquaries and Isabella McNair photographs (both given in 2009); and a fine oil portrait of David Scott, EIC Director, by Tilly Kettle, purchased in 2014. Well over 30 per cent of the India@NGS material is now digitised and accessible, via the NGS website. This on-going project also involves replacing old, global entries with digital records of each page in every album, dramatically increasing India@NGS statistics in the process. While work continues on improving catalogue entries, identifying locations and sitters, and investigating provenance, this first survey of India@NGS offers a broad, general overview of the Collection. The material is introduced in subject-groups devised during the survey. Images cited in the text are photographs, unless specifically described otherwise.

History Many of India’s earliest monuments are documented in the Collection, from the Buddhist sites at Sarnath, to the 4th century AD Iron Pillar at the Kutb Minar, Delhi, and Jain temples at Ranakpur, Abu and Gwalior. India@NGS includes photographs of the surviving pillars and stupas

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erected by the great Emperor Asoka, in the 3rd century BC, and of buildings constructed by subsequent rulers: the Shungas (185–75 BC) at Sanchi and Bharhut; Chandelas (9th–11th century AD) at Khajurahao; and Cholas (9th–13th century AD) at Tanjore. There are numerous photographs of superb tombs and palaces from the period of the Mughal Empire (1526–1858), including the ruins of Tuglukabad; Akbar’s palace; the Pearl Mosque; the interior of the Zanana; and views of ‘Etmah Dowlah’ (Itim ud Daulah) at Agra, with pre-industrialization views of the River Jumna. Pratip Malde’s photograph, ‘Darkness and Light’ (1995), adds a very contemporary interpretation of the Ranakpur Jain temples, while the Fish Gate at Lucknow is just one example of remarkable architecture in the Princely States. In stark contrast are Samuel Bourne’s photographs of Lucknow, taken in 1863, of ruins pock-marked by cannon balls in 1857 and the Baillie Guard Gate already clad in ivy. At Cawnpore, one image highlights the Celtic interlace round the inscription on Marochetti’s Memorial Well. Indian history after World War I is unevenly represented in the Collection. There are few references to the events of 1947 or to the first seventy years of independent India. The faces of Indian history survive in portrait engravings from the time of the Mysore Wars, 1780–99. From the mid-19th century, the camera captures India, from Darjeeling to Jaipur and Poona, and from Madras to the Umbeyla Pass. Other portraits, in family albums, are a reminder that pre-1947 India extended to Murree, in modern Pakistan, Baluchistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma (modern Myanmar). Albums also include occasional reminders of home: photographs of Rosslyn Chapel; Loch Katrine; Dunottar Castle; the family in Inverleith Park, Edinburgh, and small reproductions of paintings by David Wilkie (Blind Man’s Buff) and Landseer (Forest of Glenorchy).

Rulers and Governors From the days of three isolated trading stations to the partition of the sub-continent in 1947, the Scots have been part of India’s history. Like the Mughals before them, they both created and outlived an empire in India. The earliest India@NGS portrait of a ruler is of Alfonso de Albuquerque, ‘Spanish Governor of India’ in 1509, reproduced as a plate in the European Magazine of May 1792. Only one 17th century ruler, the Emperor Aurangzeb, has been identified to date, but among the artists who ‘shook the pagoda tree’ in the 18th century, we have Willison’s impressive full-length oil portrait of his patron, Mohammed Ali, Nawab

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of Arcot, and Mather Brown’s portrait of the painter, John Smart. Sir John Macpherson, already twice in India (1767–68; 1770–77), was painted by Reynolds in 1779, the year he was elected an MP. Macpherson’s third period in India (1785–86) was as Governor-General. Nineteenth century portraits proclaim and sustain the Imperial image: a standing figure in dress uniform with decorations, with background vista alluding to past (military) achievements, as in Chinnery’s portrait, c. 1811–12, of Gilbert Elliot, the 1st Earl of Minto. A much more informal portrait is the head and shoulders oil sketch by Charles Martin Hardie of the 9th Earl of Elgin, Viceroy from 1894–99. Painted in 1899, he is now shown as a Scottish laird, in bonnet and tweed jacket. Portrait prints of Robert Clive, Warren Hastings and Lord Cornwallis illustrate a key element of the SNPG collecting policy: the prime interest is the sitter, not the artist. Thus there are eight engraved portraits of Cornwallis; eleven of Clive and twelve of Warren Hastings, each showing the sitter at different dates or by different artists. In the portrait, by an unknown artist, of Warren Hastings, fine mezzotint describes his Indian brocade waistcoat; the ring set with a large rectangular stone – perhaps jade or carnelian; stockings embroidered with white work; and an elegant table, carved and gilded in the classical taste. Behind Hastings, in a high niche, a bust of Lord Clive hovers in a mezzotint haze, still haunting the scene. Mezzotint also captures the meticulous detail of Royal Company of Archers’ uniforms in Dalhousie’s portrait, after Watson Gordon. The inscription states that the oil was commissioned by the Royal Company of Archers to celebrate George IV’s presentation to Dalhousie of two new standards. A tiger skin, prominent in the foreground, alludes to the 9th Earl’s role in India as Commander-in-Chief (1830–32). A mezzotint of the 10th Earl, also in Royal Company uniform, adds the archers’ target to the composition. He was the youngest of all the Governor-Generals when appointed in 1847, aged 35. The Collection also has related drawings and a life-size plaster by Steell. The evidence for many oil portraits of Scots in India is found on portrait prints – of Arthur Wellesley, after paintings by Lawrence; Home and Hoppner; Lord Amherst, after Lawrence; Stringer Lawrence, after Reynolds; and Henry Hardinge, after Faed. Topographical details include St Mary’s Church, Madras, behind Marquis Wellesley; or cannon and battlefield behind Lord Hardinge. General Lord William Bentinck’s portrait by Thomas Phillips was painted for the Town Hall, Madras, and Lawrence painted Lord Amherst’s portrait for the British Factory at Canton ‘upon his Lordships return from his embassy to China’.

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Among the host of publishers’ names and addresses found on the prints, almost all are in London and some, like Colnaghi’s, are still in business today. Publishers’ addresses in Scotland are few for India@NGS material. One example is Hugh Paton, ‘Carver and Gilder to the Queen …. Adam Square, Edinburgh’, who published an engraving after Van Dyck’s portrait of the Earl of Denbigh, noting also that the original was then at Hamilton Palace. Portraits in watercolour of princes and governors are few but include two Indian miniature paintings: the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb, and Alivardi Khan, Nawab (1740–56) of Murshidabad. Both came from the collection of the antiquarian David Laing, transferred to NGS from the Royal Scottish Academy in 1910. Very different in style is Pellegrini’s watercolour of his contemporary, Sir Donald Martin (1824–1900), Commander-in-Chief in India, a tall, slim profile in pinstripe trousers, fashionably buttoned coat and top hat. The walrus moustache projects in gentle caricature.

Military Army life in India is well represented in the Collection. Regiments specifically identified include: 11th Hussars at Muttra (1870); 20th and 26th Hussars; 6th Regiment of Foot; 9th Lancers; 79th and 92nd Highlanders; the 93rd at Secunderabad (1857) and at Murree (c. 1860); Royal Artillery; 6th Battalion Corps of Guides; 5th Battalion European Regiment; De Bude’s Mountain Battery at Koolduna (1866). The 1st Madras Fusiliers are represented by the photograph of an unidentified marble bust, with handwritten inscription, ‘1st Madras Fusiliers. Killed at Lucknow’. Chinnery’s pencil ‘Study of an Officer’, might be associated with India, but it is unidentified and undated. Oil portraits of India@NGS military figures are generally identified, and include Major General James Stuart, Commander-in-Chief, Madras Presidency during the Mysore Wars, who lost a leg at the Battle of Pollilur in 1780, by Romney; Sir James Outram, the ‘Bayard of India’, circa 1863, attributed to Buxton; Sir John Malcolm by Lane; Gen. Lake by Hayter and Sir Adam Ferguson, soldier and friend of Sir Walter Scott, by Lees. An ‘old India hand’, Ferguson sought out Indian anecdotes to provide authentic detail for Scott’s novels Guy Mannering, St Ronan’s Well, and The Surgeon’s Daughter, all set in the period of the Mysore Wars. Wilkie’s towering portrait of Major-General Sir David Baird has become a text-book image for the fourth and conclusive Mysore campaign of 1799. Another standing portrait, General Sir James Hope Grant, Colonel of the 9th Lancers, was painted by his artist brother in 1853, when the General had been given three years sick leave, while the fine portrait of

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Ganga Singh, the Maharaja of Bikaner by Sir James Guthrie, a gift to the NGS in 1930, is a study for the large painting ‘Statesmen of the Great War’ (NPG London). Ganga Singh was one of only three Indians to participate in the 1918 Round Table Conference. Inscriptions on military portrait prints sometimes provide additional context: one of Lord Clive, published 1802, is ‘from a drawing by Mr Bacon taken from his original Bust’; another, of Lord Cornwallis, was engraved for ‘The Senator 4 May 1791’, a reminder of Cornwallis’s earlier campaign in America. Two prints are described as being taken ‘from a photograph’: one of Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, engraved by Pound after Mayall’s photograph; and Sir John Lawrence, engraved by Roffe, after a photograph by Captain Hutchinson, Bengal Engineers. Five photographs are of soldiers awarded the Victoria Cross (VC): General Burke VC, photographed at Peshawar with Lord Mayo and Lord Napier; Lord ‘Fred’ Roberts, VC, GCB,3 CIE,4 of Kandahar; James Brown VC and J Manners Smith VC; and Colour-Sgt William Gardiner, VC, DCM,5 of the 42nd Highlanders. A visit from High Command, Lord Napier or Lord Harris, was an occasion for a group photograph, and in the Johnstone album, all those present are identified. Other photographs, still unidentified, show groups of Indian and British officers, ranked together, and there are amusing images of Indian soldiers pretending to take aim under trees, or reclining to left and right on one elbow, mimicking the classic British group photograph. Stereoscopic images of Indian and British troops in World War I were retailed by Realistic Travels, showing the action of ‘Firing line of Jodphur Lancers’; ‘Holding an important trench’; ‘Goats being slaughtered for our Indian troops in accordance with sacred rites’; and ‘Our stirling Gurkhas’, piping to an audience of French villagers. The French faces are expressionless, and an air of resignation hangs over the scene. These ‘realistic’ images were in fact all carefully and authentically staged.6 Certainly, the rockets, shown with Indian soldiers wearing gas masks, were hardly ‘new instruments of warfare’ as described. They had been used by Tipu Sultan, with devastating success in the Second Mysore War of 1780–84, the campaign in which David Baird, ‘Oor Davie’, and fellow Scots were routed by Tipu at Pollilur (1780) and imprisoned in irons until the peace of 1784. Photographs of army pastimes include Jats wrestling with each other, ‘the favourite sport of our Indian fighters’, and the Mangal Lancers, in 3

GCB: Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Bath. CIE: Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. 5 DCM: Distinguished Conduct Medal. 6 Stevenson and Lawson. 1986. Masterpieces of Photography. pp. 23–25. 4

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pyramid formation on each other’s shoulders, photographed at Alwar in 1926. ‘The Tommys’ favourite pastime’ shows a football match between a Signal Company and a team of Gurkhas, and the Highland Light Infantry Football Team are photographed with the Durand Cup at Simla in 1893. Some of the Highland Squad, First Course School of Musketry, photographed in 1890, wear tartan trews. Other photographs are a reminder of the ever-present challenges of climate and disease in India: the Sanatorium at Tondiani and a Scottish casualty of the sub-continent, Frank Forbes Mackay, ‘Sent home from India 1906’. Sick WW1 Indian soldiers in England were accommodated at Brighton Pavilion, and a view from above the crystal chandeliers shows 40 beds occupied by Indian causalities, many wearing turbans. Some twelve years earlier, on 30 July 1902, John Moffat had photographed Indian troops marching eastwards along Prince’s Street, over the old tram lines, with Ramsay Garden visible through the trees (Fig. 9). Their visit was probably arranged after the postponement of Edward VII’s coronation.7

Trades and occupations Fred Bremner, Shepherd and Robertson, L.H. Wilson and other unidentified photographers recorded many of the trades and occupations of India, from a fruit market in Quetta to a laboratory in Nepal; carpet designers and makers of brassware in the Punjab and metalworkers in Bombay; writers and bankers in Delhi and Benares. There are vendors of Kashmiri woodcarving and Mooltan pottery; bazaars in Udaipur; snake charmers and flower sellers in Bombay. Survey work is recorded in some memorable images. As the camera superseded the pencil for recording landscape, the heavy brass rods, chains and mahogany cases of the triangulation teams were replaced by a forest of tripods and stools, and a tent for processing photographic images, shown on site at Syfur Mulook Lake (Hazara District). All this equipment still required (Indian) porters, but both Indians and Scots clearly shared the survey work, for example on the Koondi Mountain and at the Gird Bas summit (modern Pakistan). A photograph of the NW Frontier Survey Group in 1865 identifies everyone in the team: Jemadar Bux; Baclee Ram; 7 Over 1,000 Indian troops had been invited to participate in the coronation on 26 June 1902. This was postponed, due to the King’s ill-health, and finally happened on 9 August. Interim programmes for the troops included visits to Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I am grateful to Allan Carswell for this information and for identifying the two infantry detachments shown.

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Gunga; Mohomad Uzum Khan; Emam Bux; Baboo Hurri Sing and Kishen; Col. and A.A.J. Johnstone; Capt. Barron and Mr Housden. The botanist, Sir George King, is commemorated by a bronze roundel, and a photograph of Curt Haeberle, Superior Forest Service, provides a link with today’s Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun. The East India Company (EIC) continued to provide employment and opportunities for generations of Scots. The creative and lucrative networks established, especially among members of the wider family, are well illustrated by portrait prints of several generations of Dalhousies, Elgins and Drummonds. Two less-familiar, coloured examples are John Drummond, in long Carolean wig, after Kneller, and Lord John Drummond, wrapped in a tartan plaid, after Drummond’s Grand Tour portrait, painted by Dupré in Rome in 1839. The original painting still hangs at Drummond Castle. Oil paintings of Company servants include Capt. Robert Skirving of Croy, by Andrew Geddes, and the fine portrait by Tilly Kettle of David Scott, a Director and Chairman of the EIC, from Dunninald, Forfar. The frontispiece chosen for Scott’s ‘Correspondence’ was not this image, but a later portrait by Romney, which still hangs in the Town Hall at Forfar.8 A related print is in the Collection. Inscriptions identify a number of individuals as ‘In the service of the Company’. William Caddell was Chief Clerk at East India Company House; Capt. Thomas Forrest, Midshipman in the Navy in 1745; Sir William James ‘Commander of the ‘Earl Camden’ and Commodore of the China fleet in the year 1804’. Many portraits, such as Gabriel Snodgrass, Shipbuilder and Surveyor to the EIC (1799) and ‘The late Coll. Henry Watson, Chief Engineer of Bengall’ [sic], are plates from the European Magazine, while Hill and Adamson’s photograph of George Buist, Editor of the Bombay Times, hangs today in Mumbai, in the Bhau Daji Lad Museum Founders’ Gallery. Buist was the first curator of the Museum, then housed in a barracks in Bombay. In 1857, the army re-possessed the building, consigning the collections to ‘gunny bags’. Buist resigned in protest and sent a six-page letter to Queen Victoria, denouncing the insensitive destruction of the Museum and championing the supremacy of culture over army and politics.9 8 Philips, Cyril H. (ed.). 1951. The Correspondence of David Scott, Director and Chairman of the East India Company, Relating to Indian Affairs, 1787–1805. Camden Third Series. Vol. 75–76. London: Offices of The Royal Historical Society. 9 A copy of this letter was displayed in ‘Intervention’ by Jitish Kallat in ‘An Exhibition of Contemporary Acquisitions.’ Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai. 19 November 2017–7 January 2018.

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Among India@NGS images, missionaries are well represented. Wilhelmina Campbell, (1741–86) Viscountess Glenorchy, painted by David Martin, was a generous benefactor to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, active in India. A print of the Baptist missionary, John Ward, ‘baptizing a Hindoo in the Ganges at Serampore’ is heavy with the righteous evangelism typical of the early 19th century. A more reflective calm pervades the American Presbyterian Mission in Upper India, with ф marked above the names of recent Indian ordinands. Similarly, a conventional print of Reginald Heber gives little hint of his hugely active India mission. He finally accepted the post of Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, and travelled widely in his diocese, which covered not only India and Ceylon, but also Australia and parts of South Africa. Heber survived little more than the proverbial ‘Two Monsoons’ in India, dying in Trichinopoly in 1826, aged just 42. The cathedral in Calcutta in Heber’s time, St John’s, appears behind him in one version of the engraving. Other churches are recorded at Ooty and Madras; Skinner’s Church in Delhi; St Paul’s Cathedral, Calcutta; St Andrew’s Kirks at Calcutta and Darjeeling, and the church and graveyard at Simla. An undated photograph of Margaret Melville’s grave in Murree Cemetery and of ‘The site where Rev. J. Lowenthal was shot’ may be the only surviving evidence of their time in India - except, perhaps for an entry in the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) archive in the British Library.10 Prints might also publicise the scholarly interests of some missionaries. Rev. Thomas Maurice was Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts the British Museum and author of Indian Antiquities; Rev. James Cordiner, formerly Minister of St Paul’s Chapel, Aberdeen, wrote A description of Ceylon (1807, 2 vols); A Voyage to India (1820), in which the engraved portrait was published, and A Sermon For the Benefit of the Shipwrecked Seaman’s Fund (1820).11 Rev. Buchanan was ‘late Vice Provost of the College of Fort William in Bengal’; and Rev. John Jaffray is shown in a photograph by Hill and Adamson, conversing with the Parsi, Dhanjiobai Nauroji. Nauroji, from Bombay, became a Christian, studied in Edinburgh from 1843, and was ordained by the Free Presbytery in 1846. His portrait, 10

See http://www.bacsa.org.uk/favicon.ico. Maurice, Thomas 1800. Indian Antiquitie. Five vols. London: C. & W. Galabin; Cordiner, James. 1807. A Description of Ceylon. Two vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme; Cordiner, James. 1820. A Voyage to India. Aberdeen: A. Brown & Co., London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown; Cordiner, James. 1820. A Sermon for the Benefit of the Shipwrecked Seaman’s Fund. Aberdeen: A. Brown & Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. 11

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immediately recognisable by his tall hat, was included Hill’s great painting, The Disruption Assembly,12 a collage of faces documented by Adamson, using the newly discovered technique of photography. Science and religion are again combined in photographs of George Wilson, a ‘writer on religious matters’. In one photograph, he examines a brass temple lamp: in another, he is conducting a scientific experiment. His clothes hang limply on his frame. By 1859, aged 41, he was dead. A redoubtable woman who lived and worked in (pre-partition) India was Isabella Taylor McNair (1888–1969), the Christian Principal (1929– 50) of Kinnaird College in Lahore. She firmly maintained that her job was to educate and enlighten, not to preach or convert, and successfully challenged a motion of censure against her, for failing to convert students to Christianity. Her female students are shown busy with Chemistry experiments, playing sports, and focussing a large telescope on the stars. Miss McNair’s objective was to equip women to vote responsibly: domestic skills should be learned at home. Nevertheless, when students planned to attend a rally in support of a nationalist leader visiting Lahore, Miss McNair attempted to dissuade them. The students were insistent, so on the day, subsuming her own views to the interests of her students’ safety, ‘a greyhaired lady’ joined the procession down MacLeod Road, ‘in a shabby old car, which everyone in Lahore recognised as belonging to the Principal of Kinnaird College’.13 Miss McNair retired to Edinburgh and died in 1969.

Home One of the traditional settings for Vice-regal photographs was ‘At Home’, with official appearances – and prestigious millinery – stiffly maintained. Two formidable examples are the photograph of Lord Reading seated with his family, and ‘The Gates of Government House’, where two mounted soldiers stand guard with spears, before arched, stone sentry boxes flanking tall gates. Behind them, a calculated slope disappears into the distance, emphasising the elevated status of the Viceroy and his residence. In complete contrast is Bremner’s view of the Residency at Ziarat, Baluchistan. Set in high, wooded country, it is identified merely as ‘Racecourse Hill. 2nd house’. 12 The painting ‘The First General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland signing the Act of Separation and the Deed of Demission on 23 May 1843’ by David Octavius Hill owned by the Free Church of Scotland, was exhibited in ‘A Perfect Chemistry: Photographs by Hill and Adamson.’ NGS, SNGP, 27 May-1 October 2017. 13 From one of the addresses given at the College at the Memorial Service for Miss McNair (d. 27 May 1985). SNPG Sitter file.

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For Indian rulers, home was a palace and the Collection records those at Jaipur; Udaipur; Lucknow; Mysore; Travancore; a distant view of the Maharaja of Kashmir’s winter residence at Jammu; and Trapaud’s drawings of Tipu’s palace at Seringapatam. The homes of their subjects are rarely documented individually: they populate street scenes and, less frequently, villages or countryside. A pointed comparison defines the ‘Native’ and ‘European’ quarters, in both Simla and Bombay. Simla’s aptly named ‘Elysium Hill’ is dotted with sizeable residences, among glades of trees. The ‘Native’ quarter is a wall of housing, clinging to a steep slope, accessed by bridges and shared platforms: there is no space for paths. In Samuel Bourne’s Bombay, c. 1870, the ‘Native’ quarter is a broad street, flanked by shops, with houses above, extended in all directions. In the European quarter, stone gateposts define a public garden, with a ‘Circle’ and planned townscape beyond. Scattered through the Collection are views of Scots’ homes: a ‘European villa’; a bungalow ‘in the forest’, and another with a pergola of roses; imposing, two-storey, two-wing buildings; the Bank Agent’s bungalow in Lucknow; and The Abbey, Col. Dalrymple Hay’s House in 1866. Two photographs show ‘Mr N.C. Allen’ and ‘Mr. Christison’ laying the Farm House foundation-stone at Kalimpong, with the entire workforce, ranked according to status, assembled for the event. At Udaipur, the Rao of Bedla stands outside his house, where a carpet of flowers proclaims ‘WELCOME’. Records of domestic interiors are few. Furniture, lighting, fabrics and rattan curtains are mostly unremarkable. There is a bleak mid-19th century dining room, the sideboard displaying serving dishes and toast rack, almost certainly of ‘EPNS’ (electro-plated nickel silver), or the more homely sitting room at Ghazipur, c. 1870. Sometimes the occupants are included and identified: Capt. and Mrs Chaumier reading; the Kinnaird College students relaxing with books or sewing; and Napier of Magdala, reading papers at his desk, a large letter rack beside him. His chair, with padded top rail, might be a product of the newly-established Bombay School of Art. On the wall behind hangs a print after Landseer’s ‘Islay, Tilco, a Macaw and two love birds’ of 1839, a gold Medal exhibit at the 1855 Paris Salon, and still in the Royal Collection. A drawing of ‘Our Choral Society’, with violin and piano players, suggests a relaxation of this dutiful calm, with a bearer and two whisky decanters waiting in the background, and a cartoon celebrates the ingenious servant who saves her mistress from ‘Mrs Gossip’s’ unwelcome visit. In two album photographs, neither the baby nor the Indian bearer who gently holds him to the camera is identified, nor the image of a child held upright in a large wicker carrier,

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which masks all but the bearer’s legs. One extraordinary photograph of a child is identified – as ‘Mrs Carey Argyll-Robertson with the Princess of Cooch–Behar’. It shows the child clasping the adult’s neck, while gripping the woman’s waist with her knees. Another album preserves a last, silent memento of ‘My servant Aziz’ whom Forbes Mackay had to leave behind in India when he returned to Scotland, sick, in 1906. Faithful animals, usually spaniels or terriers, sometimes appear in group portraits. There are also horse ‘portraits’ with riders and/ or grooms, some child riders, and photographs of the Grandstand and Racecourse at Coimbatore. A memorable image, location and photographer unrecorded, shows a man and his horse at the crown of a hill-road, silhouetted against the light, alone with the mountains, while in Kalimpong, cattle and crowds throng the Annual (Agricultural) Show in November and Sports Day, both obviously highlights in the calendar. As was the grandest sport of all, the tiger shoot. One line-up recorded has 11 elephants bearing the hunters in canvas shooting boxes. The finale, with one slain tiger, presents the Maharaja of Alwar, his guest, Leslie Hamilton Wilson, other guns and over 200 supporting staff. Other India@NGS animals include caparisoned royal elephants, alligators in the Jaipur palace gardens, and an unscientific camel and elephant in an early 17th century engraving by Enea Vico, the riotously joyful ‘Indian Triumph of Bacchus’, who returns after spreading the miracle of viticulture. The scene probably derives from a Roman source, such as the sarcophagus panel in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The image of a camel caravan traversing the Khyber Pass in 1926 is little-changed since the days of Imperial Rome and the Silk Route. Photographs of sport in India include croquet; hockey, tennis, cricket; musquetry; and archery for both men and women, with one of the men in tartan. There are surprisingly few India@NGS images of tartan, even among the regimental photographs and those of children. Alice Johnstone and Rose Barron chose tartan for an adult picnic at Murree, an event surely intended to evoke earlier ‘fêtes galantes’. Mr and Mrs Moor Lane’s picnic party at ‘The Flat’ was soon followed by a picnic at Kooldunna, hosted by ‘a few Bachelors’. Only a few wedding photographs appear: of ‘Mrs Anderson. 3rd Gurkhas’ c. 1880, and ‘Battye’ to Miss Jones 1885’. A more unusual record is De Hooghe’s drawing (c. 1630) of a Hindu wedding, since it suggests actual experience of the ceremonies. The image was engraved and published in Olfast Dapper’s book Asia or a curious description of the Great Mughal, published in 1672, and is one of only a handful of images of Indian festivals and their officiants.

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Landscape Terrain represented in the Collection ranges from Kashmir to Kandy, the Suez Canal to the Kaghan Valley, (now Pakistan) and east to Rangoon – beautiful, overbearing, exotic, historic landscapes. The majority are of pre-partition India, with many sites and photographers still unidentified. The SNPG has recently expanded its collecting criteria to include ‘portraits’ of landscape, since it is local terrain – urban, rural, frozen, arid, rugged or watery – which moulds every inhabitant’s identity. Four small, gold-tooled albums, acquired in 1998, provide multiple glimpses of India, taken by the successful Glasgow industrialist-turned- photographer, Leslie Hamilton Wilson. As the guest of the Maharaja of Alwar, Wilson’s is certainly a privileged view of The Voyage Out, Bombay, Delhi and Bharatpur; Alwar; Jaipur, Calcutta, Benares and Lucknow; Gwalior, Udaipur and Peshawar. Nevertheless, his 385 photographs do provide a unique record of the 1926–27 ‘season’ in India. Earlier India@NGS landscapes are the competent drawings of military surveyors such as Robert Home and Elisha Trapaud. Draftsmanship and survey drawing were taught at the EIC training college at Haileybury, represented in the Collection by portrait prints of a Principal, Charles le Bas, and a Chief Clerk, William Caddell. Home and Trapaud were both active during the Mysore Wars against Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. Home, a Berwickshire son, had trained under Angelica Kauffman and worked in Italy and Dublin before reaching India in 1790, as official war artist to Lord Cornwallis. His view towards Tipu’s capital, Seringapatam, signed and dated 1792, was engraved for Home’s Select Views in Mysore (1794). Trapaud initially travelled to Sumatra with the Company, and joined the Madras Engineers in 1779, becoming Chief Engineer of Madras in 1793. He also published his work, as uncoloured aquatints: Twenty Original Views, Taken in Different Parts of India (1788). The NGS has eight Trapaud drawings, including the ruined palace of Madura and Hyder Ali’s mausoleum, Seringapatam. A more ‘exotic’ and slightly earlier drawing is John Elphinstone’s ‘East Indian Scene’, probably alluding to modern ‘Asia’ rather than the sub-continent. A European, in elegant mid-17th century doublet, hat and shoes, reclines in a landscape of curving palm trees and lush terrain. A dusky huntress approaches with her bow, carrying a gift. In the distance, one man savagely beats another, shattering Elphinstone’s idyll. The arrival of William Hodges, landscape artist, in Madras in 1780, awakened others to the potential of Indian landscape, and its appeal in the evolving market for scenes Picturesque or Romantic. Chinnery’s painting,

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‘Indian Landscape’ (c. 1820) also represented a release for the artist. ‘I am sick of portraits’, he wrote ‘and wish very much to take my viol de gamba and walk off to some sweet village where I can paint landskip and enjoy the fag end of my days in quietness and ease’.14 Another artist captivated by the light, colour, forms and gently exotic atmosphere of Indian landscape was Edward Lear, whose watercolour, ‘View in the Nilgiris, near Coonoor’, was observed during his visit of 1873–75. One of the foremost exponents of the Romantic tradition, J.M.W. Turner, is represented by a small watercolour of c. 1836, ‘Falls near the Source of the Jumna in the Himalayas’. Turner never visited India, but like Ker Porter and Wilkie, he exploited its contemporary fascination. Within two years of Tipu’s defeat at Seringapatam (1799), Turner had produced large, related watercolours, based on drawings by Thomas Sydenham and Alexander Allan.15 Turner’s later Himalayan scene, and two related steel engravings, were based – imaginatively – on a drawing made by Lieutenant George Francis White for the latter’s Views in India 1836–37, published in 1838. Following surveyors’ scrutiny and artists’ compositions came the eye of the camera, including Bourne and Shepherd’s travels to Delhi; Agra; Fatehpur Sikri; Simla; Naini Tal; Dharmsala; Benares; Kulu Valley; and Lucknow.16 Photographers celebrated the vast scale of these landscapes, shaped by the elemental partnership of rock, water and weather. Here is living evidence of humans dwarfed by landscape: a man and his wife, in long crinoline, crossing the rope bridge across a glacial torrent at Butta Koondi, before vast walls of rock and snow. In a very different landscape, repeated glimpses of a road snaking down from Simla measure the steep descent and the distance which lifted Simla out of the searing heat of the plains to be India’s No. 1 hill-station. Traversing these terrains are the Indian population, invariably on foot, with goods and possessions loaded onto a variety of bullock-drawn carts, including the gaily painted hackery visible behind a farrier tending a bullock, its legs trussed for the purpose. Almost every mode of transport is recorded, from carts and dhoolies, to horse-carriages, a camel caravan traversing the Khyber Pass, elephants, limousines and bicycles. Memorable 14

Notes in SNPG Artist file. Also quoted in Mildred Archer. 1979. India and British Portraiture, 1770–1825. London & New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet. p. 371. 15 Exhibition. ‘The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India, 1760–1800.’ NGS Festival Exhibition. 29 July–3 October 1999. Cat. nos 102–04. 16 Exhibition. ‘19th Century Photographs in India.’ NGS, SNPG. 27 July–30 September 2007.

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car photographs include the Maharaja of Alwar’s ‘automobile’ at the IndianAfghan frontier, and the Maharajah driving himself off on his return from Europe. Bridges link these landscapes: a twig bridge across the River Spiti; houses cladding river-bridges, like Venice in Kashmir; the massive, industrial weight of Howrah bridge, Calcutta. The impact of the railway on landscapes is very visible in wide views of ‘Reversing Stations’ in the Ghats; the tunnel blasted through a mountainside to supply munitions to an army-base; and huge neo-Gothic termini at Madras and Bombay. In towns, landmarks for travellers include the Great Eastern Hotel, Calcutta; Wilson’s Hotel, Darjeeling; and the Covenanted and Uncovenanted Clubs at Lucknow. Out in the countryside, the scene is very different: The Southern ‘droogs’ appear as impregnable as ever, and access to hill forts, like Kangra, is still a defensive, rock-edge, zig-zag path. Bare, sun-baked terrain is a reminder of the special place of trees in an Indian landscape. Trapaud’s drawings show tall cypresses punctuating the approach to Tipu’s palace and photographs record Calcutta’s ‘Sacred Banyan Tree’; graceful bamboo and tree ferns at Darjeeling; a poplar avenue in Kashmir; dappled glades at Simla and a ‘Peep in the forest at Nanee Tal’. The Taj Mahal, photographed in 1870, was half hidden by bushes and small trees. Coastal landscape is not much represented: the ‘Sea beach’ at Madras, but no (identified) images of Mahaballipuram, the Sunderbands or Cochin. Commercial activity includes loading jute at Calcutta, the Admiralty Buildings at Bombay and shipping in the Suez Canal. For those who travelled ‘posh’ to India, like Wilson on the ‘Rajputana’, there was breakfast with Lady Jackson, desk tennis and other entertainments on board. The grim reality of water and weather is recorded in photographs of Calcutta in 1864, after a devastating cyclone. Masted ships were tossed sideways; the ‘Howrah’ steamer grounded at Armenia Ghat, another at Railway Ghat; the foreshore piled with debris, and one side of Col Turner’s house was blown away, leaving rooms wide open to the elements.

Art and Artists India and the Near East were already established sources for ‘exotic’ detail for 17th century European artists: Rembrandt’s portrait etching of his father in a ‘Furred Oriental Cap and Robe’, and Jan Lievens’ masterly etching, ‘Bust of a bearded Oriental Man with Turban’ are NGS examples. The ‘Oriental’ of Durer’s ‘Five Lansquenets and an Oriental on Horseback’ of c. 1495, is probably a reference to the powerful Ottoman Empire. Near Eastern associations are not covered in this survey, except to mention

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that David Wilkie travelled as far as Turkey to experience ‘the East’, in preparation for his large ‘Indian’ canvas of Baird and Tipu. By the mid-19th century, the term describes academics, not exotics: a portrait print of the Professor of Oriental Languages at Glasgow University; John Anderson, Professor of Oriental and Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh; William Brassey Hole’s painting of David Laird Adams, Professor of Hebrew & Oriental Languages; and prints of ‘Orientalists’ such as Col John Baillie, after Wivell, and John Borthwick Gilchrist, Orientalist & Surgeon, after Raeburn. Photographs of John Wilson, Scottish Missionary Society, and founder of Wilson College, Mumbai, in 1836, are a striking exception to these conventional academic images. Wilson wears a keffiyeh and long, striped robe, and in one photograph, his reclining pose and strong profile suggest Imperial Rome, rather than India. The strong links between Scotland and India over four centuries are well documented by the portraits of soldiers, teachers, governors and missionaries, many painted by the leading artists of their day: Sir John MacPherson by Reynolds; Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto, by George Chinnery; Sir John Anstruther by George Dance. There are engraved portraits after Kneller (John Drummond); after Arthur Devis (Sir William Jones); after Zoffany (Warren Hastings); after Lawrence (John Adam) and after Winterhalter (the charming Victoria Gouramma, Princess of Coorg); and portrait studies by Watson Gordon, Hickey, Wilkie and Charles Martin Hardie, Carlo Pellegrini, with portrait miniatures by Robert Thorburn, of Lady Canning and her sister, Louisa Stuart, and of Lord Moira by J.S. Harvie. India@NGS works in oil include works by Reynolds; Tilly Kettle; George Chinnery; George Hayter, Anne Redpath and Elizabeth Blackadder, with a group of modern etchings by Paul Gangolf. Indian landscape artists are discussed above. India@NGS sculpture includes Charles Pibworth’s bronze bust of Andrew Geddes; Frank Bowcher’s bronze medallion of the botanist, Sir George King; works in plaster by Steell and Paolozzi; and a Tassie glass-paste medallion of the East India merchant, James Buchanan. The architect Robert Adam is also mentioned: his designs for Syon Park are quoted as the source for the impressive gates at Government House, Calcutta. In addition to these professional works, many photographs were taken by amateurs, for family albums. Col H.C. Johnstone clearly labelled most of his album: Murree; Kussowlie; Jammu; Lucknow; and occasionally, a manuscript note suggests an attribution, as ‘Dr Hooper, who documented one of the great famines in North India. c. 1868–70’ on two photographs of emaciated and desperate villagers. However, about one fifth of India@

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NGS is ‘artist unknown’, including a good watercolour of an unidentified temple and landscape. Reference to NGS Archive collections may yield additional material, for example the sale-catalogue of Richard Cosway’s effects, auctioned on 22–24 May 1821.: ‘A catalogue of the very curious and valuable assemblage of miscellaneous articles of taste and virtue...consisting of ancient armour, buhl and India cabinets....... an Egyptian Mummy and an Ibis and numerous other articles of taste and curiosity.’ Cosway was never in India, unlike John Smart, who worked there from 1785–95. The standard authority on Smart was written by Daphne Foskett, who lived many years in Edinburgh where her husband was Provost of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. In the Foskett Archive (SNPG) are notes on Col Patrick Duff, ‘known as Tiger Duff owing to his once having skinned a tiger with his sabre’, and reference to ‘Evil Days’ blighting the London print market, where a mezzotint by Hodges, which would have fetched £30–£50 at Maggs in the 1920s, ‘can now be bought for £1–30’. Smart’s remedy for the first symptoms of yellow fever is also recorded: drink ‘water strongly impregnated with camomile & magnesia, adding a tablespoon of citron harbonne honey’. Less familiar are India@NGS references in the SNG Modern Art Archive. Should read: @less familiar are India@NGS references in the SNG Modern Art Archive. Ernest Lumsden, author of the standard text, The Art of Etching (1925), visited India between 1912 and 1927. NGS has none of his related etchings, but some of his masterly views of Srinagar, Benares and Udaipur are illustrated in articles in the Archive. The encyclopaedic Paolozzi Archive includes three plaster reliefs of an ‘Indian female dancer’s legs’, apparently modelled from a photograph, and the archive of Roland Penrose, Picasso’s friend and biographer, includes Penrose’s sketches and notebooks from his visit to India, 1932–33. To these, he added various postcards: Archaeological Survey of India records of Ajanta and Ellora; British Museum objects; and Indian miniatures at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Penrose’s India photographs include those of his first wife, Valentine, relaxed in a sari, and also posing more dramatically amidst Indian objects. Penrose lost Valentine to India, both spiritually and bodily, and subsequently married the American photographer, Lee Miller. India continues to inspire artists today. The Scottish Centre for Tagore Studies at Napier University is one outcome of renewed interest in the work of Patrick Geddes, sociologist, town-planner and champion of ‘primary human needs’. NGS has portraits of both its founding Director, Professor Bashabi Fraser, and of Geddes himself. His near contemporary,

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Phoebe Traquair, visited India only after her retirement from the major commissions represented in the Collection. Conversely, neither Elizabeth Blackadder nor Anne Redpath visited India, but both included Indian objects in their paintings. ‘The Indian Rug’ is one of Redpath’s best-known images, exhibited in her 1965 retrospective exhibition, and probably identical with ‘Red Slippers’ exhibited at the RSA in 1942. Howard Hodgkin was also inspired by the colours of India, and his ‘Monsoon’ lithograph captures both the joy and the fearful power of monsoon rain. For Alan Davie, Indian religions and mysticism have been significant attractions, boldly expressed in his ‘Meditations on Jain Cosmology No 4’ (1994).

Enterprise India The success of William Hodges’ publication, Select Views of India (1785– 88) ignited artists’ interest in India as a potential source of income, a fact quickly exploited by William and Thomas Daniell, whose three topographical campaigns were published as Oriental Scenery (1795– 1808).17 A drawing from William’s later, Scottish tours (1814–15) is in the Collection. Turner, never in India, romanticized his material to enhance its commercial appeal, and Ker Porter’s huge panorama, over 2,500 sq. ft. of canvas, ‘The Storming of Seringapatam’, toured Britain. In Edinburgh, this vast commercial spectacle was displayed in a purpose-built Rotunda on the Mound, recorded by an unknown Scottish artist before a second Gallery building arose there in 1836. The panorama craze gave its name to the Royal Military Panorama, or Officer’s Companion, a monthly serial publication (1812–14). One portrait print, of General David Douglas Wemyss, appointed General Officer Commanding in Ceylon in 1804, was produced specifically for the publication. In the 1840s and 1850s, photography was the ‘newly-discovered goldfield’. As Lady Eastlake famously reflected: When before did any motive short of the stimulus of chance or the greed of gain unite in one uncertain and laborious quest the nobleman, the tradesman, the prince of the blood royal, the innkeeper, the artist, the manservant, the general officer, the private soldier……..’18 17 Hodges, William. 1786–88. Select Views in India, Drawn on the Spot, in the years 1780, 1781, 1782, and 1783, and Executed in Aqua Tinta. London: J. Edwards; Daniell, Thomas and William Daniell. 1795–1808. Oriental Scenery. London: Thomas Daniell & William Daniell. 18 Lady Elizabeth Eastlake. 1857. [Untitled review]. The Quarterly Review: 41. Quoted in Stevenson and Lawson. 1986. Masterpieces of Photography. p. 11.

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Sara Stevenson’s essay on Nineteenth Century Photography in the Riddell Collection catalogue19 traces both the social and the technical developments of photography, and the related ‘vexed’ questions of ‘What is truth?’ and ‘What is art?’ The issue is well illustrated by the stereoscopic cards in the Collection. Published by Realistic Travels, ‘By Royal command to their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary’, they claim to present ‘live’ scenes of Indian troops at the Front in World War I. In fact, every scene had been posed. Stevenson’s essay is essential reading, not only in this context, but also to appreciate the ‘art’ which contributed to the ‘truth’ of many accomplished landscape and portrait photographs. The ‘art’ of photography was certainly central to Fred Bremner’s success – and income. Bremner was nineteen when he arrived in India in 1882 from Banff, Aberdeenshire, to work with his brother-in-law, a successful photographer in Lucknow. He found the job ‘most interesting’. By 1889, the enterprising Scot had opened his own studio in Karachi, then Quetta, Lahore and Rawalpindi. He obtained introductions to princely families and the Maharaja of Kapurthala; the Begum of Bhopal; and the Khan of Khalat (Baluchistan). Photographs of the 1903 Delhi Durbar added lustre to Bremner’s portfolio. His ‘Letter Writers’ updates a role synonymous with the EIC: the writers’ work-surface here is of crates from a mineral-water bottling plant. ‘Artists – painters I mean – tell us that photography is not a fine art’, wrote Bremner. ‘Cut out the word “fine” and art remains. ... Believe me it is the man or woman behind the instrument that matters. .... Look at the great interests which the cinema world affords to old and young – and all the result of photography.’ Bremner left India in 1922 and was writing a decade after the first Indian (silent) feature film, Raja Harishchandra, was released in Bombay in 1913. By the 1930s, Bollywood would be producing over 200 films a year: today, that total is nearer 1,040 – ‘and all the result of photography’.20 Other commercial enterprise recorded in the Collection includes breweries at Murree and Kussowlie c. 1860; the opium factory at Ghazipur; an unidentified branch of the Punjab Bank; the Municipal Building and Admiralty in Bombay; loading jute off Calcutta; and the marble quarries at Jubbalpore. A portrait of John McDonald, a millman, at the India Tyre and Rubber Company, Inchinnan, in 1974, brings commercial links with India 19

Stevenson and Lawson. 1986. Masterpieces of Photography. pp. 11–33. Fred Bremner. 2007 [1940]. My Forty Years in India. 1st ed. Banff: The Banffshire Journal Limited; 2nd ed. Bath: Pagoda Tree Press. p. 64. See also exhibition. ‘Lucknow to Lahore.’ NGS, SNPG. 6 October 2012–6 April 2013. 20

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right up to date. The original Company commissioned an Art Deco factory in 1930 from Wallis Gilbert and Partners, renowned for their Hoover and Firestone buildings outside London. Housing for 2,500 employees was built at Allands Avenue and India Drive. After India Tyres left in 1981, the site was vandalised – and then rescued, renovated and re-occupied by enterprising local initiative. Today, India at Inchinnan is Scotland’s only Grade A listed commercial building.

Indian artists A very small number of works in the Collection is by Indian artists. The earliest of these, transferred to the NGS in 1910, are a group of Indian miniature paintings from David Laing’s bequest to the Royal Scottish Academy. The son of an Edinburgh bookseller, David Laing (1793–1878) was a renowned bibliophile, publisher and antiquarian. His brother, James (1806–46) farmed coffee in Kandy, Ceylon, and died suddenly of cholera, leaving ‘a small parcel containing some rings and other gold articles’ to his brother. Once James’s executor had sold the coffee plantation, settled outstanding debts and given £100 to the fund for a Kirk in Kandy, only £35.17.2d nett. remained of James’s estate. It seems unlikely that he had either the funds or the inclination to collect Indian paintings. The miniatures are not distinguished and were probably acquired for their exotic appeal. Robert Skelton and Mildred Archer dated them late 18th to early 19th century, and provincial Mughal. One, ‘Radha and Krishna’, could be Delhi school, and two, ‘Yogi with gazelle’ and ‘Prince and the Lady embracing’, possibly from Jaipur. The latter is ‘framed’ in the style of a 17th century European portrait miniature, a precious, personal object to be held, admired and cherished, like the lover herself. Five miniatures are possibly associated with Murshidabad, including a strong profile portrait of Alivardi Khan, Nawab of Murshidabad and virtual ruler of Bengal between 1740 and 1756. One painting, ‘Sadhu with female disciples’ is a night scene, depicting a yogi of the Kanphat sect, with large, circular earrings of bone or metal. An attendant woman, playing the cymbals, wears a Portuguese style hat. The Scottish East India Company surgeon, William Fullarton, who collected Murshidabad paintings while in Patna, c. 1761–63, owned a version of this scene. All the miniatures, mounts and borders are assemblages, with stylised floral and gold borders on three miniatures. The verso panels of calligraphy may relate to the main subject: the ‘Lady returning home at night in

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secret after searching for her lover in vain’ or Madhu-madhavi Ragini, with lines from raga Megh, the raga of the rains.21 Two miniatures, ‘A lady drinking wine with an attendant’ and ‘A female attendant holding a fly whisk’, display couplets from the popular Diwan of Hafez. On a third scene, ‘Lady drinking wine with attendant and a musician’, the choice of lines is more clumsy: ‘Wherever he is, a man must / maintain the honour of his people / He must not be proud or foolish / (And) put aside conceit and egotism.’ Roughly contemporary with these miniatures is the fine drawing of a composite camel (Fig. 9), purchased through the Art Fund (1997). Richard Inglis Cochrane had collected British and European porcelain, silver by Paul Storr, and this beautiful Indian drawing, heightened with gold and watercolour. However, it was not its aesthetic qualities, but the surrealist tangle of writhing creatures trapped within the camel’s form which explain this unusual acquisition for the Modern collection. Here also are works by Jamini Roy, acquired by his friend and colleague in Calcutta, the architect, urban planner and tutor, Percy Johnson-Marshall and presented in 2003 by his daughter, Professor Mary Tara Marshall. The gouache paintings include some Santal-inspired subjects; a joyous Krishna and Balarama dancing; the Last Supper, inspired by Raphael; and the hieratic crowned Mother and Child. The latter was the NGS banner-image for the ‘Scotland-Kolkata Konnections’ project at the Kolkata Book Fair in 2009. With Pradip Malde’s work, 84 archival inkjet prints, made between 1982 and 2003, we move into the truly international world of contemporary artists. Pradip was born in Tanzania, of Indian parents. Part of his schooling was in India; he studied at Glasgow School of Art; and now lives and works in America. Is this an ‘Indian’ identity? Among Pradip’s Indian subjects, his image of Parsvanath is a powerful one, but Shiva, usually depicted as the all-powerful Creator and Destroyer, is represented by a half-seen, half-not image, half person, half painting. Pradip redefines the Deepak Mahal, Jodhpur and the Ranakpur temples as sparse, geometric shapes – spaces which are normally crowded with life, pattern and ritual. Pradip introduced an innovative course on Chemistry in Art, at the University of Tennessee, and his particular interest in photographic printing led to a collaborative project with NGS. This involved printing up a number of Fred Bremner’s original glass plate negatives, thus creating new and accessible images for the Collection. 21

‘Be Festive mortals/The sky is girded with stars/The earth garlanded with flowers / Nature has decorated herself to seduce you / In the season of the rains.’

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Conclusion India@NGS is not a coherent collection of material, and numerically, it is a small part of the NGS Collection of some 140,000 objects. The majority of the works are of 19th century date, with some earlier portraits and drawings, and some modern and contemporary works in all media. Work continues with digitisation, research and cataloguing, and the final India@ NGS total may be about 3,000 works. This first formal survey of Indian associations within the Collection reveals the broad scope and variety of subject-matter, artists, medium and message which is India@NGS. A ‘Gallery without Walls’, India@NGS is a project which NGS, together with colleagues in India, will continue to explore and develop.

5 A History of Indian Collections at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 22 Objects Henry J. Noltie

IBotanical Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is rich in Indian material. These N COMMON WITH OTHER SCOTTISH NATIONAL COLLECTIONS THAT OF THE ROYAL

span a wide range of ‘media’ – herbarium specimens, botanical paintings by Indian artists, books, and, to a lesser extent, manuscripts and photographs. There is also a fluctuating population of living material in the garden itself. The initial reason for their accumulation was through the link between botany and medicine: Edinburgh’s pre-eminence in medical teaching, and the East India Company (EIC) as a major employer of medical graduates. In this chapter, after some pre-history, collections from the EIC period will be described, including those made by surgeons such as William Roxburgh, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, Robert Wight and Hugh Cleghorn. Company employees always had an interest in the commercial exploitation of plants, an interest further developed in the late nineteenth century by Sir George Watt, economic botanist to the Government of India, whose large herbarium he donated to RBGE. Substantial collections continued to arrive from South Asia in the twentieth century, especially from the Himalayas, when the introduction of plants of horticultural value increased, with new opportunities arising from the opening up of Nepal and Bhutan. Notable among such collections are those made by Roland Edgar Cooper, Frank Ludlow, George Sherriff, and a series of British Museum expeditions to Nepal. These collections continue to influence the taxonomic research projects of RBGE.

Introduction An illustrated book on the ‘Botanical Treasures’ (Treasures hereafter) of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) was compiled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the 1964 building that houses its internationally renowned herbarium, library and archives (Harris &

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Mitchell 2014). In it no fewer than 22 of the 105 items illustrated – artefacts and naturalia – had connections with the Indian subcontinent. While I did have some say in the selection, this merely added a slight bias to what is a genuine significance in terms of the number and quality of the RBGE’s Indian collections. A similar richness is to be found in other Scottish national collections – the result of strong links between Scotland and India, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Reasons as to why botanical links were particularly strong, in part concerning institutional history, will emerge in the course of the chapter. It is first necessary to say a few words about this history, of which more can be read in the volume written by Harold Fletcher and William Brown (1970) for the Garden’s tercentenary. The back-story is a long one, but with regard to the history of collections it is also complicated. This is due, in part, to the dual origins and administration of the institution: partly Royal, but also, through its intimate connection with the University of Edinburgh (whose botanical department RBGE represented until the early 1960s), partly Civic-Academic. Another complication arises from the fact that until the mid-nineteenth century the collections were the private property of the Regius Keeper of the Garden, who doubled as Regius Professor of Botany and Medicine in the University. The result was that early collections were lost with the death of the Keeper; and even with John Hutton Balfour (resigned 1879) not all the Indian material that was sent to him (for example numerous photographs) entered the collections. Factors such as this, and not-always-clear divisions between University and Garden property, have led to the collections – in particular its archives – being in some respects less rich than might be expected of a 350–year-old institution. This notwithstanding, the treasures are rich and varied, and not only those dating from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, when it effectively started to become a national collection. Since then, largely as a result of donations, important earlier material has also been acquired. Another issue worthy of note is that of ‘lost’ collections – of which there was Indian material in two major categories. The first is the scandal of the RBGE Museum of Economic Botany, destroyed in the mid-1960s as part of the anti-Victorian vandalism, and desire for modernism, that swept through Britain, including its academic and cultural institutions, post-World War II. Unknown (as no record was kept) quantities of material were lost, including Indian specimens and artefacts acquired from the time of Balfour who started the collection in 1849, but also among the 6000 specimens transferred (‘by Treasury Minute’) from the Royal Scottish Museum in 1938. More forgivable is the question of

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living plants in the garden, which have an inherently limited lifespan. Here record-keeping has also been less consistent than could have been wished for, but lists of incoming seeds from the early nineteenth century onwards show a deluge of seeds from correspondents in India (including the Marchioness of Hastings and the Countess of Dalhousie), Nepal and Ceylon, though it cannot be known how much of this germinated, let alone survived to maturity. The purpose of this chapter is not to provide an exhaustive account of the Indian collections at RBGE, which could be no more than a tedious listing, of which outlines, in any case, are available elsewhere. Of the extensive herbarium specimens from the subcontinent (possibly as many as 500,000 sheets, including flowering and non-flowering plants) Hedge and Lamond (1987) described the major collections, and listed about 230 individual collectors who have contributed Indian specimens, if in widely varying numbers. Within the herbarium it should be noted that the specimens are subsumed into a single taxonomic sequence, though within this they are separated as geographical ‘Area 5’ (roughly speaking, the old ‘British India’). The most important of these, the ‘type specimens’ on which new species have been based, are now available digitally through the RBGE website. As I have published extensively on the Indian botanical drawings, including much of their wider history and context (Noltie 2017 for a general introduction), it has been decided to look here at a readymade subset of the collections in the form of the South Asian objects illustrated in Treasures (the objects are cited here by page number, in the form ‘T: 89’). By accident rather than design these have proved to give a representative coverage of the more interesting Indian collections and allow the telling of the more important stories of how, when, and why they, and related material, were acquired.

The early period For reasons already explained very little in the collections dates from the early days of the Garden’s history. However, due to a spirit of collaboration and exchange that has traditionally existed – both nationally and internationally – among botanical institutions, there are some important exceptions and a small number of the herbarium’s very earliest specimens are from India (and even Burma). These were originally part of the herbarium of Charles Du Bois (c. 1656–1740), at one time Treasurer of the East India Company, who formed a remarkable ‘hortus siccus’, which he left in 80 bound volumes to the University of Oxford. In a late-

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nineteenth century act of vandalism (on the instructions of none other than Isaac Bayley Balfour, of whom more anon) these volumes were split up and ‘duplicate’ material sent to other herbaria including RBGE. Among these is a specimen of the black pepper (Piper nigrum) collected in 1700 on the western Malabar Coast by Du Bois’s brother Daniel (T: 114), a reminder of the EIC’s early economic interests in the spice trade. Other specimens were collected around the same date on the eastern Coromandel Coast by Dr Edward Bulkley, one of the early surgeons at Fort St George (Madras). Of these the blue pea (Clitoria ternatea) is illustrated in Treasures (T: 87; Fig. 11) but there are also specimens of plants with edible grains (both cereals and pulses). The interest of these lies not merely in their antiquity, but for their documentation both of local (Tamil) names and of the first efforts (long before Linnaeus) at international documentation and nomenclature, with annotations referring to the earliest encyclopaedic works by John Ray, James Petiver and Leonard Plukenet, and of Hendrik van Rheede’s pioneering study of the flora of the west coast of India, the Hortus Malabaricus.

The Enlightenment It is with the eighteenth century and the period of the Scottish Enlightenment that direct links can start to be traced, mainly as a result of the pre-eminence of the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh, and the significant number of its alumni who found careers with the EIC. Of particular importance in this context is the influence of John Hope, Regius Keeper from 1761 until his death in 1786 (Noltie 2011). Each summer at the garden he constructed on Leith Walk, Hope gave a series of botanical lectures as part of the University medical course, and approximately 30 of the students who attended these entered Company service as Assistant Surgeons. Of these several were important botanically even if no collections came back to RBGE as a result: Whitelaw Ainslie and John Fleming made major contributions to the study of Indian materia medica; Adam Freer was the first Western botanist to visit Nepal; Helenus Scott undertook some botany in Bombay; Andrew Berry ran the Nopalry garden in Madras; and James Robertson is known to have collected in Bengal and China (though none of his specimens have survived). More important was James Kerr, who sent Hope a botanical drawing by an Indian artist, which by good fortune was returned to RBGE in the late nineteenth century, with the rest of Hope’s collection of teaching illustrations, and represents the earliest such drawing in the collection. Towering above

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this group of eighteenth-century Company surgeons who made major contributions to the documentation of the Indian flora (among much else), are William Roxburgh and Francis Buchanan (later Hamilton). Roxburgh (Robinson 2008) took Hope’s class in 1772, but his Indian career did not begin on the Coromandel Coast until four years later, and it was there that he started to describe plants and to have them painted by Indian artists, a ‘Flora Indica’ project that continued after his appointment as the first paid superintendent of the Company’s botanic garden at Calcutta in 1793. Roxburgh did start to send plant descriptions and specimens back to his teacher, but most of his work was done after Hope’s death, and most of his herbarium specimens and botanical drawings that are now at RBGE came later, through indirect routes. Of plant specimens is a collection sent by Roxburgh to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1789, subsequently incorporated into the RBGE herbarium (Waterston 1997). This collection was catalogued by the Jamaican botanist William Wright, so it is appropriate not only that one of these specimens is of a dye plant (in which Roxburgh, who traded in textiles, took an interest), but that its generic name commemorates the cataloguer of the collection: Wrightia arborea (T: 88). The second Roxburghian item illustrated is an engraving from a finely bound set of the three-volume Plants of the Coast of Coromandel presented to RBGE by one of Roxburgh’s sons (T: 84). This double-elephant folio was produced under the direction of Sir Joseph Banks and his librarian Jonas Dryander, the hand-coloured prints made by London engravers based on 300 of the 2500 drawings commissioned by Roxburgh from several Indian artists. About 100 duplicates of these drawings made by the original artists, along with a collection of about 480 copies of them made around 1815 for James Hare, have also ended up at Edinburgh, ultimately through the dispersal of the India Museum, but mediated via the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Francis Buchanan (Watson & Noltie 2016; in preparation) was arguably the most remarkable of all the Company surgeons to work in India. His major role was as a ‘statistical surveyor’, collecting information on the widest possible range of subjects from the works of God to the works of man, excelling particularly in botany, zoology and topography. The regions he studied, the result of the political demands of the Company at the time, resulted in ground-breaking studies of Burma and Nepal, but also of Mysore and Bengal, though a very large amount of his hard-won data was not published at the time and remains unpublished to this day. One of the greatest treasures of the RBGE Library, of interest in two widely differing respects, is the set of notes taken by Buchanan from John Hope’s botanical

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lectures at Leith Walk in 1781. These give a unique insight into Hope’s taxonomic ideas, but what makes the volume even more remarkable is its binding. In 1785, en route for India, the notes were lent by Buchanan to a medical shipmate who neglected to return them; during the Third Mysore War they fell into the hands of Tipu Sultan who had them handsomely bound for his own library (T: 24). When, following the fall of Seringapatam in 1799, the library was ‘dispersed’, a Major Ogg noticed the name of the original owner and returned the volume to Buchanan. On his death in 1829 Buchanan (or, rather, Hamilton as he was by then called) bequeathed to his alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, his own set of the herbarium specimens collected on his Bengal Survey between 1807 and 1814, together with a manuscript catalogue of them in his own hand. The specimens (T: 25) are of high quality; they show the interest he took in Hindi and Bengali plant names and often bear Latinised epithets coined from these, though most of these new names were never published.

Into the nineteenth century Buchanan’s final position in India, as successor to Roxburgh at the Calcutta Botanic Garden, was one he had long desired and fought hard for, but it came too late and he held it for only a few months in 1815. His successor was the Dane, Nathaniel Wallich, who would occupy the post for almost 30 years. Perhaps Wallich’s greatest achievement was the assembling of a herbarium for the EIC, achieved by means of collectors sent to botanically interesting areas – from the Himalaya to Singapore – including Robert Blinkworth in Kumaon in the Western Himalaya. In the Treasures book it was one of Blinkworth’s specimens that was chosen to represent the great EIC Herbarium – the Himalayan birch, Betula utilis, of which the pale bark was used as a writing material under the name ‘bhoj patra’ (T: 86). In 1828 Wallich travelled to London on a long homeleave, taking the herbarium with him in 30 barrels weighing 20 tons (Fraser-Jenkins 2006); here, to his own recent Indian specimens, were added ones that had accumulated in the Museum of India House over the previous quarter century, including ones of Roxburgh, and a duplicate set of Buchanan’s Bengal plants. At 61 Frith Street, Soho, with the help of visiting botanists (including Robert Graham from RBGE who worked on the legumes), Wallich curated the vast herbarium, naming the specimens and dividing them into duplicate sets and, using new technology, a lithographed catalogue (T: 85) of the collection to accompany the sets of specimens that were distributed to 64 European and American botanists

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and institutions. By the subsequent amalgamation of institutional and private herbaria (Edinburgh University, Archibald Menzies, George Walker-Arnott and Robert Greville), RBGE has obtained at least four partial sets of this important collection and no fewer than three copies of the rare catalogue (the ‘Numerical List’ – for a searchable version of which, see wallich.rbge.info).

The Rutherford era Hope was succeeded as Regius Keeper by Daniel Rutherford. Although best remembered as a chemist, Rutherford’s botanical teaching was to have a profound influence – most famously on Robert Brown, the greatest of all nineteenth-century botanists, but also in an Indian context. Among those who attended Rutherford’s botanical lectures between 1786 and his death in 1819 no fewer than three held the post of Madras Naturalist (William Somervell Mitchell, James Shuter, Robert Wight), and directors of three Indian botanic gardens (George Govan and William Jameson of Saharunpur, and Alexander Gibson of Dapuri); another student was Alexander Kyd Lindesay who made plant collections in Kumaon in the 1820s. Of these RBGE is fortunate to have outstanding collections of Wight (specimens and drawings), and drawings commissioned by Gibson, although virtually none of this material was acquired directly from its collector or commissioner. Following the tradition established, under Hope’s influence, by Kerr and Roxburgh, Indian artists were used to record plants as a supplement to herbarium specimens. At RBGE in the twentieth century any drawings received were incorporated into an extensive illustrations collection, arranged, like the herbarium, in taxonomic order. Any information on the origins of individual component collections was lost, until a project initiated by the present author in 1997. Distinctive sets of drawings were extracted and reassembled, their histories reconstructed, and used to tell the lives and scientific work of their commissioners. The first of these to be monographed (Noltie 2002) was a collection of particularly dramatic drawings, including one of the gulmohur tree, Delonix regia (T: 78). This collection turned out to have been commissioned from an un-named Portuguese-Indian artist by Alexander Gibson in the late 1840s. The ‘Botanic Garden’ written on each drawing proved to refer to the littleknown one of the Bombay Presidency at Dapuri near Poona. How and when the drawings came to RBGE remains a mystery, and there are no related specimens in the herbarium. The story of their commissioner that

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emerged from their study was the pioneering work of Alexander Gibson as the first Conservator of Forests for Bombay. Botanically the most important of Rutherford’s ‘Indian’ students was Robert Wight (1796–1872), perhaps the most prolific taxonomist ever to work in South India. Following studies at the Royal High School, Edinburgh University and a course in Hindustani with J.B. Gilchrist, Wight went to Madras as an Assistant Surgeon in 1819 and retired in 1853. The latter part of his career was spent as an economic botanist working on the introduction of American cotton, but throughout his time in India he was a prolific commissioner of botanical drawings, and, by means of Indian collectors, amassed enormous herbarium collections. He also published an extraordinary series of illustrated Floras in which he described 1267 new species and 110 new genera. However, other than a small number of specimens sent to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, almost none of the 23,000 of his specimens of flowering plants in the RBGE herbarium came directly from Wight. The herbarium, which now contains 3 million specimens, has grown by the donation of numerous collections, private and institutional; of the latter the largest and most significant was that of the University of Glasgow, of which the foreign flowering plants were deposited on permanent loan in 1965. The bulk of this was the collection of George Walker-Arnott, Professor of Botany at Glasgow 1845–68. Wight had studied alongside Arnott in Edinburgh in 1817, and during a home leave of 1831–34, he enlisted his help to work on the enormous collections with which he had returned from India. The majority of plants in (Arnott’s) Wight collection are flowering plants, but for the Treasures book, and to show the range of the RBGE herbarium (which covers the whole of the plant and fungal kingdoms), the polypore fungus Hexagonia wightii was chosen (T: 89) – this resembles a flattened wasp’s nest and is one of 256 species named in Wight’s honour. In the RBGE illustrations collection there are more than 700 drawings, with superb microscopic analyses, commissioned by Wight from Rungiah and Govindoo, two Indian artists of the Tanjore School. These have recently been shown to have come to RBGE from Edinburgh University, and had latterly formed part of the Cleghorn collection (see below). The Wight herbarium specimens and botanical drawings were documented in a series of works (Noltie 2005, 2007).

The Graham era Major players in the story of the discovery of the flora, and other aspects of the natural history, of India continued to study botany at Edinburgh

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during the Regius Keepership of Robert Graham from 1820 to 1845. Two of his students, John Grant Malcolmson and Alexander Turnbull Christie, made significant geological contributions; Hugh Falconer was a notable palaeontologist, but also a botanist who had charge of the botanic gardens of Saharunpur and later Calcutta. Alexander Hunter (with his brother Robert an early pupil of Edinburgh Academy) is best remembered as the founder of India’s first Art School, in Madras in 1850, but he also sent specimens to the RBGE Museum of Economic Botany. Prior to Gibson’s tenure Charles Lush had briefly been superintendent of Dapuri. Michael Pakenham Edgeworth and Edward Madden both made important contributions to studies of the Himalayan flora. However, in terms of the enrichment of RBGE collections, by far the most important of Graham’s pupils was Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn (1820–95). Cleghorn followed in the footsteps of Roxburgh and Wight in starting his Indian medical career in Madras, but also in their prolific commissioning of locally-recruited botanical artists. This began during a period in the Shimoga district of the Kingdom of Mysore, where, between 1847 and 1850, he commissioned an unnamed ‘Marathi’ artist to paint a different plant every day – one of the most beautiful drawings of this series shows the sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), and it was reproduced in the Treasures book (T: 76; Fig. 12). Following a sick leave in Britain Cleghorn returned to Madras, where he continued to commission botanical illustrations from pupils of his friend Hunter’s art school and, following Wight’s return to Britain, from Govindoo. These reflect Cleghorn’s involvement with the Madras AgriHorticultural Society and his interest in useful and ornamental plants, and their introduction through the international network of nurseries and botanic gardens. He was also interested in medicinal plants and taught at the Madras Medical College. However, it was Cleghorn’s appointment as the first Conservator of Forests for the Madras Presidency in 1856, and his subsequent role with Dietrich Brandis in setting up a national Forest Department while based in Simla and Calcutta for which he is best remembered. For the whole of his time in India Cleghorn was actively involved in missionary activities, especially of the medical variety; during his time in northern India this led to friendships with people such as William Muir and William Coldstream (a cousin of his wife, Mabel Cleghorn). After retiring to Scotland in 1868 Cleghorn’s forestry interests continued, as did additions to his outstanding library of books on the subject. On his death this was split between Edinburgh University and the Museum of Science and Art. When the

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Museum gave all its botanical material to RBGE in 1938–40 the ‘Cleghorn Memorial Library’ was included, which, fortunately, has fared better than the museum specimens. The result was the addition to the RBGE library of many rare and interesting books, including the first six volumes of Hortus Malabaricus, in addition to about 3000 Indian botanical drawings and thousands of European botanical prints. Cleghorn’s biography and the story of his collections (Noltie 2016), represent the third element of a prosopography of EIC surgeon-naturalists and their illustrations collections, following on from the works on Gibson and Wight.

The era of John Hutton Balfour When Rutherford and Graham died in office their personal collections (herbarium, papers and books) were entirely lost to RBGE – the latter’s important library and herbarium was dispersed at auction. With Graham’s successor John Hutton Balfour the situation with respect to institutional collections and their continuity began to change for the better, though as already noted even with his collections some property remained private. One of the richest sources of information for the period of Balfour’s tenure (from 1845 to 1879) is the 12 bound volumes of incoming correspondence, which, though considered personal property, was fortunately returned to RBGE by his family. This correspondence is by no means complete, and it is unclear as to who chose what was retained, when or why; nevertheless, it is rich in material relating to the subcontinent, with approximately 170 letters from 29 correspondents in India or relating to Indian matters. By far the most numerous are letters from Hugh Cleghorn (82) and William Jameson (17), those from the others amounting only to single figures from each. A large number of the letters are from former students and show the great influence of Balfour and his teaching, especially during field excursions, and the affection in which he was held. The correspondents, however, include not only his own students (including Joseph Fayrer and John Anderson), but earlier ones of Rutherford and Graham, and also several RBGE-trained gardeners. Many of these men had distinguished careers (ten of them were deemed worthy of articles in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) – not only in botany or horticulture, but also in the field of medical education and in less expected areas including the establishment of museums and art colleges in India. The topics covered in the letters are extremely varied, though the great surprise is how relatively little of it is strictly botanical (certainly in terms of taxonomy or geographical botany), though there is much about the recruitment of

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gardeners (for botanic gardens, and for economic enterprises such as the introduction of tea, quinine and ipecacuanha). A topic that occupies much space in the letters arises from the deep evangelical Christian faith shared by Balfour and many of his students: the subject of medical missions is prominent, not only among clerical correspondents, but also in that of many of the botanists including Cleghorn’s. An analysis of Balfour’s letters from India will be the subject of a separate study, and the example chosen to represent the correspondence in the Treasures book was not from an Indian author, but from no less a figure than Charles Darwin. However, leaping from the page illustrated (T: 51), is the name John Scott – and herein lies an Indian link, if one that does not do any great credit to RBGE. Scott was one of those remarkable self-taught men of genius from a humble Scottish background, and it was as a gardener at RBGE under Balfour and his garden curator James McNab that Scott honed his exceptional skills and powers of observation in a series of experiments on the fertilisation and hybridisation of orchids and primulas. These appear to have led to jealousy on the part of his bosses, but Scott’s work had attracted the attention of Darwin, and it was Darwin and Joseph Hooker who provided an escape route – with a post for Scott as curator of the Calcutta Botanic Garden. Here Scott continued to undertake important botanical work (and saved a colleague from a tiger escaped from the King of Oude’s menagerie) but it was as a result of this, while working on opium in the unhealthy plains of north Indian, that he contracted the fatal disease that caused his return to Scotland where he died aged only 44. In addition to Indian links in Balfour’s correspondence, others are to be found in other elements of the RBGE archival and herbarium collections of the period. In the 1850s Balfour intended to produce an innovative book with the title ‘Plant Scenery of the World’, on what would now be called major biomes. It was to have illustrations by his friend Robert Kaye Greville (an independent botanist, anti-slavery campaigner and artist) showing assemblages of plants in natural landscapes, but the book was never to see the light of day. Some of the original materials, including several of Greville’s original watercolours, have survived and were illustrated in Treasures. By chance, one of those reproduced represents the Sikkim Himalaya (T: 33). For this Greville abstracted elements from woodcuts in Joseph Hooker’s then recently published Himalayan Journals (1854), to show a highly compressed transition from the subtropical (a screw pine), through the rhododendron and conifer (a black juniper) zones, to a background of snowy peaks.

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The RBGE herbarium At this point it is necessary to say something of the history of the RBGE herbarium and of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh (BSE). The University had owned natural history collections from the time of Sir Robert Sibbald, though these had a rather chequered history until the time of Robert Jameson in the early nineteenth century. Botanical collections, however, appear to have been the responsibility of the Professor of Botany. In 1836 a group of like-minded pupils of Robert Graham, including J.H. Balfour, James McNab and, much more unexpectedly, Nathaniel Wallich’s son George (then a medical student), founded the BSE – one of the major aims of which was to build up a botanical library and a herbarium to which members contributed, and from which duplicates were exchanged. The BSE herbarium grew rapidly from donations that included a significant collection of Indian specimens made by Christian, Countess of Dalhousie (mother of the Marquess), in 1837. One of these, Strobilanthes urticifolia collected at Simla in 1831, is shown in the Treasures book (T: 90). Other Indian donations to the BSE herbarium came from Cleghorn, Wight and James Campbell (brother of one of the Society’s founders). The contents of the University collection is largely unknown, but certainly included Buchanan’s Bengal plants, the 1842 bequest of monocots and cryptogams made by one of the University’s oldest alumni, Archibald Menzies (which includes some duplicates from the EIC Herbarium), Hope’s herbarium (which had been presented to the Garden by his son Thomas Charles) and whatever Rutherford might have added to it; also some EIC duplicates, some Indian collections of Roxburgh, and a collection made around Dharwar, in what is now Karnataka, by A.T. Christie in the 1820s. From its earliest days, through close links with Graham, the BSE was intimately connected with both the University and the Botanic Garden and in 1838 the idea arose of merging their respective herbaria. This took many years to achieve, and in the process much pruning of older material (including almost all of Hope’s specimens) clearly took place. But by 1863, under Balfour’s direction, all the collections (the British and Foreign kept separately) were housed at RBGE, effectively becoming a national collection. On taking office he had solicited the donation of R.K. Greville’s herbarium (which included EIC duplicates) and donated his own private collection, but for additions to his Museum of Economic Botany and the herbarium, Balfour depended largely on donations from the diaspora of his former students, and members of the BSE. The only one of Balfour’s correspondents who sent him large numbers of specimens from India

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was William Jameson from Saharunpur. But over the next 30 years other Indian herbarium material was added: in 1871 and 1872 a large collection collected by John Lindsay Stewart in the NW Himalaya; the Himalayan specimens of Edward Madden; and duplicates distributed by Kew from the extensive collections made between 1848 and 1851 by Joseph Hooker (with the help of Thomas Thomson) in the Himalayas and the Khasia Hills. Of the latter is a specimen of the spectacular blue orchid Vanda coerulea, illustrated in Treasures (T: 91). In 1878, however, Balfour had to explain that he had no funds to purchase N.A. Dalzell’s herbarium when offered by his widow, and which therefore ended up at Kew. James McNab, the able horticultural curator of RBGE from 1849 to 1878 also gave botanical classes for which he formed his own teaching herbarium. In this are specimens of Indian opium and quinine, reminding us that the teaching of botany at this time was still largely (though not exclusively) for the benefit of large classes of medical students. The specimen of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) illustrated in Treasures (T: 112; Fig. 13) was grown at RBGE, but its seed had come from Ghazipur in Bihar, one of the centres for the cultivation and processing of the drug, via Professor Robert Christison. The 1860s was also the period when several species of quinine, smuggled out of the Andean region of South America, were being experimentally grown in various parts of India, especially the Nilgiri Hills of the south, and the lower slopes of the Himalaya around Darjeeling. Andrew Jaffrey was one of a number of Scottish gardeners selected by Balfour for service in India, initially for the Agri-Horticultural Society of Madras, but who ended up in Darjeeling from where he sent a series of fine specimens of the various species of Cinchona for McNab’s teaching collection, of which the ‘red bark’ (known to Jaffrey as Cinchona succirubra) is illustrated in Treasures (T: 113).

‘Amateur’ contributions Although distinctions between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ were scarcely drawn until the later nineteenth century, the collections described so far were nearly all made by men with medical training. However, as in the exception of Lady Dalhousie’s botanical specimens, there was also a thriving interest in natural history, its investigation and documentation through specimens, and in words and pictures, by men and women lacking any academic training. In Treasures two works from this tradition, both of gigantic dimensions, were included. The frontispiece (T: 6) shows a rare book of flower paintings

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made in India by Mary Anne Cookson (née Stephenson, 1786–1848) who went to the subcontinent as a military wife (her husband James was with the 80th Regiment of Foot in South India 1811–17). In 1835, back at Neasham Hall, Co. Durham, she had a selection of her Indian drawings reproduced as hand-coloured lithographs and published in a tiny edition, bound in a handsome presentation binding of green morocco and watered silk. The images are purely decorative, with no botanical details, a genre that the author has elsewhere termed the ‘botanical swagger print’; there are similar works in the collection, drawn in India and published in England, by Margaret Read Brown (née Inverarity, 1816–68) and Anne Sarah Jervis (née Paget, 1801–86). Mrs Cookson’s volume has an interesting provenance, as it was presented by Queen Elizabeth II to the RBGE Library in 1964 on the occasion of her opening the present Herbarium and Library building. Similar in scale, but much more ‘scientific’ and ambitious in scope, is a volume of watercolours of the ‘Grasses of Assam’ (T: 77). The originals of these were drawn by Samuel Edward Peal (1834–97), who had trained as an artist but gone to India as a tea planter (where he discovered the insect cause of the tea blight). Peal’s originals were incinerated in a fire in his bungalow, and the volume at RBGE is an exquisite facsimile copy that had fortunately been made by James Murray Foster.

Into the twentieth century Whereas the major emphasis at RBGE under J.H. Balfour was educational, under his son Isaac Bayley Balfour, who succeeded him (indirectly) in 1888, academic research, especially in taxonomy, was strengthened and developed. This was partly as a result of Isaac’s Continental botanical training, but also from his own broader horizons. Whereas his father had never travelled further than Switzerland, the son took part in a pioneering expedition to the island of Socotra in 1880. Under Bayley Balfour the RBGE’s centre of geographical interest ended up in China, and taxonomically the genera Primula and Rhododendron. The size and scope of the herbarium was greatly increased: George Forrest was sent to SW China and Upper Burma to make major collections, and in this period several large herbaria were acquired through donation or purchase. Among these were three major Indian herbaria. Sir George Watt, one of the greatest of Indian botanists retired to Scotland (where he lectured on Indian trees to the newly established Forestry Department of Edinburgh University), and prior to 1904 his herbarium in 37 cabinets, rich in material used in his encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, was presented

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to RBGE. In 1896 Hugh Cleghorn’s herbarium (largely of South Indian material, including many specimens collected by Sir Walter Elliot) was donated by his nephew; and in 1918 the even larger Burmese and Indian herbarium of John Henry Lace was purchased. In 1902 duplicates from Walker-Arnott’s herbarium, including many Robert Wight specimens, were donated by the University of Glasgow. The major research areas (geographic and taxonomic) of Bayley Balfour continued under his successor William Wright Smith, Regius Keeper from 1922 to 1956, but to these, as a result of interests developed during his previous job as Keeper of the Calcutta herbarium, India and the Himalaya were added. Wright Smith’s wife’s nephew was the horticulturist Roland Edgar Cooper, who made a series of expeditions to Sikkim (1913), Bhutan (1914, 1915) and the Punjab Himalaya (1916). These not only brought to RBGE much new Primula and Rhododendron material (living and herbarium) but laid the foundations for future research in the Eastern Himalaya. Cooper was an excellent photographer, and although most of this work is regrettably lost, RBGE was recently able to acquire one of his albums, which includes photographs taken in Tibet by others, but also some of his own from Sikkim (T: 81). Among these are several portraits of Rohmoo, one of the Lepcha plant collectors on whom Cooper greatly relied.

Later twentieth century Wright Smith was the last holder of the joint positions of Regius Keeper and Regius Professor of Botany – and to hold these for life. After his death the posts were split: in 1956 Harold Roy Fletcher was appointed to the Keepership, and in 1958 Robert Brown to the Chair. In 1965 the Botany Department moved from RBGE to the science campus at King’s Buildings in south Edinburgh, though a taxonomic unit under Peter H. Davis remained at the Garden. Under Fletcher and his protégé Douglas M. Henderson, who succeeded him in 1970, huge strides in terms of the development of the Garden and its research activities took place, but at costs already alluded to. Although Fletcher built the two state-of-the-art buildings that still dominate the eastern part of the Garden – in 1964 the Herbarium (in which for the first time the library and herbarium were adequately housed, and under a single roof), and in 1970 the ‘Front Range’ of glasshouses with its innovative system of suspension. The costs were the destruction of the Museum, and of the nineteenth-century range of glass houses, including one devoted to rhododendrons that housed an

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enormous specimen of Rhododendron arboreum probably grown from seed sent from Nepal in the 1820s. During this period several major taxonomic projects, based on the collections, were undertaken. Work on Rhododendron continued, but new geographical studies emerged, including the work of Davis and his team on the Flora of Turkey. Strong links with the British Museum (Natural History) meant that the herbarium received important duplicate sets of material collected in Nepal and Bhutan during a series of expeditions led by a number of remarkable ‘amateurs’. From 1933 to 1949 George Sherriff (a soldier) and Frank Ludlow (a teacher) made a series of expeditions to Bhutan and SE Tibet, in part made possible by the friendship of Sherriff ’s wife Betty, who was brought up in Kalimpong where her father the Rev. John Anderson Graham founded and ran the St Andrew’s Colonial Homes. It was there that she met the Dorje family of Bhutan, and through them the country’s Wangchuk royal family. One of the Ludlow and Sherriff collections (Saussurea pinnatophylla) was included in Treasures (T: 80), as it was these collections, together with the earlier ones of R.E. Cooper, that led to a request from the Government of Bhutan for RBGE to write a Flora of the kingdom. The project was taken on by Douglas Henderson and started in 1975 under the initial leadership of Andrew Grierson and David Long. Grierson and Long made a series of expeditions to Bhutan concentrating on the little-known but extremely rich, lower, subtropical parts of the country and collected many orchids. These included the specimen of Dendrobium chrysanthum, illustrated in Treasures (T: 92) in part to show the preservation in the herbarium not only of two-dimensional, dried specimens, but also of ones preserved in liquid spirit. Starting in the mid1950s Oleg Polunin (a schoolmaster) and Adam Stainton (originally a lawyer) began to explore the botanical riches of Nepal, and the duplicates of their specimens, donated by the Natural History Museum (London), form one of the major resources used by RBGE’s current major Himalayan project, the Flora of Nepal.

Today Material from South Asia continues to be added to the RBGE collections. New books and periodicals continue to be purchased for the library, but there is no specific funding for the acquisition of historic material such as archives or illustrations. For this the generosity of donors continues to be important, and the magnificent publication of Margaret Read Brown, and the Peal/Foster grass drawings have both been donated by descendants

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of their creators within the last 20 years. The most recent acquisition, in 2016 from a family descendent in Canada, is a small collection of letters from James McNab’s younger brother Thomas, written to his father and sisters from the tea estates of Upper Assam in the mid-1840s. The question of the acquisition of living and herbarium specimens, in terms of ethics and legal basis, has changed radically since the colonial period to which the majority of this chapter has been devoted. The watershed was the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, but with the coming into force of the Nagoya Protocol in 2014 even more stringent provisions are now in place over the question of ‘access to genetic resources’ and ‘equitable sharing’ of any benefits arising from their utilisation. Although procedures are in place for allowing the collection and export of plant material from many countries, those from India have yet to prove workable, so that the last specimens added to the RBGE herbarium from the country were collected in collaboration with the Botanical Survey of India on expeditions to western and northern Sikkim in 1992 and 1996. Herbarium specimens have, however, been received more recently, with appropriate permissions, from elsewhere in South Asia (Bhutan, Bangladesh and especially Nepal). It is greatly to be hoped that this situation will improve, and that collaboration over the sort of academic research dependent on the exchange of scientific specimens can enable the continuation of a long and mutually beneficial tradition.

UNPUBLISHED SOURCES (RBGE) John Hope’s pupils. Hope’s own ms classlists are in the National Archives of Scotland (GD/253/144/8), but copies are kept in the Hope papers at RBGE. University of Edinburgh Botany Classlists 1798–1878. Typescript in RBGE library at RBGE/5 (DREA1 rb). John Hutton Balfour. 12 volumes of his incoming correspondence, c. 1840–80. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Donations to Herbarium – accessions book, 7 December 1878 to 19 January 1914. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Reports [including donations to Garden (seeds and plants), Museum, Library and Herbarium] 1855–80. Note. Bound copy in RBGE Library at RBGE/5 (EADI1 rb).

WEBSITES Herbarium catalogue: http://elmer.rbge.org.uk/bgbase/vherb/bgbasevherb.php. Searchable version of Wallich’s catalogue of the EIC herbarium: http://wallich. rbge.info.

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REFERENCES Fletcher, H.R. and W.H. Brown. 1970. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 1670–1970. Edinburgh: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Fraser-Jenkins, C.R. 2006. The First Botanical Collectors in Nepal: The Fern Collections of Hamilton, Gardner and Wallich. Dehradun: Bishen Singh Mahendrapal Singh. Harris, D. and L. Mitchell. (eds.). 2014. Botanical Treasures: Objects from the Herbarium and Library of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Hedge, I.C. and J.M. Lamond. 1987. ‘Edinburgh’s Indian botanical connections and collections.’ Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 29: 272–85. Noltie, H.J. 2002. The Dapuri Drawings: Alexander Gibson and the Bombay Botanic Gardens. Edinburgh & Woodbridge: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh & Antique Collectors’ Club. . 2005. The Botany of Robert Wight. Regnum Vegetabile vol. 145. Ruggell: A.R.G. Gantner Verlag. . 2007. Robert Wight and the Botanical Drawings of Rungiah & Govindoo. Three vols: 1 – The Life and Work of Robert Wight; 2 – Botanical Drawings by Rungiah and Govindoo; 3 – Journeys in Search of Robert Wight. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. . (ed.). 2011. John Hope (1725–1786): Alan G. Morton’s Memoir of a Scottish Botanist. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. . 2016. The Cleghorn Collection: South Indian Botanical Drawings 1845 to 1860. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. . 2017. Botanical Art from India: The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Collection. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Robinson, T. 2008. William Roxburgh: The Founding Father of Indian Botany. Chichester: Phillimore. Waterston, C.D. 1997. Collections in Context: The Museum of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Inception of a National Museum for Scotland. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland. Watson, M.F. and H.J. Noltie. 2016. ‘Career, collections, reports and publications of Dr Francis Buchanan (later Hamilton), 1762–1829: Natural history studies in Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh and India. Part 1.’ Annals of Science 73, 4: 392–424. . (in preparation). ‘Career, collections, reports and publications of Dr Francis Buchanan (later Hamilton), 1762–1829: Natural history studies in Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh and India. Part 2.’ Annals of Science.

6 The Skull Room Craniological past of Edinburgh and India Ian Harper and Roger Jeffery

Introduction1

Iseries of four articles in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, N 1899, PROFESSOR SIR WILLIAM TURNER (1832–1916) PUBLISHED THE FIRST OF A

charting the craniological characteristics of the ‘People of the Empire of India’. A distinguished anatomist and scientist, he was from 1867 for 36 years the professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, a post he held until becoming the principal and vice-chancellor in 1903. As he stated in his introduction: For a number of years I have been collecting specimens and conducting an investigation into the craniological characters of the native inhabitants of our great Indian Empire, and several hundred skulls have now been under examination, and almost all have been measured (Turner 1899: 703).

In this chapter we explore the circulation between India and the University of Edinburgh of skulls collected across the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Skull collecting was central to the formation of anatomy, phrenology and physical anthropology and was a key component of the anatomists’ work. A focus on these skulls, as material objects, allows us to better understand the links between India and the University. As we shall see, these acquisitions were supported by the personal and professional relationships between Edinburgh-trained colonial medical officers and the University’s anatomists. It will thus tell a story of colonial science through the trail of bones. 1 The original research upon which this paper is based was part of a project undertaken with Dr Elizabeth Hodson. The research was made possible with the assistance of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, with particular and generous help from Ruth Pollitt, Malcolm MacCallum, Iain Campbell and Professor Tom Gillingswater

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The Skull Room The skulls at the University were (and still are) housed in cabinets in a purpose-built skull room, completed in 1884 by Sir William Turner. Still accessible today in the Anatomy department, its aesthetic is striking. It is an extraordinary space, arresting, startling, emotive: The space demands silence, and feels a little as if one is inside a mausoleum. The room itself has a very particular architecture. Tiered, with a balcony running around three walls, it reaches up across two floors, and rows of skulls (just under 1400), two deep in wall-to-wall glass cabinets, stare down and across the room (Fig. 14). Displayed thus, its intentionality reaches out, projecting a colonial history, an aesthetic projection of a colonial classificatory history. Each of these skulls is labelled and identified as being in a particular series (identified with an anatomist at the University), with the name of the principal collector of the items. The first series is called after John Goodsir, who was chair of anatomy from 1846–67; next is that of Sir William Turner, who became chair in 1867; and the third set is named after Daniel John Cunningham, who succeeded Turner and held the chair from 1903 till his death in 1909. Goodsir had been responsible for restoring the reputation and prestige of anatomy at the University following the Burke and Hare scandal of 1828, which then flourished as craniology and physical anthropology rose to greater prominence within the sciences as the nineteenth century progressed. The skulls are categorised on the basis of where they were collected, and from reading the labels in the skull room, their origins include the following places: British Islands (sub groups English, Scottish, Irish); German; Iceland; Switzerland; French; Austrian; Greek; Russian; Lapland (Arctic region); Esquimaux (from Hare Island, Labrador, Sabim Island, Winter Island, Repulse Bay, Kotsebue Sand); Turkey, Syria and Palestine, Persia; India; Burmese; Shan States; Siamese; Malay Peninsula; Andamanese; Mergui Archipelago; Borneo; Philippines; Javanese; Marshall Islands; Tibetans; Japanese; Formosa; Guanche; Tenerife; Madeira; Sudanese; North Africa; West Africa; South Africa (Kaffir, Bushman, Hottentot, Matabele, Basuto, Zulu, Negro/Negress); Madagascar; New Guinea; Loyalty Islands; Solomon Islands; New Hebrides; Oceanic; Fijian Islands; New Ireland; New Caledonia. A large number (around 250) are from India, further reflecting the colonial territorial distribution of the collections: Bengalis (including Gond and Boomij caste); Central India – Secunderabad, and Bhil, southern provinces and Madras, Tamil Sudras and Pariah Madras, Hindu; Central

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India; Provinces and Punjab; North East India (including Tonkal, Chin, Lushai, Yaw, Taungtha; Ceylonese – Veddah; Hindoo (intermediate; Brahmin). In all, a map of where the skulls are from reveals the reach of colonial Britain. We turn next to a number of these skulls to tease out their history and context of collection in a little more detail. Let us start with the Tibetan skulls.

The Tibetan Skulls Six of the skulls housed in the skull room are from Tibet, each sent after a military incursion. The letter accompanying two, for example, and sent to William Turner by Major C.N.C. Wimberley, of the Indian Medical Service (I.M.S.), was dated 21 February 1905: I send you two Tibetan crania. One is damaged and is I think the skull of a typical inhabitant of Lhasa; the inferior maxilla is also missing. The other skull is complete and is, as far as I can make out, from the clothing and the hair, the skull of a Kham warrior from far Eastern Tibet. They were both picked up from sites where engagements took place between the Tibetan forces and our troops during the recent expedition to Tibet (Edinburgh Anatomy Museum: skull collections catalogue).

In 1903–04 the British in India were involved in a military mission from India into Tibetan-held territory. The political rationale for the mission, although deeply suspect, was a perceived Russian influence and their potential expansion into India (Younghusband 1927), an aspect of the Great Game (Hopkirk 1991). The invasion itself represents, as Younghusband’s biographer suggests, a particular moment in the history of the British Empire, where historical insignificance was linked to a form of epic grandeur represented by the grainy photographs (many taken by Frederick Marshman Bailey, one of the procurer of skulls for the Edinburgh collection), a lasting imagery of orientalist imperial adventurism, which none the less left over 3,000 dead (95 per cent of whom were Tibetan) (French 1995). This expedition generated a huge amount of orientalist interest in Britain. To quote from a review article of five books published in the immediate aftermath of the invasion: One of the last of the earth’s hidden places has been revealed; and up among the snows of the Himalayan Mountains the curtain that veils an

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obscure and fascinating community has been plucked back, held open for a few months during which the curious eyes of Western Civilization have peered upon the mysteries it concealed, and has fallen and veiled them again from our vision (Anon., 1905).

The article also frames the unveiling as a part of the Great Game, instigated by the mysterious figure of the Russian spy Dorjieff, a ‘history with the sinister halo of romance’. Since the mid-1800s the Himalayas had been perceived as an exciting frontier of colonial knowledge, and increasingly as a site where ethnographically, botanically, and zoologically India, Malay, China and Europe mingled in complex ways (Arnold 2005). By the turn of the century the coalescing of the need for total scientific knowledge of the non-western world combined with that of political knowledge was at its peak and Tibet was seen as the ‘holy grail’ of exploration (McKay 2012). In 1903, as Younghusband waited three months to enter Tibetan territory, the Viceroy Curzon wrote that the ‘Khamba Jong [in Sikkim] has become a sort of scientific playground, with botanists, geologists, mineralogists etc. sticking their heads out behind every rock’ (French 1995: 188). As Carrington (2003) suggests, the interest and desires that the idea of Tibet generated as the momentum for the expedition gathered force was considerable: Cartographers hoped to map virgin territory, plant and insect hunters expected to discover new specimens, geologists were looking to Tibet’s supposed mineral wealth, individuals wanted curios for themselves and for institutions… (Carrington 2003: 93).

The expedition then entered Tibet, advanced to Gyantse, and entered Lhasa in July 1904. In September, an Anglo-Tibetan Convention was imposed by the British linked to trade regulations, and the acceptance of Trade Agencies at Gyantse and Gartok (McKay 2012). As a part of the expedition, the British established a hospital at Gyantse – which, it has been suggested by the medical historian McKay, marked the formal introduction of biomedicine into the Himalayan state. After Younghusband’s forces withdrew, they left a ‘trade agency’, and they also provided the local community with free medical treatment (in particular there was great demand for the smallpox vaccine). While their primary task was to provide medical services for the political officers it was soon recognised, across colonial territories, that these services were indispensable for establishing good diplomatic relations more widely.

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One of the ‘trade agencies’ set up in the wake of the expedition, which in effect were diplomatic posts created by the Raj for the furtherance of British interests, was staffed by F.M. Bailey (McKay 2001). Amongst the items that he sent back to Edinburgh were four skulls: ‘I have the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt, in October 1906, of two skulls and a skull bowl or cap collected at Gyantse, Tibet’ wrote William Turner in 1907 in volume 2 of his ‘memoires’ of the Contributions to the Craniology of the People of the Empire of India: They were presented by Lieutenant F.M. Bailey, the British Agent at the town of Gyantse, and they had been prepared for him by Captain Rt. Steen, I.M.S., the Agency Surgeon. The skull bowl was said to be a part of the Khamba skull, but no special information is given regarding the other specimens (Turner 1907: 812).

And again, in Volume 4, published in 1913, which includes the skull groupings of Bhils; Frontier Tribes of Burma; Panokku Tribes; South Shan Tribes; and Tibetans, Turner wrote: I have now cordially to acknowledge the receipt in 1908 of two additional skulls, which, like those described in in 1907, were presented to me for the Anatomical Museum by Lieutenant F.M. Bailey, who obtained them at Gyantse, Tibet, where he acted as British Agent. Of these skulls, No. 6 was apparently a male, said to be a Khamba, the other, smaller in dimensions, obviously a female, had no special mark on it (Turner 1913: 731) .

Turner wrote of Tibetan skulls, each of which were obtained in the immediate aftermath of this Younghusband-led mission, in three of his volumes of craniological work involving skulls from India. These publications he released as a series of ‘memoirs’ – in a departure from his original intention of publishing them as one volume – based on geographical groupings, as Craniology of People of India: Part I: The Hill Tribes of the North-East Frontier and the People of Burma (1899); Part II: The Aborigines of Chuta Nagpur and of the Central Provinces, the People of Orissa, the Veddahs and Negritos (1901); Part III, Natives of the Madras Presidency, Thugs, Veddahs, Tibetans, and Seistanis (1906); Part IV, Bhīls, frontier tribes of Burma, Pakôkku tribes, South Shan tribes, Tibetans (1913). Another volume, published in 1907, relates to the Natives of Borneo, the Malays, the Natives of Formosa, and the Tibetans.

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In addition, in the Anatomical Museum is a cabinet of cultural artefacts, including a ‘Thibetan Femoral Trumpets and Calvarial Drums’, examples of ‘instruments’ made from remains and obtained from Darjeeling. These were used by Lama Priests ‘to summon the faithful to worship’, stated the attached label in the museum in 2016. ‘Human skulls have been used in Thibet as drinking vessels and by the Lamas for Libations’. These skulls were also examined as a part of Turner’s craniological meditations, in relation to the whole ones he received. In volume three of Craniology of People of India, Turner analyses the dimensions of five groups of skulls: Natives of Madras Presidency; Thugs; Veddahs; Tibetans; and Seistanis. The categorisation of these appears to reflect how the skulls were received, rather than any particular racial characteristics, although these are implied in the analysis. In February 1905 I had the pleasure to receive from a former pupil, Major C.N.C. Wimberley, I.M.S., two crania which he had collected when in Tibet as a member of the medical staff attached to the expedition to Lhasa under the command of Sir Frank E. Younghusband, K.C.I.E. One without the lower jaw was labeled as the skull of a typical inhabitant of Lhasa; the other, with the lower jaw attached, judging from the clothing and hair, was regarded as that of a Kham warrior from Eastern Tibet. They were picked up on the sites where engagements had been fought between the Tibetan forces and the British Troops during the recent campaign (Turner 1906: 288–89).

Accompanying the measurements of these two skulls is a six-page meditation on ‘the physical characteristics and affinities of the Tibetans’ (p. 292–98), drawing on the writings from the recent expedition, as well as some earlier writings on the peoples of Tibet. The second set of two skulls he received were written into A Contribution to the Craniology of the Natives of Borneo, The Malays, the Natives of Formosa, and the Tibetans: In Part iii. of my series of Memoirs… I described and figured the skulls of two natives of Tibet, which had been presented in 1905 by Major C.N.C. Wimberley, I.M.S. One of these, from Lhasa, was an example of the brachycephalic type; the other, a warrior from the Kham province in Eastern Tibet, on the other hand, was dolichocephalic in form and proportions. The skulls were representative of the two distinct types of

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head which exist in the people of Tibet. These skulls are marked A and B in the list of Tibetan crania in the University Museum (Turner 1907: 812)

Craniology of India Once the six skulls had been put together, Turner could conclude that he now had additional proof that ‘in Tibet a dolichocephalic race exists in addition to the brachycephalic Mongolian race, the latter of which constitutes probably the main stock of the people of the great Upland Valley of Tibet, who form perhaps a large proportion of the inhabitants of the Buddhist monasteries; whilst the Khams, the warrior or fighting race, are derived from the Kham province situated in the east of Tibet’ (Turner 1913: 734). According to his biographer, Turner was interested in Tibetan skulls as they were seen as semi-nomadic pastoral tribes ‘short-headed, flat-faced, and oblique-eyed, presenting the Mongolian type’, and the invasion ‘had disclosed a type of men never observed in the Central and Western areas’ (Turner 1919: 219). They were also perceived in the writings at the time of being amongst the bravest of fighters. They showed evidence of being ‘long-heads’, and he was able to compare these to people who spoke similar languages from the hills of Burma, who may have been from the same race. The Tibetan skulls thus formed part of a broader analysis charting the full racial characteristics of the Indian skulls. He set out how he received these skulls as follows: The sources to which I have been indebted for material are in part the collection of crania belonging to the Henderson Trust, long known as the Edinburgh Phrenological Museum, and now deposited by the Trustees in the Anatomical Museum of the University; in part, a few specimens belonging to the University collected by my predecessors in office; in part, the valuable series of Indian crania belonging to the Indian Museum, Calcutta, which through the intercession of Dr John Anderson, F.R.S., the former Director, the Trustees of that Museum, with great liberality, most courteously permitted me to have the loan of for the purposes of study; and lastly, a number of crania which have been forwarded to me by friends and former pupils, engaged in public service in India, to whom I take this opportunity of expressing my indebtedness for the valuable material which I have received from them” (Turner 1899: 703).

To return to the first article in the Turner series, this includes an analysis of sixty-four skulls. He starts with a review of the localities, the different

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names, and descriptions of the peoples provided by the travelogues of explorers and administrators of the regions. He was, it seems, an avid reader of travelogues although he had never himself visited areas outside of North America and Europe, and these only on short holidays from his punishing academic schedule (Turner 1919). Here, for example, is a review of the Lushai tribe: Colonel Woodthorpe, R.E, who was also a member of the Lushai expedition of 1871–72, gives an account of the people (“The Lushai Expedition”, 1871–72, in United Service Institution Journal). He states that they were of three tribes – Lushais, Paités or Soktés, and Pois. Both sexes were well made and muscular; the average stature of the men was 5 ft. 6 in., that of the women 5 ft. 4 in. The colour of the skin was every shade of brown, but the Pois were fairer than is usual with hillmen. The cheek bones were high and prominent, the face broad, the lips thick, the nose usually retroussé, with wide nostrils; though in the higher classes the nose was sometimes thin and aquiline with small nostrils, and the lips were thin. The eyes were small and almond shaped; the beard and moustache were scanty (Turner 1913: 703).

Many of the accounts of the areas, and the people residing therein were dependent on military excursions into these remote tribal regions. The Lushai Expeditions of 1871–72 and 1890 carried out surveys of these ‘unexplored border-lands’ on the eastern frontiers of Bengal as well as punishing the tribes and eventually annexing them (MacDonald, Tanner & Badgley 1872). Turner then goes on to acknowledge the source of the skulls on which he is writing: In 1890, my former assistant and pupil, now Surgeon-Captain D. Macbeth Moir, who was engaged in a military expedition against the Lushais, forwarded to me a skull (H in Table) which was dug up in the process of constructing Fort Tregear, built in the loop made by the Koladyne river in the South Lushai hill-tracts, a few miles to the north of the of the Blue Mountain. The country visited by the expedition lies between 92° and 94° longitude and 22° and 24° latitude, and consists of a succession of steep hills and deep narrow ravines. Some of the hills attain a height of 9000 feet, and many of the villages are from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea-level. In the following year Dr Moir sent me a skull (I in Table) which had been found in the bed of the Koladyne river, immediately to the north of Fort Tregear. He believed it to be the skull of a Lushai who,

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when returning to a village on the Don Mountain, from a village on the Aitur Mountain, was drowned in crossing the river. The two skulls were found within fifteen miles from each other. Dr Moir states that the Lushais place the severed heads of their enemies on posts, but do not impale the skull (Turner 1913: 709).

Another skull from the region was received from another pupil, Surgeon-Captain H.B. Melville, stationed at Fort Aijal in the North Lushai Hills as the surgeon-general: ‘…the skull of a Lushai warrior who had sustained a sword-cut in the left temporal region during a skirmish. The edges if the cut were sharp and somewhat splintered, and the injury had doubtless been the cause of death’. A further two Lushai skulls were sent from the museum in Trinity, Dublin, by Professor Cunningham: One was procured in 1892 by Dr Malcolm Moore. It was dug up in the floor of a hut in Poi Boi, a village of the North Lushai people, situated a little to the north-east of Fort Aijal. The dead are said to be buried in the huts of their relatives. The other specimen was obtained in the village of Ramree in the South Lushai Hills, by Assistant-Surgeon V.L. Watts, who was quartered at Fort Lungley, about fifteen miles to the west of Fort Tregear. In digging it up the left side of the face was injured (Turner 1913: 709–10).

In addition, in 1891, Surgeon-Captain C.L. Williams sent a skull that he had picked up from a graveyard from a surveying expedition, near Jiddim in Kankow. In 1894 Surgeon-Captain D.H. Graves sent some skulls, again from a village graveyard, while stationed at an outpost in the north Chin Hills. Another, from 1893, was said to be from a woman who had fallen into a tiger trap. Naga skulls arrived from the Medical Officer based in Manipur: In 1893 a box reached me from Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel F.W. Wright, D.S.O., containing eight skulls which he had collected in the house of a Tonkal Nágá, in the upper village of Hwining, situated about 6000 feet above the sea-level in the hills some forty miles north-east of Manipur. The occasion which led to an expedition being sent into the hills was a raid by the “Kukis” on the Nágá village of Swemi, situated some 7000 feet above sea-level, and about 70 north-east of Manipur. The people of Hwining, although themselves Nágás, had joined the Kukis in the raid on villages of their own tribe (Turner 1913: 717).

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Accompanying the skulls, Turner reproduces at length information sent with them, detailing where Wright had found them, attached as ‘trophies’ on the wall of a house, and details of the area and the people: ‘…they fix trophies of the skulls and horns of animals at the entrance to their houses’, a practice that Turner, in a footnote, states is similar to that found in the Solomon Islands and extensively in New Guinea. Analytically then, Turner enters each of the skulls into tables, as mentioned, and under the following headings: Collection, Age, Sex, Cubic capacity, Glabello-occipital length, Basi-bregmatic height, Vertical Index, Minimal frontal diameter, Stephanic diameter, Asterionic diameter, Greatest parieto-squamous breadth, Cephalic Index, Horizontal circumference, Frontal longitudinal arc, Parietal longitudinal arc, Occipital longitudinal arc, Total longitudinal arc, Vertical transverse arc, Length of foramen magnum, Basi-nasal length, Basi-alveolar length, Gnathic Index, Interzygomatic breadth, Intermalar breadth, Nasio-mental length, Nasio-mental complete facial Index, Nasio-alveolar length, Maxillary upper facial Index, Nasal height, Nasal width, Nasal Index, Orbital width, Orbital height, Orbital Index, Paleto-maxillary length, Paleto-maxillary breadth, Paleto-maxillary Index, and finally a series of measurements for the Lower jaw (Fig. 15) He adopted the method of classification led by Anders Retzius – who further grouped races into three skull types (longheads or dolichocephali, short-heads or brachycephali, and middle-heads or mesaticephali) (Turner 1919). As a review of Craniology in Nature stated: … the measurement of the greatest breadth of the cranium, expressed in percentage of its greatest length, is our guide as to the race to which an individual belongs from a craniological point of view. When the cranial index rises above 80 the head is called “brachycephalic”, a broad head; when it falls below 75 the term “doliochocephalic”, or long head is applied to it. Indices between 75 and 80 are characterised as “mesocephalic”, intermediate heads (Anon. 1901: 455).

The Turner article then goes on to compare his collections with those that have been held elsewhere. Other museum collections reflected upon include the Bernard Davis collection at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, which held three Naga crania, and one from the Patkoi mountains, and one other described by Professor G.D. Thane in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute in 1882. In his writings, Turner is an empiricist, and his conclusions are cautious and not sweepingly

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theoretical. He concludes from the measurements he has made, and the descriptions he has reviewed that: …whilst the Mongolian type of feature prevails, that departures from that type do occur with sufficient frequency to be noticeable. The study of the skulls proves that they also possess some diversities of character. Though the majority of specimens in the Chin-Lushai group and in the Nágás were dolichocephalic or approximated thereto, in both the Lushais and Nagas two distinctly brachycephalic crania were met with, though in the series of Chins 77.5 was the highest index of breadth…. As the best marked Mongolian races are either definitely brachycephalic or in the higher terms of the mesaticephalic group it is interesting to note that these hill tribes, with a prevailing type of Mongolian feature, possessed crania in which brachycephalism is the exception, and where the customary form of the skull is dolichocephalic or approximating thereto. It would seem, therefore, that the Mongolian character of face is not necessarily associated with only one type of cranium (Turner 1913: 723).

The second part of the first article then goes onto outline the peoples of Burma, categorised as ‘of the same stock as the Himalaya-Tibetan people, offshoots of which race migrated, it is believed, in a South-Easterly direction until they reached Burma’ (1913: 725). He then highlights the mix of races and reflects – in addition to the peoples from the north, outlined above – on the Karen and Shans. Forty-four skulls from around Burma were held in the museum, the majority of them received from Insein Jail. In 1895 he received 16 skulls from Surgeon-Major G.J.H. Bell, a former anatomy assistant, and then another twenty in 1897. To conclude this section then, over the course of the nineteenth century the study of skulls became increasingly central to the formation of the discipline of physical anthropology. While the supply of skulls from India increased over the latter half of the century to feed this scientific enterprise, there were earlier ones supplied from India as well. Phrenology was popular in the early part of the 1800s, and the Edinburgh Phrenology Society – one of the key locations for this highly contested scientific practice – was set up by George Coombe in 1820. Phrenology linked personality traits with the size of parts of the cranial skull, believing that these reflected the requisite areas of the brain. Twelve crania sent by Ram Mohan Roy in 1822 had been examined by George Paterson to further the idea that Hindus had ‘acquisitiveness and secretiveness’ (Bates 1995). In 1833 seven further skulls were again sent to the Phrenology Society

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from India, this time of ‘Thug’ prisoners, part of the racialised evolution of phrenology. Skulls were also symbolic of colonial superiority and the need for the suppression of such practices (Wagner 2010). As with Turner’s later craniological endeavours, the authors of phrenological texts focused on specific colonial ethnographic writings in developing their analyses, which in the case of the Thugs further sensationalised these discursive ideas (ibid.). Edinburgh’s Phrenology collection of skulls, held under the Henderson Trust, was thus later rolled into the specimens used for the craniological studies and the foundation of physical anthropology at the University. Turner, re-measuring these Thug skulls, as Wagner suggests, entered them into a different scientific register, where, for a while, they – combined with the other skulls sent to Edinburgh – briefly illuminated another racial line of scientific thinking. Turner, with his wide reading of, and correspondence with, those who had travelled through the areas where the skulls were collected, was central to the formation of physical anthropology at Edinburgh, classifying the human races and their origins. In the biography written by his son, it was suggested that the University ought to have founded a Memorial Chair of Physical Anthropology in his name (Turner 1919).

Who were the suppliers of skulls? One can imagine William Turner sitting in his Edinburgh house (6 Eton Terrace, overlooking the Water of Leith, where he lived from 1869 till he died in 1916) vicariously experiencing the rest of the world through the letters, skulls and other bones that were sent back to him, mostly by his ex-students. As his biographer suggests: ‘In his imagination, he must have pictured many lands and climes, and allowed his mind, too, to dwell upon their living inhabitants’ (Turner 1919: 207–08). As Sturdy described his career: He was an outstanding teacher, both of those who were destined for medical practice and of those who aspired to academic careers of their own. Among the latter were no fewer than twenty-three men who would go on to occupy chairs of anatomy in medical schools throughout the British empire (Sturdy 2011).

He hardly travelled outside Europe himself, but assiduously nurtured the network of his ex-students. Because he taught anatomy in Edinburgh uninterruptedly from 1854 until 1903, and because Edinburgh was the

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largest (and, so it claimed, the leading) medical school in the Empire, hundreds of men passed through his classes. Many joined the Army and Indian medical services, and a very small percentage went on to send back skulls from all over the world. But others – most notably Frederick Marshman Bailey and Thomas Cadell, VC – had no medical training yet found themselves in a position to help Turner out with a skull or two they had come across in their working lives. The recently completed catalogue of skulls in the Anatomy Museum lists 32 individuals who supplied Turner with skulls from British India; a further three acted as conduits of skulls sourced by others. Most of these people were part of an established network of families, with a strict social code, which stretched between Edinburgh, London and the colonial world, particularly India. These were well-to-do families with military ties going back several generations. Born in India but educated in Britain, these families moved back and forth across the Empire building continual connections between India and Scotland (Livne 2013: 276).

There were five non-medical suppliers of skulls. Of these, we have been unable to trace an F.P. Harper, Esq. Nor have we found material on H. Thwaites, whose gift was presented through Dr Russell John Drummond (MB CM Edinburgh, 1888), then living in Ceylon. The Reverend William Hastie supplied one skull in 1891: he was a controversial figure who went to India in 1878 to run the Church of Scotland College in Calcutta but left under a cloud in 1885: how he came by this skull and why he left it until 1891 to donate it is unclear. The other two non-medical suppliers were Thomas Cadell and Frederick Marshman Bailey. Cadell was from a family well-known as iron-founders in Falkirk (the Carron iron-works) but also as landed gentry from Cockenzie and elsewhere in East Lothian. Several other Cadells went to India to find their fortunes (see a listing in Chapter 7 of this volume and in the annex). After winning a VC for action during the siege of Delhi in 1857, Thomas Cadell had a fairly humdrum career, ending as Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from 1879 to 1892: the skull he presented to Turner (via Dr David Douglas Cunningham, MB BCh, Edinburgh, 1867) was from a man sent to the penal colony on the islands. Bailey was born in Lahore, where his father (also called Frederick) was briefly stationed while in the Indian Army. After he transferred to the forest service, Bailey Senior retired on health grounds and moved to

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Edinburgh, where he lectured in forestry at the University; he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1894, with Turner as one of his proposers. Frederick Junior, or Eric as he was usually known, spent two happy years at Edinburgh Academy, 1892–94. In 1900 he joined the British Army from Sandhurst and was first posted to South India. Although he enjoyed his time there, collecting botanical specimens, he energetically pursued the opportunity to join the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet in 1903. Having learnt Tibetan he was later posted as the Trade Agent in Gyantse, and carried out a series of explorations, embodying the last phase of the ‘Great Game’ involving British Indian attempts to secure its borders and collecting specimens of various kinds as he went. Twenty-one of the 32 suppliers of Indian-origin skulls to Turner had medical degrees from Edinburgh, the first graduating in 1853 and the last – Violet Grace Seymour Adams, the only named woman in the catalogue – in 1899. Born in Moulmein in 1873, Violet Adams worked in Madras for many years, before migrating further to Kenya, where she died. Seven of the suppliers had degrees from elsewhere (Aberdeen and Ireland). Of those Edinburgh medical graduates who supplied items collected while members of the Indian Medical Service, William Burney Bannerman (MB CM, Edinburgh, 1881), stands out. In addition to providing four skulls on his own account in 1890, he sent 12 skulls to the Turner series in 1901 with Colonel William Alexander Lee (an Irish degreeholder). With Dr David Simpson, an Aberdeen graduate, he sent a further skull in 1901. Turner was the primary sponsor of Bannerman’s election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1902. Bannerman went on to become the Director-in-Chief of the Plague Laboratory, Bombay, in 1904. Born in 1858 in Edinburgh, in 1889 he married Helen Bannerman there, while on sick leave. She was the writer of the controversial The Story of little Black Sambo about a South Indian boy. Bannerman was involved in a trial of vaccination against plague in 1898 in Baroda State, and wrote on ‘Plague in India’ in the Journal of Hygiene, and ‘The Plague Research Laboratory of the Government of India, Bombay’ in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1902). He retired as Surgeon-General in 1918 and returned to the Grange, one of Edinburgh’s leafy inner suburbs, living in Strathearn Place until he died in 1924. Bannerman’s first cousin David Douglas Cunningham (MD CM Edinburgh, 1867) in 1879 became Professor of Physiology in the Calcutta Medical College, where he investigated the causes of cholera. He was selected as naturalist for the Tibet Mission of 1886. According to an obituary, he learnt Punjabi and understood the Guru Granth Sahib (D.P.

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1917). He supplied Turner with the skull of a Sikh man with his articulated skeleton in 1887, and of a man who died in the hospital in Calcutta, along with two further skulls. Although born into a prominent Edinburgh family at Prestonpans, on Edinburgh’s eastern border, he did not return to Scotland after his retirement, dying in Torquay. Several of the suppliers of skulls were also donors to, or collected items that were purchased by, the Royal Scottish Museum (RSM). Eric Bailey sent back over 200 objects to his family home in Drummond Place, including a cabinet of curiosities that contained taxonomic displays of weapons, animal specimens and heads, spears, etc. This collection was later opened to the public and became part of Edinburgh’s emergent museum space – firstly in his parents’ family home, and later dispersed to museums in London and elsewhere (Livne 2013). Frederick and Eric Bailey both donated items to the RSM, mostly to its natural history collection. Dr John Anderson (MD Edinburgh, 1861), Superintendent of the Indian Museum in Calcutta from 1865–86, supplied three skulls to Turner in addition to a variety of items to the natural history section of the RSM. George Bidie, who presented a skull (‘Tamil-speaking native of Madras’) to the Turner series, studied at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, joining the IMS in 1856. He wrote on the natural history, botany, economics, and borer insects on coffee estates; researched into cholera; and instituted the medical inspection of schools in Madras (Comrie 1932: 764–65). A polymath, he was also instrumental in bringing about legislation for bird protection in India (Watt 1908), and served as the superintendent of the Government Museum, Chennai. The RSM purchased 47 items from his collection in 1911, mostly swords, daggers, guns and spears. Not all the IMS officers who sent back skulls had close connections to Edinburgh. For example, Sir James Reid Roberts (MB BS Durham 1885) was an IMS officer who sent six Bhil skulls that were entered into the Turner series in July 1908. He was Residency Surgeon in Indore between 1901–12, and from 1906 was the Administrative Medical Officer for Central India.2 Although born in Marseilles, he was partly educated at Dollar Academy, and tried living in Perthshire after retirement, but returned to India and died in Srinagar. Dr Richard Henry Havelock Charles (Cork MD BCh 1881) sent one skull (‘Hindu from Coromandel Coast, Prisoner Insein Jail, Lower Burma’). This jail was built in the wake of the third Anglo-Burmese war of 1865, to house political prisoners. Charles had been Professor of Anatomy at Lahore Medical College, and Professor of Surgery at Calcutta 2

https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E004524b.htm, accessed 16 June 2018.

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Medical College. He wrote numerous papers on anatomy, craniology and anthropology, and surgery, holding the office of President of the Indian Medical Board, amongst others (Hayavadana Rao 1915: 85). Dr John Miller Strachan (MD Edinburgh 1869) presented a ‘Pariah’ skull from South India to the Turner series. Unusually amongst the skull suppliers, he was a missionary as well as a doctor, and founded the Medical Mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Tirunelveli, South India, and retired in 1902 as Bishop of Rangoon.

General comments on skulls and collecting in relation to Edinburgh Skulls and their circulation have been a fascination for centuries. The Enlightenment oversaw the secularisation of the ‘Catholic cult of relics’ – to which bones were central – and into the 19th century explorers and travellers fed the craze for ‘cabinets of curiosities’ (Shorto 2009: p. 107ff). Many of these collections, the private forerunners of the public museum, had skulls, often as the central pieces of their displays. Franz Joseph Gall, a Viennese doctor and phrenologist popularised the fashion of skull collecting through his collections and scientific phrenological understandings: that the intellectual, emotional, moral and social centre of the person resided in the skull (Larson 2014). The Edinburgh phrenologist, Georg Coombe’s tome The Constitution of Man outsold copies of the Bible in the mid-1800s (ibid. 170). In time, this focus on individual character traits morphed into a broader study of population through their skulls: Craniology came to replace Phrenology, a key component of the foundations of physical anthropology (See, for example, Schiller 1992 for a biography of Broca and the origins of French anthropology). These skulls procured for the University of Edinburgh were thus part of far more general collecting and formed the foundations of modern anthropology. We became fascinated by the potential of biographies for these. This was inspired by the work of the artist Christine Borland, whose work ‘From Life’ was a record of her forensic reconstruction of …an Asian female, five feet two inches tall -- starting with the skeleton and ending up with a bronze cast of the head. Borland said that her work was concerned with how the body and individual are depersonalized by the health and medicine establishment. She tried to re-personalize the individual by rebuilding her from the skeleton up (Robert Maloney 2000).

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The commentary on this by Maria Lind (2006) and the work of John Harries and Joost Fontein in the Anthropology Department of the University of Edinburgh also provoked our interest in this topic. They curated an exhibition – a skull and various other objects – at the conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists in Edinburgh in 2014, and asked attendees for their responses to this skull, which came, originally it is believed, from the Anatomy collection, but had been sitting in an office at the Edinburgh College of Art. Fabian, for example, reflects on the ‘chaotic’ nature of collecting from Africa for natural history investigation and how these artefacts, of which skulls were a part, became the capital upon which the discipline of anthropology was founded (Fabian 2000: 196). Sporadic references are made in the literature to other anthropologists sending back skulls from their various expeditions. For example Haddon, from the Torres Straights Expedition, collected a ‘great many skulls and artefacts’, despite his field notes being somewhat slim (Stocking 1995: 112). He makes reference to a skull in the Cambridge museum as well (ibid. 211). As a visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford reveals, skulls and ‘shrunken heads’ remain an endearing and murky aspect of the anthropological collecting endeavour (Pears 2010). With reference to the Tibetan skulls, these were not the only artefacts collected, but were an aspect of a much broader collection of Tibetan artefacts sent back to Britain: An ‘Empire of Things’ – part of the colonial processes of both control and knowledge production, an aspect of the gathering process of civil servants (Livne 2013). Eric Bailey, who was posted as the Trade Agent in Gyantse, sent back over 200 objects to Edinburgh initially to his family home as we have already seen. These included taxonomic displays of weapons, animal specimens and heads, spears, etc. Another medical officer for the expedition (Major L.A. Wadell) was also ‘PMO of Force and Antiquarian and Collector of Bhuddist (sic) knowledge and Curios for the British Museum’ and sent back hundreds of objects and manuscripts to London. Bailey, Wadell and others were amongst the men of empire ‘Born in India and Educated in Britain’ who made up the network of connections oscillating between here and there. While this paper focuses on the historical collection of skulls from India, Edinburgh today has a pro-repatriation policy. In 2008, the University of Edinburgh was gifted a ceremonial burial pole by the Ngaaindjeri Nation of Australia, which stands now on the stairs leading up to the museum itself. This followed the repatriation of remains from the University, the culmination of over 20 years of lobbying activity. The

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University was the first institution in the UK to return bones following a repatriation request, that of the skull of Keppitipola Nilama – a leader in the 1817 Ceylon ‘rebellion’ – to Sri Lanka in 1947. Individual institutions in the UK have had varied responses to repatriation requests, with the University of Edinburgh having had a pioneering pro-repatriation policy since 1990 (Alberti 2016). As Ann Fabian (2010) has suggested, in writing of the early to midnineteenth century American skull collector and scientist Samuel Morten, it is perhaps all too easy to label the skull collectors, and their underlying racial assumptions and project as ‘scientific racism’. His shelves were filled with the skulls of recruited ‘allies’ of artists, phrenologists, naturalists, explorers, doctors, soldiers, diplomats who had sent him skulls in a late Enlightenment project of classifying, cataloguing, and ordering the natural world; a network of natural historians. Reading the literature, it is extraordinary how skull collectors seemed to have few qualms about their collecting habits. Both Fabian and Larson point to how many saw this practice as ‘rascally’ and it seemed to feed a transgressive sense, yet one with higher scientific purpose. Whether or not it was legal or ethical seemed to be secondary to the compunction to add to the sum of scientific knowledge. But moral and ethical judgements from the present, while pointing to the darker contours of the endeavour – and our love of gothic horror? – tend to miss the ‘more interesting intellectual and cultural currents that lit up his study’ (Fabian 2010: 17). Nonetheless, as Wagner has written in his compelling micro-biography of the skull of Alum Bheg, the practices of skull collecting from the colonies cannot, nor should be, separated from the racial logic that underpinned the violence of the British imperial project, both in India, and more broadly (Wagner 2017).

References Alberti, Sam. 2016. ‘A history of Edinburgh’s medical museums.’ Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 46: 187–97. Anon. 1901. ‘Craniology.’ Nature 63, 1636: 454–58. . 1905. Review of Lhasa: An Account of the Country and People of Central Tibet and of the Progress of the Mission sent there by the English Government in the year 1903–4 (by Percival Landon); Tibet and Nepal (by Henry Savage Landor); The unveiling of Lhasa (by Edmund Chandler); A Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet (by Sarat Chandra Das); and To Lhasa at Last (by Powell Millington). The Edinburgh Review 201, 412: 338–360. Arnold, David. 2005. ‘Europe, technology, and colonialism in the 20th century.’ History and Technology 21, 1: 85–106.

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Bates, Crispin. 1995. Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry. Edinburgh Papers in South Asian Studies 3. Comrie, John Dixon. 1932. History of Scottish Medicine (2nd ed.). London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox, for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. D.P. 1917. ‘David Douglas Cunningham.’ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character 89, 622: xv–xx Fabian, Ann. 2010. The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America’s Unburied Dead. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. French, Patrick. 2016. Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer. London: Vintage. Larson, Frances. 2014. Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Lind, Maria, 2006. ‘An Elusive Eidolon in a Social Archaeology.’ In Christine Borland. Preserves. Edinburgh: The Fruitmarket Gallery. pp. 38–47. Livne, Inbal. 2013. ‘Tibetan Collections in Scottish Museum 1890–1930: A Critical Historiography of Missionary and Military Intent.’ PhD thesis. Religious Studies Department, University of Stirling: Stirling. MacDonald, J., William Francis Tanner & Henry C.B. Badgley. 1872. ‘The Lushai Expedition.’ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London 17, 1: 42–55. Maloney, Robert. 2000. ‘Christine Borland, “Spirit Collection”.’ artnet, http://www. artnet.com/Magazine/reviews/mahoney/mahoney3–30–00.asp. Accessed 23 April 2018. McKay, Alexander. 2012. ‘The British Invasion of Tibet, 1903–04.’ Inner Asia 14, 1: 5–25. Pears, Laura. 2010. Shrunken Heads – Tsantsas. Oxford: Pitt-Rivers Museum. https://prm.web.ox.ac.uk/files/tsantsaspdf. Accessed 8 January 2019. Reid, Adam Scott. 1893. Chin-Lushai Land. Calcutta: Thacker & Spink. Schiller, Francis. 1992. Paul Broca: Founder of French Anthropology, Explorer of the Brain. New York: Oxford University Press. Shorto, Russell. 2009. Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason. London: Vintage. Stocking, George W. 1995. After Tylor: British Social Anthropology, 1888–1951. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Turner, A. Logan. 1919. Sir William Turner: A Chapter in Medical History. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood and Sons. Turner, William. 1899. ‘Contributions to the Craniology of the People of the Empire of India. Part I. The Hill Tribes of the N.E. Frontier and the People of Burma.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 39: 703–747. . 1900. ‘Contributions to the Craniology of the People of the Empire of India. Part II. The Aborigines of Chuta Nagpur, of the Central Provinces, the People of Orissa, the Veddahs and Negritos.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 40: 59–128.

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. 1906. ‘Contribution to the Craniology of the People of the Empire of India. Part III. The Natives of the Madras Presidency, Thugs, Veddahs, Tibetans, and Seistanis.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 45: 261–309. . 1907. ‘A Contribution to the Craniology of the Natives of Borneo, the Malays, the Natives of Formosa, and the Tibetans.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 45: 781–818. . 1913. ‘Contributions to the Craniology of the People of the Empire of India. Part IV. Bhils, Frontier Tribes of Burma, Pakokku Tribes, South Shan Tribes, Tibetans.’ Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 49: 705–34. Wagner, Kim. 2010. ‘Confessions of a Skull: Phrenology and Colonial Knowledge in Early Nineteenth-Century India.’ History Workshop Journal 69, 1: 27–51. . 2017. The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857. London: Hurst and Company.

Exhibitions Borland, Christine. 1994. From Life, Glasgow: Tramway. Borland, Christine. 2006. Christine Borland: Preserves. Edinburgh: Fruitmarket Gallery.

7 Edinburgh Schools Suppliers of men for Imperial India in the long 19th Century Hauke Wiebe and Roger Jeffery

Introduction The Scottish ‘Lowlander’ was typically seen as highly educated, professional, tough, and often ambitious. The education that bred him (nearly always a him at this stage) was also increasingly valued in English eyes, not only by virtue of its products, but also because the ancient Scottish universities would educate English dissenters, as the ancient English ones would not; moreover, they were driven by an agenda of instrumentalism, preparation for the professions, alien to the Oxbridge tradition but useful to an Empire that had to be well administered for the many by the few (Pittock 2009: 300).

Tthe academic and social training they provided. Edinburgh schools

HROUGHOUT THE 19TH CENTURY, EDINBURGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS WERE NOTED FOR

acted as places of refuge for girls and boys sent back ‘home’ from India, as well as acting as agents or intermediaries, preparing Scottish boys (not just from Edinburgh) for careers within the Empire. While the main schools catered primarily to the middle classes (such as professionals, landed proprietors, and those owning large farms and businesses) there was always an element of scholarship support to extend access for poorer boys. Nonetheless, this chapter can contribute little to understanding the role of Edinburgh’s burgh and normal schools, whose former pupils might find their way into military employment as private soldiers or sailors, for example. What was the impact of this educational ‘atmosphere’, bringing boys (and sometimes girls) from across Scotland and further afield to these middle-class schools? What can school records tell us about the links that Edinburgh forged with the Indian Empire? Using a wide variety of school histories, old-boy-directories and other published sources covering all the major boys’ schools in Edinburgh and

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surrounding Midlothian, this chapter focuses on the nature of their former pupils’ individual involvement with colonial India.1 It considers how many of them had links to South Asia, and then describes how India compared through time to other career goals. More detailed analysis discusses those who took up careers in India and whether different career networks seem to have operated in different schools. Apart from investigating pupils’ individual links with India, the chapter also addresses the impact British imperialism in India had on the schools as institutions. How – if at all – did they change in order to prepare their pupils for life and work in India? How did their former pupils’ India experiences impact on the schools’ culture in Edinburgh? The chapter concludes by discussing how a school’s relations with India were made a part of its collective memory.

Context Secondary education was new in nineteenth-century Scotland. In the smaller towns and the rural areas, schools would teach boys at all levels, preparing the more academically gifted (and those with the funds to do so) for university entry, sometimes as young as thirteen or fourteen. In the aspiring middle classes and amongst the gentry, the alternative was to hire a tutor. Because university education could start at such a young age, the development of secondary level classes was limited, even in the larger towns (Anderson 1985: 179). Only in the large cities did schools have a chance to specialise in middle-class education and extend this through a structured programme of seven or more years. Edinburgh had developed a unique ecology of independent, commercial and charitable secondary boys’ schools, both day and residential, by the turn of the nineteenth century.2 Of those with a long prior history, the High School was founded in 1128 by Holyrood Abbey, as a church-run Latin school. It was transferred to the control of the city with the Reformation and gained royal patronage in the 1590s. Of Edinburgh’s independent schools, George Heriot’s opened in 1659 on the bequest of jeweller and banker George Heriot, to look after ‘fatherless children’; George Watson’s was another residential ‘hospital’ school founded in 1741 by the Merchant 1 While primary schooling for girls can be identified throughout the 19th century, the first schools to provide an education for girls up to the age of 18 or so only emerge in the 1860s. There is, unfortunately, very little evidence on the young women who attended these schools, hence the focus in this chapter only on boys. 2 A list of school histories and registers for Edinburgh boys’ and girls’ schools is provided at the end of this chapter.

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Company of Edinburgh from the estate of accountant George Watson. Neither had a large school roll, with Watson’s never exceeding 90 at any time until the school was reorganised on a fee-paying day school basis, with 800 pupils in 1870. John Watson’s School was founded 1762 from the estate of an Edinburgh solicitor. James Gillespie’s was originally based in Bruntsfield in 1803 from the legacy and with the name of a rich tobacco merchant; like George Watson’s it was administered by the Merchant Company of Edinburgh until it was handed over to the City of Edinburgh in 1908. As Anderson argues (1985: 178) after the end of the Napoleonic Wars urban day schools in Scotland responded to growing middle class pressures to raise the quality of classical education and to extend the period that boys spent in schools before going to university, the military or the emerging and established professions. In 1824, reformers – prominent citizens, mostly former pupils of the Royal High School – established the Edinburgh Academy (Fig. 16), as a day and boarding school, with a curriculum that stressed Greek. The success of the Academy prompted the Royal High School to expand into new premises on Calton Hill in 1829. In 1832, ‘The Edinburgh Institution for Languages and Mathematics’ was founded as an independent day school in George Street, soon moving to Hill Street nearby. As its name suggests, it offered more practical subjects such as mathematics and modern languages compared to the very classical Academy curriculum. A further educational institution – perhaps seen as an alternative to the universities, rather than as a secondary school – was the Scottish Naval and Military Academy, founded in 1825, moving to Lothian Road in 1831. In Edinburgh’s near vicinity, Loretto House was set up in 1827 in Musselburgh. Merchiston Castle School, an independent residential school, was founded in 1833, and was the first in Edinburgh to be modelled on the English public schools. Though other schools were also active in the 1820s and 1830s, they were much smaller and short-lived. After this flurry of school-building, two more schools were founded in mid-century. Daniel Stewart’s Hospital admitted students from 1855, though the fund left by Daniel Stewart (1741–1814) (whose wealth came from India) had been set up on his death. The hospital, also managed by the Merchant Company of Edinburgh, was transformed into Daniel Stewart’s College in 1870. The last of the great Edinburgh independent schools, Fettes College, again drawing on the English public-school model, started admitting students in 1870 with around fifty pupils. How far can one talk about the ethos of these schools, and any likely impact they might have had on the careers of their ex-pupils? The schools

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had different curricula and management styles, and these changed over the course of the century. Furthermore, whether there really was a distinctive and school-wide ethos is questionable. At the Academy and the High School, the masters were ‘independent agents whose pupils belonged to them rather than to the school’ (Anderson 1985: 183), and their power matched that of the schools’ Rectors until the 1880s. Pupils at the Institution, which offered a wide choice of subjects, could also attend classes in other schools at the same time. Furthermore, investigations in the 1860s suggested that parents played essential and often directing roles in how schools were run, reflecting the fact that almost all the pupils lived at home. Relations between boys and masters were much more formal than in the English public schools, based as the latter were on a residential format (Anderson 1985: 184–85). At the school with the most informative register of ex-pupils, the Academy, until the mid-19th century boys often attended for only two or three years. We should thus be careful not to exaggerate the role that schools played. All these schools operated in a globalising world throughout the period being considered, with former pupils leaving Edinburgh in large numbers and going permanently to the colonies (especially Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and, on a temporary basis, to other parts of the Empire and South America. Within this globalised world, India was by far the most common temporary destination. As a somewhat crude but nonetheless interesting indicator, of the place names listed in the Academy Register, covering the years 1824–1914, more than one-quarter came from the Indian sub-continent, suggesting the major role played by the Academy in these years in supplying men to India (or in educating the sons of those who had gone there).

Data No comprehensive and representative database of Edinburgh school pupils exists, but several schools have published directories or registers of former pupils. To have comparable data to analyse, this study concentrates on four schools – Edinburgh Academy, Merchiston Castle, Edinburgh Institution and Fettes – for which published registers exist. The extant directories give varying details on the careers and whereabouts of former pupils after they left the school. In some we learn just the years spent at the school, parentage, and ‘went to India’. Others reproduce long summaries of military actions or even golfing achievements. There was no obligation on former pupils to supply their data, and what data were supplied (sometimes from other

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sources) were edited into a common pattern. The reporting of careers after school was freeform, making standardised comparisons difficult, and the amount of detail differs, with more information on those boys who had, at date of printing, reached late middle age, compared to the boys of very recent years or those of years long passed. Where possible, these school register sources have been complemented using the databases available on Ancestry.com, especially the Census returns (for place of birth) and the listings of employees of the East India Company and the India Office, covering the period 1746–1939. Nonetheless, the errors of omission are probably larger than those of commission: in only a few cases has it been possible to show that errors were made in the sources by including pupils who did not actually have a connection to India, whereas the absence of data on, for example, the birth-place of the pupil, the occupation of his father, or his own career, means that some connections have undoubtedly been missed. A major gap is the Royal High School. No directory of its former pupils exists, but other sources show that the school sent many alumni to prominent positions in India (see Chapter 8). The school records provide two main kinds of information relevant to the careers of their ex-pupils. Firstly, they offer some idea of how common Indian careers were, how these changed through time, and what kinds of careers the ex-pupils took up. Secondly, they shed light on families whose connections with India span generations and include considerable numbers of men who went to India. A third set of insights – into how these men’s school networks contributed to their Indian careers – requires a more sensitive analysis. Rather than trying to cover all schools from the earliest possibilities in the nineteenth century up to the middle of the twentieth (where data is available), we have concentrated on selected schools and sample years. The Edinburgh Academy was the largest school in the sample, with good data; so far only two decades – 1824–25 to 1833–34 and 1889–90 to 1898–9 – have been examined in detail. For Fettes College, the whole period 1870–1933 is available and was analysed; for Merchiston Castle School, the years 1833–1919 are available; and for the Edinburgh Institution, 1850–1933. For the statistical analysis, boys are grouped by year of entry into the school, the most common method of the registers themselves. Year of entry is not a clear indicator of year of birth, because pupils frequently came in from India or from other schools and entered the school at different ages. In linking a former pupil to historical events, it must be remembered that it was often between five and fifteen years before they became active in India. The boys of the years 1824 to 1834 started

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to be active in the 1830s and 1840s, and some had careers reaching into the 1860s and even the 1870s.

The General Outline through Time Table 7.1 summarises the links between the different schools and India, as indicated through the occupations of their fathers, their own place of birth, their careers and their place of death. Although the sources do not provide the same information (no place of birth is listed by the Edinburgh Academy Register, for example) some general conclusions can be provisionally offered. Firstly, each school shows a different temporal sequence in terms of the frequency with which India appears. For Fettes, the peak years of India connections were in the first quarter of the 20th century, when there were six years when India connections were nearly 20 per cent or above. For Merchiston Castle, the highest level of connections was in the middle of the 19th century, when about one in eight pupils had an India connection. Of those who joined the school in 1851, 60 per cent had an Indian connection. The Edinburgh Institution had the lowest level of connections with India, but even here, during 1850–66 7.5 per cent of the pupils had or achieved an India connection. In some individual years, however, there were much higher figures, with 50 per cent of 1853 Table 7.1: Summary data on the involvement of former pupils with India School

Period

Fettes

1870–1900 1900–1933 1833–1866 1867–1900 1901–1909 1850–1866 1867–1900 1901–1933 1824–1834 1889–1899

Merchiston Castle

Edinburgh Institution

Edinburgh Academy All pupils in the sample

Source: Authors’ analyses of school registers.

Total alumni 1,455 1,808 769 1,199 930 185 2,136 1,665 1,466 945 12,558

Born in India 5 29 0 1 0 0 5 1 72 39

All links to India 76 (5.2%) 241 (13.3%) 98 (12.7%) 99 (8.3%) 80 (8.6%) 14 (7.6%) 63 (3.0%) 44 (2.6%) 226 (15.4%) 124 (13.1%) 1,065 (8.5%)

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entrants having or gaining India connections. The Edinburgh Academy had the highest rate of India involvement: as an example, pupils with India connections were 226 (15 per cent) in 1824–34, and 124 (13 per cent) in 1889–1899. The absolute peak years in common to all schools were the early 1850s, a result of Army careers dovetailing with the fighting involved in what was always referred to as the Indian Mutiny – the First War of Indian Independence, the Sepoy Revolt or just the ‘events’ of 1857–58. Another period with high connections is the decade from the mid-1880s to the mid-1900s, with all four schools showing around a 20 per cent connection for much of the time. But ‘connection’ is a loose term, and so the next two sections will distinguish between connections by birth (born in India, or with a father who worked in India) and connections through careers. (A third kind of link – connections through marriage – is much less reliably indicated through these records: only the Academy Register mentions the parentage of the wives of former pupils, and then not consistently, so these links will not be taken further.)

Former Pupils by Birth Place From early in the 19th century, India-hands saw Edinburgh as an appropriate place for their India-born children to be schooled. Thomas Carlyle, while courting Jane Welsh, spent 1822–24 in Edinburgh tutoring two sons of General Charles Buller, who travelled Europe after retiring from the armies of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). Once the Edinburgh Academy was founded, it seems to have received a large share of this kind of recruitment. For example, Colonel James Skinner (1778–1841), who had joined the army of the Maratha chief, Sindhia because he was ineligible for a commission in the Company’s army (his mother was a Rajput) arrived in Edinburgh in 1824 with three of his sons by Indian women (Hercules, David and William). He rented a house in Ann Street, and entered the boys in the newly-opened Academy. David lasted one year in the school; Hercules and William stayed until 1828. In total, at least 80 pupils who started at the Academy 1824–33 were the sons of men who had worked in India, all but five of whom were in the service of the HEIC. At least 72 of these were themselves born in India, the rest being born while their parents were on furlough, or after their father’s retiral from HEIC service. In the sample from the Academy pupils who started in 1889–98, at least 37 of the fathers had Indian careers, but with a much wider range of occupations: only 27 were employees of the India

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Office, with others who were planters, one a medical missionary, and so on. Of these 37 boys, 31 were born in India. At the end of the 19th century, census data gives some further information on how far Edinburgh was acting as a magnet for educating India-hands’ sons, in 1871 to 1901. Table 7.2 provides the details. The children were reported to be staying as boarders, lodgers, or simply as ‘pupil’ or ‘scholar’, if they were in a school boarding house, or with a parent or with other relatives. In each successive year, the proportion living with at least one parent rose, and those living in boarding houses dropped. Table 7.2: Boys aged 6–18, born in India, living in Edinburgh and its immediate suburbs, by census year 1871–1901 and residential arrangements Census Total Living with at least one parent Living with other relative Boarder, lodger, scholar or pupil

1871 167 71 32 64

1881 363 187 57 119

1891 228 126 39 63

1901 112 67 15 30

Source: Census returns, relevant years, accessed through Ancestry.co.uk, analysis by the authors.

Former Pupils by Career This section compares and briefly analyses across all four schools what kind of careers boys had in India. This is not straightforward: the jobs and professions mentioned in the register entries are not complete, and some men changed careers, joining military units in the Boer and First World Wars, for example. The different schools show very different patterns, as can be seen in Tables 7.3a-7.3c, but the most substantial differences appear when comparing through time. The best information on career patterns is of former pupils of the Academy. In the first half of the 19th century, the military and civil services of the HEIC took the largest share of those who worked in India, with more than 40 per cent of the total. The military took more than half of these, with those entering the civil services running at about one-third of this level. In most of the varied occupations followed by these former pupils in India there are small numbers, and no clear pattern can be identified. Four areas warrant more attention: those who held military and civil positions

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Table 7.3a: Careers of former pupils in India, early 19th century

All pupils India careers Military (excl. medical) Government, law, politics Trade, industry Agriculture Medicine Religion (excl. doctors) Engineering, science All others

Merchiston, 1833–66 769 80 33 10 26 6 2 1 2

Edinburgh Academy, 1824–34 1,466 207 107 36 26 11 20 1 2 4

Total 2,235 287 140 46 52 17 22 2 4 4

Source: School registers, analysis by the authors.

Table 7.3b: Careers of former pupils in India, middle to late 19th century

All pupils India careers Military (excl. medical) Government, law, politics Trade, industry Agriculture Medical Religion (excl. doctors) Engineering, science All others

Fettes, Merchiston, Edinburgh 1870–1900 1867–1900 Institution, 1850–1900 1,455 1,199 2,321 70 114 72 24 29 13

Edinburgh Total Academy, 1889–99 945 5,920 165 421 60 126

20

9

10

17

56

17 1 0 0

32 26 5 2

20 10 7 1

23 38 9 2

92 75 21 5

4

9

7

15

35

4

2

4

1

11

Source: School registers, analysis by the authors.

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Table 7.3c: Careers of former pupils in India, early 20th century

All pupils India careers Military (excl. medical) Government, law, politics Trade, industry Agriculture Medical Religion (excl. doctors) Engineering, science All others

Fettes, 1901–36

Merchiston, 1900–33

1,808 226 91 28 77 0 9 7 10 4

930 99 45 7 19 16 3 2 5 2

Edinburgh Institution, 1900–33 1,665 45 18 0 18 5 1 0 3 0

Total

4,403 370 154 35 114 21 13 9 18 6

Source: School registers, analysis by the authors.

in the HEIC and later in the India Office, planters, and those employed in banking.

Military Former pupils of the Edinburgh Academy (EA) had the strongest military links of all the schools looked at: 42 per cent of boys with India links starting in 1824–34 went into the military. Even as late as in 1889–99, this was still running at 33.5 per cent. While some military careers follow within families, as can be seen from the Cadell family case study below, for others military service was the career for only some of a set of brothers. For example, the Hills brothers James (1833–1919; EA 1843–47), John (1834–; EA 1844– 47) and George Scott (1839–96; EA 1851–52) fulfilled their eldest brother Archibald’s hope of a military career, both serving in the Indian Mutiny. James retired as Major-General, John won a VC at the siege of Delhi and retired as a General, and George reached the rank of Brevet Colonel. Three other Hills brothers, though, were indigo planters and brokers (see below).

Civil Service Civil positions in the HEIC were popular options, especially at the Academy. Of those entering the school in 1824–33, 39 joined the HEIC

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as Writers and progressed to other positions, sometimes very influential. Eighteen of these 39 had fathers who had also been in HEIC service. Jonathan Duncan Inverarity (1812–82; EA 1824–26), for example, became Commissioner of Sindh in 1860, and Alexander Ross (1816–99; EA 1825–31) who spent five years at the University of Edinburgh, won gold medals at Haileybury and at the Fort William College in Calcutta, ended his career as Judge at the North-West Provinces High Court. An unusual trajectory was followed by Alexander Penrose Forbes (1817–75; EA 1825–32) who went to Haileybury and thence to India for four years before gaining the Boden University Scholarship for Sanskrit at Oxford in 1841. In 1844 he was ordained and consecrated as Bishop of Brechin in 1847, dying in Dundee. By the end of the century the ICS route was much less common. Only six Academy former pupils gained positions in the ICS, with one more in the Finance Department and two in Forestry. As Chapter 8 in this volume points out, by this time the preferred route for access to the ICS was via Oxford, attended by Sir John Ernest Buttery Hotson (1877–1944; EA 1889–95) who was acting Governor of Bombay in 1931 when he survived an assassination attempt. Sir Ernest Burdon (1881–1957; EA 1892–99), who also went to Oxford, was Auditor-General, 1929–40. Sir James Braid Taylor (1891–1943; EA 1898–1909) unusually made his way into the ICS after an MA at the University of Edinburgh; he became the second Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, 1937–43.

Planting Former pupils who became planters appear in the earliest records of the Academy. Of 152 former pupils listed as having taken up the job of planter in India, six boys are listed from the first decade, 11 from the next, 16 between 1844 and 1853, and 44 in the following decade, 1854–63. In the following three decades the figures were 37 in 1864–73, and 17, 12 and 11 thereafter. Two or more brothers might go into the same occupation, from the middle of the 19th century often joining a father already established. Indigo planters account for 32 former pupils. Three Oman brothers – Charles Philip Austin (1823–76; EA 1834–38), Thomas Euler (1823–80; EA 1834–38) and David (1827–72; EA 1839–41) – all joined their father Charles Oman as indigo planters in Muddanderry, Jessore, Bengal. More family involvement can be seen with three of the sons of James Hills of Neechindipore, Bengal. Archibald (1832–96; EA 1848–50), the oldest, was intended for the Indian Army, but abandoned that career to inherit his father’s indigo factories in Bengal in 1851. Known as ‘the Prince of

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Pig-stickers in Bengal’ (Edinburgh Academy Register 1914: 124) he spent twenty-seven years at Neechindipore, before moving on to be a manager for the Bengal Coal Co. and later for the Palkabari Indigo Concern. Robert Savi (1837–1909; EA 1851–52), and Charles Richard (1847–1935; not an EA pupil) both became indigo brokers in Calcutta. Robert Leckie Ewing (1830–1916; EA 1840–44) went to India in 1851 and became an indigo-planter in the Shahabad district. He is an example of a sideways move into the military, as ‘in 1857 the Mutiny broke out, all the [indigo] factories were burnt, and he lost all his property’. He joined the 84th Regiment and was in the field about a year, receiving a letter of thanks from the Government of India, and the Mutiny Medal. The last to be mentioned as an ‘Indigo-planter and Zamindar’ was John Ramsay Longmuir, (1882–1929; EA 1896–1900), who died in Calcutta. Listed as tea planters in the Academy register are 67 former pupils. Six were at the Academy in its third decade, from 1844–53. They included William Muir Muirhead (1838–1911; EA 1848–55) son of Claud Muirhead of the Edinburgh Advertiser, who took medical degrees in 1862 but was afterwards a tea-planter in Assam; he married Madeline Drummond, daughter of Professor John Hutton Balfour, Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. The Bell brothers, Hugh Colquhoun (1841– 1905; EA 1850–56); Eliott Montgomerie (1847–77; EA 1857–64), and Archibald Matthew Montgomerie (1850–95; EA 1861–67) were sons of the Professor of Conveyancing, A. Montgomerie Bell, W.S. They are the earliest mentioned as tea-planters in Darjeeling, working in Kurseong having trained as engineers. Some old boys worked as doctors on tea estates, including John Duncan Gregorson, (1871–1911; EA 1881–86), a medical officer to several large tea estates in Upper Assam for 10 years from 1901 who was murdered on the Dihong River in Assam in 1911. Coffee planters are also quite common, with 35, starting in Ceylon and then from the mid-1850s in the Nilgiri Hills in South India. Several Academy boys made pioneering efforts to establish coffee planting in areas other than Ceylon or the Nilgiris. John Charles Grant (1844–65; EA 1856–59) had gone to open a coffee estate in Travancore but caught jungle fever tiger-shooting, returning to England, dying at Southampton. Coffee planters sometimes moved on to other crops. The Glassford brothers, Clement Gordon (1869–1926; EA 1882–87) and Oswald Gordon (1870–1909; EA 1882–87) started out as coffee planters in the Nilgiris, and subsequently went to the Federated Malay States, starting anew as coffee-planters, where they were joined by their younger brother Lewis Gordon, (1876–1902; EA 1886–94), and then turned to rubber planting,

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with Lewis going on to New Zealand and sheep farming for the few years before he died. Boys starting at the Academy went out as rubber planters only from the mid-1860s, never to India itself either, but at first to Ceylon and then from the late 1870s to Malaya. A small career-network (see more below) can be spotted at Tebrau in Johore, Malaysia, where two Academy boys, of 1891, John Somerville Blyth, previously a tea planter in Ceylon, and of 1900, Robert Blair Nisbet, can be found working, which might just be due to another former pupil of 1873, Patrick Millar Matthew, by then the chairman of Tebrau Rubber Estates Ltd. Of the other occupations that show strongly in the Academy’s India links, trade stayed pretty stable, at 10 per cent in the early decade and 12 per cent in the later period, whereas medicine drops from 8 per cent to 5 per cent. Employment in banking in India was taken up by 25 former Academy boys. As Scottish banks did not hold licences for banking in India, they were not transferred from Edinburgh head offices, but independently joined separate ‘oriental’ banks. Chief of these was the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China (since 1969, the Standard Chartered Bank), founded in 1853 by James Wilson, from Hawick. It alone employed eight former boys at locations across its wide network of branches, in Calcutta, Bombay, Karachi, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Batavia, Surabaya and London. The Bank of Bombay employed five former pupils, and the Bank of Madras followed with four, in branches in India and Ceylon. Robert Hunter (EA 1824–29) the earliest mentioned ex-academy banker in India and originally Manager of the Bank of Madras in Madras itself, retired in 1890 as Manager of the Agra Bank in Edinburgh (17, St Andrew Square, now the Standard Life Investment Building) followed by another EA former pupil George Deas (EA 1873–74). Charles Alexander Ainslie, at the Academy in the 1850s, a merchant of the well-known Binny and Co. at Madras, became chairman of the Bank of Madras during the great Indian famine. Four former pupils worked for the Oriental Bank Corporation in Ceylon, but also in Bombay, Calcutta, Yokohama, Shanghai, and Australia. The Agra Bank employed four former pupils, including the Howden brothers, Andrew and Robert Maitland, who both left the Academy in 1858 and joined the Agra Bank. It is not mentioned where they were stationed, but both died relatively young, aged 28 and 23. Other careers in India are mentioned much more rarely but some are nonetheless interesting. The Church Missionary Society gets three mentions with respect to India. The longest entry is for Edward Craig Stuart (1824–1911; EA 1837–41). In 1851 he

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… founded, along with Dr Valpy French (afterwards Bishop of Lahore), St John’s College, Agra, for the higher education of Hindus and Mohammedans; in 1855 went to Jabalpur, and was C.M.S. Secretary at Calcutta, 1860–72. [After a long interlude in Australia and as a bishop in New Zealand] at the age of 67 devoted his remaining years to mission work among the Mohammedans of Persia. When he reached Persia in 1894 the only C.M.S. station was Julfa, a suburb of Ispahan, but on Easter Day 1910 he consecrated the new first [western] Christian church in that bigoted [sic.] Moslem city; he came home in 1910 after sixty years of foreign missionary work (Edinburgh Academy 1914: 90).

Others concentrated on education, such as Francis Archibald Pattullo Shirreff (or Sherriff) (1848–1918; EA 1860–68), who became Fellow of the University of the Punjab, Tutor, St. John’s Divinity School, Lahore (C.M.S.), 1874–78; Principal 1878–94; Examining Chaplain, to the Bishop of Lahore, 1878–87. The third missionary, Alexander Garden Fraser, (1873–1962; EA 1883 and Merchiston 1885–91) was the son of Andrew Henderson Leith Fraser (1848–1919; EA 1858–62), Lt.-Governor of Bengal 1903–07 (see Chapter 8). Alexander Fraser was from 1912 Principal Trinity College Kandy, Ceylon, after missionary work in Uganda. There is an intimate dialogue behind the visible patterns that have been traced above: one in which families choose schools they think are appropriate to the careers they want their sons to follow, and schools adjust their offerings to attract and retain such valuable pupils – while at the same time, keeping their appeal to those who foresee careers in the law, or in other growing professions such as accountancy (MacDonald 1985) or elsewhere in the Empire. The strong military tradition of the Academy is a case in point: the school made much of the Victoria Cross awarded to Colonel Thomas Cadell at the siege of Delhi in 1857 (Stirling 1999: 44) and the Cadell family reciprocated. But in other cases, boys were removed after only one or two years in a school, and went elsewhere, and we have no insight into why this was the case.

Family Traditions The interlinkages between family and schooling can be seen in the descendants of William Cadell (1708–77) and Christeen Hog (1703–?) (first generation). William established the Carron iron-works at Falkirk, and the family split into two branches, one at Grange (west of Edinburgh) under William Cadell (1737–1819) and Katherine Inglis (1744–97) and the other at Cockenzie (east of Edinburgh) under his son John Cadell

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(1740–1814) and Marie Buchan (1753–1841) (second generation). In total, at least 37 of their descendants went to the Edinburgh Academy, 33 in the male line and at least four through a daughter. There was hardly a year between 1824 and 1914 when there was not at least one Cadell descendant at the Academy. Table 7.4 shows the details. Names in bold mark the 19 men in this group who worked in India. Three of the family were Directors of the Edinburgh Academy – one of whom (Thomas Cadell, VC) had returned from India. Thomas ended his career as Governor of the Andaman Islands, from where he sent skulls to Professor William Turner (see Chapter 6) and he acted as a Director of the Academy 1907–19. Table 7.4: Men from the Cadell family educated at the Edinburgh Academy, 1824–1914 Names in Bold are of men with strong India connections, usually through birth or working there, in one case as an East India merchant. 3rd generation Father’s name

4th generation Pupil’s Name

William (1773–1840) George (1783–1857)

William (1810–53) John George (1815–29) Alexander Tod (1816–85) James George Scott (1817–70) William Molle (1822–88) Robert (1830–1901) John (1819–53)

Hew Francis (1790–1872)

Francis William (1822–79)

Academy years 1824–25 1824–29 1824–25 1828–32 1831–36 1839–42 1829–34 1830–34

Robert (1825–97) 1834–40

Pupil’s Occupation 28th Regiment Foot in India 1842–48 Died aged 14 Madras Artillery 1834–78 Madras Cavalry Madras Civil Service 1840–43 Bengal Army 1849–80 Advocate in Leith; Director of EA 1842–47 Explorer; midship-man on East India-man to China 1836 Madras Army 1842–81

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James John (1779–1858)

Thomas (1835–1919) Alexander (1818–60) George Philip (1820–96) William (1819–32)

John (1799–1863)

Bengal Army 1854–92

1828–31

Ironmaster, Cramond

1828–34

Ironmaster, Cramond

5th generation Pupil’s Name

Academy years William (1826–75) 1835–41 Alexander 1836–41 (1827–1902) John (1829–63) 1838–44 Henry Moubray 1842–46 (1831–68) George Buchan 1849–54 (1839–1912) Allan (1841–1921) 1851–56 Francis 1854–59 (1844–1909)

Thomas Cadell Hew Francis (1835–1919) (1868–1947) Patrick Robert (1871–1961) *John George George Cadell WOOD Wood (1805–65) (1855–1929) William James John (1810–62) (1851–72)

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Philip 1831–32 (1783–1854) *James PATON George (1816–85) 1829–31 (1750–1826) William James 1829–34 (1819–67) 4th generation Father’s name

Q

Died aged 13 Merchant Gentleman

Pupil’s Occupation Madras Army 1847–69 Bengal Army 1845–83 Liverpool merchant Bengal Artillery 1851–66 Liverpool merchant

1880–82

ICS, NWP 1862–97 Doctor in Edinburgh; Director of EA 1892– 1906 Lawyer in Edinburgh

1881–82

ICS Bombay 1891–1926

1868–70

East India merchant

1863–67

Landed estate

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5th generation Father’s name

6th generation Pupil’s Name

Alexander Tod (1816–85)

George Edward Philippine merchant Archer (1851– 1920) Hugh Francis 1863–67 Madras Army 1874– (1852–1928) 1912 William 1863–66 Singapore merchant Alexander (1853–1908) George 1854–59 Indian Forestry Service (1844–1909) Francis Campbell 1890–98 Artist in Edinburgh Boileau (1883– 1937) Arthur Patrick 1893–1904 Indian Army 1907–45 Hamilton (1886–1957) Robert Cathcart 1874–75 Farmer and railway BRUCE worker, Virginia (1864–1929) Charles Melville 1876–83 Professor of Classics, GILLESPIE Leeds (1866–1955) Frederick George 1885–88 Accountant Edinburgh GILLESPIE (1872–1944)

William Molle (1822–88) Francis (1844–1909)

*George Cadell BRUCE (1830–1909) *James Donaldson GILLESPIE (1825–91)

6th generation Father’s name

7th generation Pupil’s Name

Lewis Irving (1865–1940) John MacFarlane (1862–1942)

Richard Lewis (1898–1919) Ian MacFarlane (1902–30)

Academy years 1862–66

Pupil’s Occupation

Academy years 1906–11

Pupil’s Occupation British Army, RE

1910–12

Died in Burma

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John Francis (1862–1930)

Henry Dunlop Raymond Malloch (1903–38) Thomas William Pratt (1906–53)

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1914–

1914–

Source: Edinburgh Academy (1914) and Ancestry.co.uk, analysed by authors. Notes: * Through the female line: James Paton (1750–1826) married Christian Mary (1778–1858), daughter of John Cadell (1841–76); John George Wood married Margaret (1826–1919), daughter of George Cadell (1783–1857); George Cadell Bruce married Roberta (1834–1900), daughter of Robert Cadell (1788–1849); James Donaldson Gillespie married Roberta’s sister Georgina (1838–1924).

The Cadell families were further linked through marriage with other families with strong India connections, notably the Swintons and the Simsons (see Chapter 9), both of which had boys educated in the Academy prior to going to India.

Occupations and careers in the other Schools There were clear differences between the schools in terms of the careers followed by former pupils generally, as well as of those who went to India. For example, in the case of Fettes, of the 1613 who attended between 1870 and 1912, 195 had died, and 54 could not be traced. About a third of the boys had gone to university, 184 to Cambridge, 143 to Edinburgh, 132 to Oxford, 76 to other Scottish universities (mostly Glasgow) and 35 to other universities. In terms of careers, the single largest group, 267, or 20 per cent of those alive who could be traced, went into business; 180, or 13 per cent into military service (of whom about a third were in India), with 7 per cent to 10 per cent each in land management, the law, and engineering. The Empire claimed 41 in the Indian or colonial civil service, 20 in the Indian or colonial police, and 10 as civil engineers. (McDowell 2014: 22–23). A census in 1907 found 56 former Fettes pupils on active service with the Indian Army – 14 in the cavalry, 34 in the infantry and four doctors (McDowell 2014: 101–02). But the school prided itself on its ability to prepare candidates successfully for the ICS examinations. Fettes provided an extraordinary number [of entrants to the ICS exams] in June 1891 for instance [the Fettesian] reported that W. Grindlay, A. Duff and W. Morrison had come in the top 20 of the Indian Civil Service

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Examinations, and would shortly be posted to Bengal, the Punjab and Bombay, respectively. In 1908 there were enough OFs in the ICS and Indian Army at Pachmarhi [Hill station and cantonment for the Central Provinces (Madhya Pradesh)] alone (and not only that, but for them to have been contemporaries in Carrington House) for there to be a Fettes Polo team; it reached the finals of the local tournament…. To get in [to the ICS] and get on, successful civilians needed to amass, analyse and interpret vast quantities of data and create from it concrete proposals; they had to suggest possible solution to complex problems, weighing up various options; they needed to refine and explain policy. A Fettes education, which emphasised physical and moral rigour, literary and linguistic analysis, capacious memory skills, and dexterity in advancing an argument was an ideal background for this (McDowell 2014: 44).

At Merchiston Castle, as in most of our sample Edinburgh schools, the military took the lead for India career choices. It stood at 33.5 per cent for 1833–66, then dropped to 29.5 per cent in 1867–1900, but then in 1901–19 rose sharply to 56 per cent, because of volunteering for World War I. Involvement in trade and business is pretty much stable at just under 25 per cent for the whole period. Fewer Merchiston boys made their way into the ICS, at around 10 per cent for the whole period. Other options, such as medicine, engineering and industry attracted only small numbers. The marked change in the last part of the 19th century was the rise in commercial agriculture (plantations) up from 6 per cent (1833–99) to 26 per cent (1867–1900), and 20 per cent in 1901–19. At the Edinburgh Institution, employment in trade sometimes even outstrips the military, at 21 per cent for 1850–66, 26 per cent for 1867–1900 and then 32 per cent for 1901–33. Even so, 21 per cent of those who went to India from the Institution chose the army in 1850–66, falling to 16 per cent 1867–1900, but rising to 41 per cent after 1901 due to the World War. This is the lowest military involvement of all the schools looked at. The Institution also supplied men to civil service positions, but only up to 1900. Agriculture had a peak of 29 per cent for 1850–66, but for the rest of the period up to 1933 it was about 10 per cent.

Honours and Decorations Was all this India involvement honoured and recognised outwith the pages of the School Registers? For Edinburgh Academy former pupils, 57 received ‘CSI’ (Companion of the Star of India), 23 for the next rank up ‘KCSI’ (Knight Commander) and one for the highest rank the ‘GCSI’

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(Knight Grand Cross and Commander) for Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (1829–1906; EA 1837–41), Governor of Madras, 1881–86. There are only five mentions for the less exclusive ‘CIE’ (Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire), three for the ‘KCIE’ (Knight Commander), and none for the GCIE (Knight Grand Commander).

Common Trends While it can be said that all schools are different in their cultures and thus excel at different aspects of the India connection, such as Edinburgh Academy for the military, Fettes for the civil service and the Edinburgh Institution in the commercial world of trade and planting, there are nonetheless common trends which can be seen in the way different career paths compare over the years. The military is strong in all schools especially in the early 19th century, probably due to the still unfinished conquest of India and especially as a noticeable peak during the 1857 uprising. Later in the century, this declines as India is ‘pacified’, except for ongoing fighting on the North-West Frontier and Afghanistan. The decline in military employment is sharply reversed for a short period in the early 20th century due to volunteering for World War I of boys already in India for other occupations, but also due to the growth of the Indian army itself, drawing people in from Edinburgh. There is a marked decline in government employment from the high figures in the beginning of the 19th century, perhaps because of the decline in family network-based careers and the introduction of competitive examinations. On the other hand, the example of Fettes seems to show that the examination itself could be turned to an advantage if the curriculum was geared towards the skills demanded. Even so, Fettes’ rate of civil service employment declines in the end, perhaps due to increasing Indianisation. Most Edinburgh school are strong in trade employment to begin with, and as the military and civil service decline and managing agency employment and modern transport makes trade grow, this proportion keeps rising in almost all schools. For much the same reasons, we see great rises in commercial agriculture, first in indigo, then coffee, followed by tea and especially strong in rubber, as the demand for tyres especially kicks in towards the early 20th century. Industry and engineering show surprisingly low figures which rise in the second half of the 19th century, but then fall again for the 20th. Maybe the great British industrial and railway investment surge in India starting from the 1870s had petered out by the early 1910s and 1920s and did not afford much new employment. Maybe Indianisation of entry level

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management employment and as well as ‘marwarisation’ of investment and ownership after the 1st World War also led to fewer young Scotsmen being employed in what by then were fewer Scots companies. Careers requiring a university level education, such as theological missionary work or medicine, are generally quite low in all schools although there is, especially in the fields of medicine and science, some growth in the late 19th century as more boys from the recently modernised Edinburgh schools (Fettes being a good example for that) now manage to follow up their school days with a university education.

India career networks at Edinburgh schools? The questions of whether there are were career networks acting at different schools would be interesting to look at, but so far no obvious patterns of repeated employment of boys can be seen, apart from the early military and perhaps the early civil service. Apart from a few very small examples in rubber planting at the Academy there are only two other obvious examples, one of which is employment at China traders Jardine Matheson (JM) of boys from Merchiston Castle. The names in question are, Robert Jardine who left in 1843 to join Jardine Matheson, Henry Murray who left in 1842 and was a Partner in JM, John J. Jardine Keswick who left in 1842 as well, and became a merchant of JM, James Johnstone Keswick who left 1862 and became partner in JM and also a director in Bengal Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. ,William O. Bell-Irving who left in 1868 and worked for Jardine Skinner in Calcutta and finally, James Jardine Bell-Irving who also worked at JM and was a member of the Legislative and Executive Councils for Hong Kong, JM’s main base. While this seems am impressive example of a network, looking at the names of those involved, especially their middle names, suggests, and a look at the family tree confirms, (Keswick (ed.) 1982, p. 262–63), that almost all of them were cousins at least. The family connection of the Jardines, Keswicks, Johnstones and Bell-Irvings probably was more important in their career development than their school days at Merchiston, which themselves might have been due to the family connection, as well as Merchiston’s connections with South-West Scotland, the home of some of JM’s owner families such as the Jardines and Keswicks. A similar cousin effect can be seen for the Glasgow-based India trade company of William Graham & Co, four of whose partners, John Hatt Noble Graham, Donald Graham, Walter Ewing Crum, and James

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Graham (later Noble), went to school at Merchiston between 1845 and 1861 (Anon. 1975).

India’s Impact on the School This section considers how, or indeed if, the involvement with India had any influence on the schools themselves. We have found little evidence of India being given any particular attention in the curriculum. The preferred classical humanist education favoured Latin and Greek; later French and German were introduced. None of the languages potentially very useful for careers in India, such as Portuguese for trade, Persian for the law and diplomacy and later, for the military and factory management especially, Hindustani seem to have been taught at some Edinburgh schools. Indian language skills were usually only acquired when a career in India seemed a certainty and the boy left school to go to further their education in that direction. There were several private tutors teaching Hindustani with at least one, John Thomson of Calcutta College, giving private afternoon lessons in the Edinburgh Institution for a few years from 1868, and in 1869–70 being listed as Master of Hindustani for the Royal High School (Scotsman 17 March 1868; 18 August 1869). The only non-university institution in Edinburgh regularly teaching Indian languages was the Scottish Naval and Military Academy (SNMA), operating from 1825 to 1863 in Lothian Road where the Caledonian Hotel currently stands. Its prospectus said that it would prepare students for service in the British Army or Navy, and for the HEIC. It taught Hindustani, 1839–45 with orientalist James Robert Ballantyne being the teacher, publishing a Mahratta Grammar, 1839; Elements of Hindi and Braj-Bhasha Grammar, 1839; Hindustani Selections, 1840, a Pocket Guide to Hindustani Conversation, 1841; Persian Calligraphy, 1842; Practical Oriental Interpreter, 1843; and Catechism of Sanskrit Grammar, 1845, before moving on to become superintendent of the Sanskrit College Benares. During Ballantyne’s time at the SNMA Cadet Robert Pope (1831–70; EA 1840–43) was awarded a medal for his proficiency in Hindustani, which is preserved in Edinburgh Castle. Instructions for officer cadets there included Indian geography and knowledge of the chief Indian cities. Hindustani could be taken in lieu of French and was taught with translations from Tota Kuhange and Mir Amman’s Bagh-oBahar (‘Garden and Spring’, 1801), a collection of five romantic stories similar in structure to the Arabian Nights. At least two of the Cadell

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family – Robert (1830–1901) and Alexander (1827–1902) went from the Academy to the SNMA: Alexander spent two years there (1841–43). In total, 24 Academy boys are noted as having gone on to study at the SNMA, 18 of whom then worked or lived in India.

Donations and Visits Former pupil associations contributed to the involvement with India of Edinburgh Schools, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century. The author Robert Louis Stevenson [EA 1861–63], referred to the 72 members of his class, the 1861 class of D’Arcy Thomson, who were ‘scattered all over the places of the earth, some in San Francisco, some in New Zealand, some in India, one in the backwoods – it gave one a wide look over the world to hear them talk so’ (Roberts 2009: 177). In 1898 the Former Pupil committee asked Charles Smith to set up a Watsonian club in India, and ‘by 1910 there were Watsonian clubs in Hong-Kong, Rangoon, Calcutta’ as well as elsewhere (Howie et al. 2006: 72). The Royal High School (India) Club began in 1925 and took an interest in young former pupils arriving in the East. It also presented the School Officers Training Corps an India Trophy in 1928 and in 1939 gave a leopard skin, silver baton and staff to the school pipe band (Barclay 1974: 77–78, 142). Academical sons of the Empire presented the Burma Cup, supported by three silver elephants on an ebony stand (Roberts 2009: 133). Former pupils overseas could also take a keen interest in events in their old schools. When in 1880 an effort was made to change the Fettes School colours, three ‘old fellows’ wrote in from Ceylon, aghast at the proposal to ‘change the dear old stripes that have been carried with glory through many an enemy’s goal posts’ and the idea was rejected (Philip 1998: 22). Individuals also donated in their own names. In 1747, Alexander Robertson, a merchant in Calcutta left £300 (£65,000 in 2017) to George Heriot’s School, and in 1805 Dr John Gilchrist, professor of the Hindostanee Language in the College of Fort William, Bengal, gave the School £100 (£8,000 in 2017) ‘as a small Testimony of Gratitude For His Education in so Valuable a Seminary’ (Gunn et al. 1901: 137, 20; Fig. 17). Among the prizes competed for in the Royal High School were a gold medal given by Lt Col Peter Murray, Adjutant-General in Bengal in 1794 (Grant 1883 Vol. II: 113), an ‘India Prize’ endowed in 1872 for the best examination or essay on Indian history or culture, by Dr George Smith, a former pupil who became editor of the Friend of India newspaper, and a piping trophy and prize was presented by Lt Col Maxwell Mackelvie,

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IMS in 1928. Donations could be made in honour of recently deceased FPs. In 1944, when Captain Ian A. Nicoll of the Gurkha Rifles was killed, his mother and sister presented a memorial set of bagpipes, and Sir David Yule’s widow endowed a Scholarship with £4,000 for a High School boy going up to university, both gifts going to the Royal High School (Barclay 1974: 87, 112, 91, 116). In September 1923 when noted Parsee philanthropist Sir Dhunjibhoy Bomanji was in Edinburgh for the unveiling of the Field Marshal Haig statue (which he had paid for) he not only gave £1000 for a maternity hospital, but also visited Daniel Stewart’s College to see a Parsee boy studying there and gave £200 for that school (Turnbull 1989: 63). Personal visits by former pupils seem to have been welcome occasions on which India could be highlighted. At the Institution, one pupil recalled, … a celebrated India political agent revisited the school. It was extraordinary how much pleasure Toby [Mr M’Naughton] derived from his visit. […] The map of India was produced, and the class was lectured on the responsible and honourable position which his old pupil now held (Young 1933: 54–55).

George Heriot’s, Daniel Stewart’s, the Institution and George Watson’s all had natural history collections, mostly of small items such as butterflies, algae, or ferns, originating from India. Not all of these seemed to have received much attention from the pupils: many years’ later, some of the specimens were still folded ‘into Indian newspapers, one in an Indian script’ (Stace et al. 1987: 78, 130, 131). For the school as a whole, involvement of former pupils with India was seen as a seal of approval for the standards of the school, as seen here in the assessment of a headmaster of the Edinburgh Institution: ‘the success of the Institution’s boys in securing admission to the services and the East India Company’s employment is a splendid testimony to the value of the work done in the school under his [Mr George Murray, headmaster 1843–50] superintendence.’ (Young 1933: 23).

While contributions of FPs and their Associations were helpful and welcome, they can in no way be called game-changing. Gifts and donations seem to have been made mainly with the intention of commemorating individuals and only rarely, the RHS India prize being an exception, as a means of influencing the school to be more interested in India. While

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India was not ignored in the teaching and other activities of the schools, it does not seem to have been disproportionately highlighted either.

Conclusion Former pupils of Edinburgh schools were drawn to India, rather than being sent there. Although the ethos of their school may have made some boys more willing to consider the option, it is likely that their parents were more influential. More former pupils of the Academy went into the military, more from the Institution went into trade, more from Fettes went into the ICS, while its new curriculum gave them an advantage. But all the schools in this study were influenced by the same trends, even if to slightly differing degrees. The military spike in the 1840s and 50s, the rise in commercial agriculture in the 1870s onwards, the diminution of the ICS and military with exception of the First World War, the rise and fall of engineering in the late 19th century etc.; these all suggest that it was mainly economic and political trends and events in India itself that decided if boys went to India and what they did there. The impact of India on the schools was probably superficial at best. Although some schools were proud of the success of their former pupils in India, and to a certain extent saw it as advertising their school’s educational standards, they seem not to have changed their schools in any great way because of it. Although this chapter shows some very strong relationships with India, the overwhelming body of pupils were not, it seems, directly linked to the sub-continent, either by birth or by career. There was no special preparation for India and Indian languages usually had to be learnt privately or at other institutions. Nonetheless, individual former pupils who had been to India did commemorate this and themselves by personal visits, associations, donation and gifts. This study has been unable to capture the India careers of Edinburgh state schoolboys. Similarly, we know little about Edinburgh boys who were schooled elsewhere. Nor, of course, can we say how women’s schooling was linked to later lives in India. These Edinburgh men were certainly intimately engaged in the Empire, as this poem by a group of schoolboy poets (‘T, etc.’), published on the first page of the Fettesian of March 1899 suggests: For her we wandered, and for her we died, And to her we brought our trophies red;

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For her we bargained, fought and strove and tried, That unto her our honour might be wed By land we lost our lives amid the snows That lie above the sunny Indian plains; Backwards we rolled the war-might of our foes, or left our bones to rot ‘neath Burma’s rains. We brought her merchandise, we brought her gold, Our chosen strength we sold to work her will. By war, red war, the lands we won we’ll hold Through storm or fair, through good report or ill. We are her power, hers hold we in our hand; So shall it be until the end of all. With hand and sword we guard our native land, and gladly die, if once we hear her call. (McDowell 2014: 40–41)

References & Bibliography Anderson, Robert D. 1985. ‘Secondary Schools and Scottish Society in the Nineteenth Century.’ Past & Present 109: 176–203. Anon. 1975. The Secrets of Princes Street and the New Town. Newtongrange: Lang Syne. Archer, Mildred and Toby Falk.1989. The Passionate Quest. The Fraser Brothers in India. London: Alfalak Scorpion Publishing Ltd. Bruce Lockhart, Robert Hamilton. 1936. Return to Malaya. London: Putnam. . 1937. My Scottish Youth. Edinburgh: B&W Publishing. Grant, James. 1881. Cassell’s Old and New Edinburgh: Its History, its People, and its Places. Volumes 1–6. London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin. Keswick, Maggie. (ed.). 1982. The Thistle and the Jade. A Celebration of 150 Years of Jardine, Matheson & Co. London: Octopus Books. Long, Philip and Jane Thomas (eds). 2007. Basil Spence Architect. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland. Macdonald, Keith M. 1984. ‘Professional Formation: The Case of Scottish Accountants.’ British Journal of Sociology 35, 2: 174–89. Pittock, Murray. 2009. ‘To See Ourselves as Others See Us.’ European Journal of English Studies 13, 3: 293–304. Prior, Katherine. 2007. ‘Gilchrist, John Borthwick (1759–1841).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10716. Accessed 18 June 2013.

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Royal Society of Edinburgh. 2006. Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. Biographical Index. Part One A-J; Part Two K-Z. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Stace, H.E., C.W.A. Pettitt and Charles D. Waterston. 1987. Natural Science Collections in Scotland. Botany, Geology, Zoology. Edinburgh: Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland. Turnbull, Michael T.R.B. 1989. Monuments and Statues of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Chambers.

School Registers Anon. 1914. The Edinburgh Academy Register 1824–1914. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Academical Club. http://archive.org/stream/edinburghacademy00edinuoft/ edinburghacademy00edinuoft_djvu.txt. Accessed 15 June 2016. . 1954. The Fettes College Register, 1870–1953. Edinburgh: Fettes College. . 1962. Merchiston Castle Register, 1833–1962. Edinburgh: Pillans & Wilson Limited. . 1966. The Loretto Register, 1825 to 1964. Edinburgh: T&A Constable. . 1970. Fettes College Register, 1870–1970. Edinburgh: Fettes College. . 1975. Merchiston Castle School Register, 1833–1974. Edinburgh: Merchiston Castle School. . 2003. Edinburgh Institution and Melville College, 1932–1973: A History and School Register. Edinburgh: Melville College Trust.

School Histories Anon. 1974. ‘150th Anniversary 1824–1974.’ Edinburgh Academy Chronicle 81, 3: 182–319 passim. Barclay, John Bruce. 1974. The Tounis Scule: The Royal High School of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Royal High School Club. Gunn, Clement B., Hippolyte Blanc and Charles Henry Bedford. 1901. George Heriot’s Hospital. Edinburgh: E&S Livingstone. Howie, Les, Liz Smith and Robert Small. 2006. George Watson’s College: An Illustrated History. Edinburgh: George Watson’s College. Lockhart, Brian R.W. 2009. [2003]. Jinglin’ Geordie’s Legacy: A History of George Heriot’s Hospital and School. Edinburgh: John Donald. Mackay, Alexander. 1934. A Sketch of the History of Leith Academy. Edinburgh: Leith Academy. Magnusson, Magnus. 1974. The Clacken and the Slate: The Story of the Edinburgh Academy, 1824–1974. London: Collins. McDowell, David. 2012. Carrying On: Fettes College, War and the World, 1870– 2010. Kibworth Beauchamp: Matador. . 2014. Brave, vigorous life: How a British public school prepared young men for war, 1870–1914. Edinburgh: Fettes College.

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Murray, John. 1997. A History of the Royal High School. Edinburgh: The Royal High School. Patrick, Lois M.D. and Jean L.F. Bowie. 1990. Fortiter Vivamus: A Centenary History of St. Margaret’s School Edinburgh, 1890–1990. Edinburgh: St. Margaret’s School. Philp, Robert. 1998. A Keen Wind Blows: The Story of Fettes College. London: James & James Publishers. Pyatt, H.R. 1931. Fifty Years of Fettes: Memories of Old Fettesians, 1870–1920. Edinburgh: T&A Constable. Roberts, Alasdair. 2007 [2010]. Crème de la Crème: Girls’ Schools of Edinburgh. London and Edinburgh: Steve Savage. . 2009. Ties that Bind: Boys’ Schools of Edinburgh. London and Edinburgh: Steve Savage. Ross, William C.A. 1949 [1967]. The Royal High School. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. Shepley, Nigel. 1988. Women of Independent Mind: St. George’s School, Edinburgh and the Campaign for Women’s Education, 1888–1988. Edinburgh: St. George’s School. Skinner, Lydia. 1994. A Family Unbroken, 1694–1994. The Mary Erskine School Tercentenary History. Edinburgh: The Mary Erskine School. Sommerville, Margaret K.B. 1970. The Merchant Maiden Hospital. Edinburgh: Former Pupils’ Guild of the Mary Erskine School. Stewart, Frank. 1981. Loretto One-Fifty: The Story of Loretto School from 1827 to 1977. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. Stirling, Bill. 1999. 175 Accies: Collection of Biographical Sketches to Celebrate the Founding of the Edinburgh Academy. Edinburgh: Shepherd Mackay. Thompson, John. 1955. A History of Daniel Stewart’s College, 1855–1955. Edinburgh: Daniel Stewart’s College. Wallis, Isobel C. 1982. John Watson’s School: A History. Edinburgh: The John Watson Club. Waugh, Hector L. 1970. George Watson’s College: History and Record, 1724–1970. Edinburgh: George Watson’s College. . 1955. The Watsonian, 1904–54: A Jubilee Volume. Edinburgh: Olive and Boyd Ltd. Young, James Roy Stephen. 1933. Edinburgh Institution, 1832–1932. Edinburgh: George Waterston & Son, for the Centenary Committee.

8 Edinburgh University, the Indian Civil Service and the ‘Competition-Wallahs’ Avril A. Powell

Tthe introduction in 1855 of examination entry to the new Indian Civil

HIS CHAPTER AIMS TO EXAMINE THE EFFECTS ON EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY OF

Service (ICS). Merit, measured through examinations, now replaced patronage in selecting candidates for the Raj’s covenanted and coveted administrative service. The new civilian administrators, formerly called ‘Writers’, were popularly referred to, often disparagingly, as ‘competitionwallahs’. It was suddenly feared that the forthcoming competitions through examination would shut the lid on Walter Scott’s hitherto very lucrative ‘corn chest for Scotland’.1 Little attention has so far been paid, however, to what actually happened from the onset of the Raj period in the late 1850s, almost coterminous with the first ICS examinations, until the early twentieth century. This study contributes to wider understandings of ‘India in Edinburgh’ by focusing on the fluctuating fortunes of Edinburgh University in its efforts to provide candidates for the new Raj’s civil service and on the subsequent connections of these civil servants with their alma mater, and with Edinburgh and its hinterland. Edinburgh University had always played an important role in educating many of the Scots who chose assorted careers in Britain’s expanding empire in India in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although a university education was necessary for professions such as medicine, it was not a requirement for most other Indian careers, including that of Writer. Yet Scotland’s strong emphasis on access to education from parish school through to university ensured that many would-be Writers were in fact university matriculates of the Scottish ‘Arts’ faculties, though not usually full graduates. Before the opening in 1806 of Haileybury College, in the English ‘Home Counties’, as a compulsory training college for all 1 Cited in David Gilmour. 2007. The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj. London: Pimlico. p. 35.

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India-bound Writers there had been no formal academic test for entry to the East India Company’s civil service. Haileybury did then impose a basic test in classics and scripture, but the offer of a director’s patronage in the form of a Writership was still the only route to admittance until 1855. Once admitted to Haileybury, tests on a curriculum of both ‘Europeans’ (Latin, Greek, history, economics, law) and ‘Orientals’ (mainly India’s classical and vernacular languages) were easily passable by most aspirants. All accounts concur that Scots, whether previously university educated or not, had received a significant quota of such Writerships in the Haileybury era of ‘patronage’ even if fewer than during the pre-training college era. This is impossible to quantify exactly, but it has been estimated that whereas Scots were enjoying an approximately 22 per cent share of the Company’s Writerships in 1806, just before Haileybury opened, this had fallen to just under 13 per cent when Haileybury closed in the mid-1850s.2 Despite a considerable drop in the percentage of Scots admitted to Haileybury, no particular cause for alarm was noted while their share remained well above the ratio of Scots to the rest of the British population, considered to be about 11 per cent. Furthermore, as Scots continued to fare very well once in India, no particular attention was paid to the share of patronage enjoyed by those who had studied at Edinburgh rather than Glasgow, St Andrews or Aberdeen. The educational experiences and career ambitions of such students can be recovered only impressionistically, mainly from the memoirs of such as Sir George Campbell and his brothers at Edinburgh and St Andrews, and Sir William Muir and his brother Dr John Muir, at Glasgow and Edinburgh in the 1820s and 1830s.3 Indeed, in the discussion that follows, Edinburgh University should be understood as only one in a clutch of Scottish universities to be found collaborating more often than competing with each other in efforts to outwit policy 2 Andrew Mackillop. 2011. ‘Locality, Nation and Empire.’ In John M. MacKenzie and Thomas M. Devine (eds.) Scotland and the British Empire. London: Oxford University Press. p. 65; Bernard S. Cohn. 1966. ‘The recruitment and training of British civil servants in India, 1200–1860.’ In Ralph Braibanti (ed.) Asian Bureaucratic Systems Emergent from the British Imperial Tradition. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 108. 3 Sir George Campbell, lieutenant-governor of Bengal, later MP for Kirkcaldy, attended Edinburgh’s ‘New’ Academy in the early 1830s, school and university at St Andrews, then Haileybury; see George Campbell. 1893. Memoirs of my Indian Career (2 vols). London: Macmillan. Both Muir brothers returned to Edinburgh in retirement to play leading roles in the University’s life, some of which are discussed in this chapter. For their student experiences at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Haileybury see Avril A. Powell. 2010. Scottish Orientalists and India: The Muir Brothers, Religion, Education and Empire. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, chaps. 1–2.

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changes emanating from a new London India Office that seemed hostile to their shared ‘Scottish interests’ in the new ICS posts. Understanding Edinburgh’s fluctuating situation will necessitate some reference to these other universities, especially to Aberdeen. There have been several studies on recruitment to the ICS in general, and on Aberdeen and the Irish universities, but not on Edinburgh University and those of its students who successfully overcame the new examination hurdle to enter the ICS between 1855 and 1905.4

Edinburgh University and the new ICS examination entry This new, much higher, educational hurdle, which soon caused alarm bells to ring in Edinburgh, consisted of two examinations, first the ‘Open’, and second, the ‘Further’ or ‘Final’, to be taken one year later by those successful in the Open. The Open initially included papers in English literature and composition, Latin and Greek, and a choice of European languages, mathematics, natural science and moral science. The English, classics and maths papers were allocated more marks than the rest. The Final examination replaced Haileybury’s ‘Orientals’ to provide a ‘training’ deemed appropriate for India in law, political economy, Indian history and geography, and a choice of Indian vernaculars, with Sanskrit as an option. The postponement of this vocational training until after the Open was intended to ensure that the new civilians were first and foremost ‘scholargentlemen’, preferably graduates or at least from reputable schools, who had received a liberal education, general and broad. It was clear from the beginning that Oxbridge graduates were considered the ideal, but Thomas Macaulay, Scottish by descent though not by education, who chaired a committee appointed to advise on the new regulations, expressed an ‘anxious desire to deal fairly by all parts of the United Kingdom’, a phrase to be much cited by future complainants. His committee recommended, for instance, that the examinations should include the moral sciences, subjects ‘much studied’ at the Scottish universities as well as at Oxford. Nor should candidates from ‘the north of this island’ be excluded from the ICS any 4 Clive J. Dewey. 1973. ‘The education of a ruling caste: The Indian civil service in the era of competitive examination.’ English Historical Review 88: 262–85; Bradford Spangenberg. 1971. ‘The problem of recruitment for the Indian civil service during the late nineteenth century.’ Journal of Asian Studies 30, 2: 341–60; J. D. Hargreaves. 1994. Academe and Empire: Some Overseas Connections of Aberdeen University 1860–1970. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press; Scott B. Cook. 1987. ‘The Irish Raj: social origins and careers of Irishmen in the Indian Civil Service, 1855–1914.’ Journal of Social History, 20, Spring: 507–29.

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more than a Dugald Stewart or a James Mackintosh might have been in the past merely because they were weak in metrical composition in Greek and Latin (Oxford’s strengths), but strong in moral science (Edinburgh’s vaunted strength).5 Nevertheless, a strong conviction was already growing that the new examinations would favour the English universities. Both this report and many later documents frequently lapsed into referring only to ‘Oxford and Cambridge’, with Benjamin Jowett at Balliol exercising much influence on India Office policy.6 The lowest age for candidates to take the Open was fixed at 17, the highest 23 (lowered a year later to 22). This so-called ‘age limit’ was to prove a constant bone of contention at all universities, English as well as Scots and Irish, for the rest of the Raj.

Edinburgh’s response to perceived ‘egregious failure’ Concern was expressed, even before the first examinations, that Scots would be severely disadvantaged in the ensuing competitions, especially by the subjects required for study. That the issue achieved the particular prominence it did in Edinburgh resulted from the harnessing of the ICS question to a wider movement for university reform already simmering for the past three decades.7 From 1855, when the first ICS examination was held in London, a trio of Edinburgh academics proclaimed the inevitability of poor performance by Scots, a forecast that seemed fulfilled by some subsequent reviews of actual performance into the early 1860s. These Edinburgh scholars, John Blackie, professor of Greek, James Lorimer, later professor of Law, and John Muir, an independent Sanskrit scholar and retired Bengal Civil Service judge, were aided by John Shairp, educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Balliol, currently a master at Rugby school but soon to be, first professor, and then principal at St Andrews. 5 Thomas B. Macaulay, Lord Ashburton, Henry Melvill and Benjamin Jowett. 1855. The Indian Civil Service: Report to the Right Hon. Sir Charles Wood. London: W. Thacker and Company. pp. 10–13. 6 For Oxford and the ICS, see Richard Symonds. 1986. Oxford and Empire: The Last Lost Cause? Oxford: Clarendon Press; Phiroze Vasunia. 2013. The Classics and Colonial India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 7 For efforts to ‘reform’ Edinburgh University and the relevance of the ICS examinations to the campaigns, see Robert D. Anderson. 1983. Education and Opportunity in Victorian Scotland. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (reprinted Edinburgh, 1989), chaps. 2, 3 and 7; see also Robert D. Anderson. 2003. ‘The Construction of a Modern University’, Part III. In Robert D. Anderson, Michael Lynch and Nicholas T. Phillipson. The University of Edinburgh: An Illustrated History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

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Blackie was the loudest propagandist for the cause, beginning in 1846 with ‘An appeal to the Scottish people’ for the ‘improvement of their scholastic and academical institutions’. He was still beating the drum of university reform in 1855 when, in a letter to the Edinburgh Evening Courant, he explicitly linked the ICS examinations to the need for wider university reform warning, that unless ‘the public take serious thought of the matter … the English will carry off all the highest Indian prizes’.8 Lorimer, as befitted his high standing in Edinburgh legal circles, played a more judicious role, mainly through his founding in 1853 of an Association for the Extension of the Scottish Universities. However, in a much-cited review in 1858 of some recent publications on university reform, he asserted that the throwing open of the ICS to competition had resulted ‘at the very first trial’ in the Scotland-educated candidates having ‘failed egregiously’. He evoked sorrowful parents who now ‘saw their sons returning empty-handed from this contest for the prizes of life’. This review became the catalyst for much subsequent discussion, while his more judicious caveats were neglected.9 John Muir was better qualified than his colleagues to assess the situation, having been educated at Glasgow University as well as at Haileybury, and now playing in his Edinburgh retirement an important part in advisory and patronage activities in the university. He was the first of several Scotland-educated civil servants to write pamphlets pointing out the particular advantages of Indian service for Scots. In 1855, before the first ICS examination, but knowing its imminence, John Muir had published in Edinburgh a pamphlet, The Indian Civil Service and the Scottish Universities, or, the New System of Appointment Considered, as it Affects the Prospects of Scottish Students, and the Higher Education in Scotland. He shared his Edinburgh colleagues’ concern that Scots candidates would not prove ‘competitive’ given the current stagnant state of their universities. His agenda, in this particular pamphlet, was to explain the advantages of service in India, detailing the financial ‘emoluments’, but stressing also its offering of ‘not only the highest social position, but splendid prospects of distinction in India as an administrator, a judge, a legislator, a diplomatist’. But he lamented, like his colleagues, that ‘our Northern seminaries’ were 8

John Stuart Blackie. 1846. Education in Scotland: An Appeal to the Scottish People, on the Improvement of their Scholastic and Academical Institutions. Edinburgh: William Tait; John Blackie. 1855. Letter to editor, Edinburgh Courant. 20 January. In John Muir. The Indian Civil Service and the Scottish Universities. Edinburgh: W.P. Kennedy. 9 Anon. [James Lorimer]. 1858. ‘Scottish University Reform.’ Edinburgh Review 107, 217 (January–April): 88–121.

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not suitably prepared for the upcoming ‘honourable encounter’ with their Southern rivals in the new examination halls.10 In the same spirit, John Shairp, writing from Rugby School, one such ‘southern’ institution several of whose pupils would sit the ICS exams direct from school in the 1860s, advised fellow Scots unashamedly to make all the use they could of failure in the ICS to bolster the wider reform argument, urging ‘welcome Indian Examinations, or whatever other means shall lay bare to us our real faults’.11 Each of these Edinburgh advocates linked university reform to the requirements of the new examination entry to the ICS, but their agendas differed in detail. In common, they argued that the Arts curriculum was too general, elementary and rigid, admitting boys directly from parish schools, often without any Greek at all, who then required basic teaching which should properly take place in the schools rather than the universities. All advocated an entrance examination to cure this problem, and the reservation of the professors for more specialised teaching, while a newly recruited cadre of assistant lecturers should be employed to tutor the still-raw recruits. While all advocated the introduction of new subject areas, often citing German models, a particular concern, apart from the low level of classics teaching, was the absence of English literature and language and also history, soon to be important for the new ICS ‘Open’ examination. Defenders of the status quo particularly wanted to safeguard the teaching of philosophy in the Scottish universities, which, however, was allocated a smaller part than classics in the ICS examinations. Greek and Latin carried 750 marks each in the Open, moral science 500, but there was to be no logic paper. Alternatives to the classics were Sanskrit and Arabic, the former not yet taught in any British university except Oxford but soon to be introduced at Edinburgh.

Efforts to improve Edinburgh’s ICS fortunes Over the next fifty years these advocates of university reform, and their successors, made numerous attempts to marry changes to the Arts faculty, long deemed to be needed, with measures specifically designed to improve the University’s ratings in the ICS. Efforts were also made by returned Edinburgh graduates to raise its ICS profile by stressing the advantages to Scots of service in India in order to raise the number of candidates coming forward for the examinations, one of the main reasons for lack of 10

John Muir. 1855. The Indian Civil Service and the Scottish Universities. pp. 5, 24–25.

11 John Campbell Shairp. 1856. The Wants of the Scottish Universities. London: Thomas

Constable and Company, Hamilton, Adams, and Company. pp. 5–6.

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‘success’. John Muir’s pamphlet, already mentioned, was followed by one by James Wilson, an Edinburgh ‘Open’ candidate in 1873. He published The India Civil Service as a Career for Scotsmen in Edinburgh while he was on furlough from the Punjab in 1885. This was a paean of praise for the ICS which Wilson pitched mainly to the economically pressurized section of the lower middle class, claiming that ‘any impecunious father’ would do well to send his ‘clever son’ to the examination for at 19 he ‘will have got the very best start in life’. Even ‘a Scottish peasant’s son, without a single relation in India, may feel certain of attaining high office if he shows himself worthy of it’. As Aberdeen was at that juncture faring better than Edinburgh in the ICS stakes Wilson urged, ‘we in the South of Scotland’ must emulate Aberdeen.12 Two India-returned principals of the university, Sir Alexander Grant (1868–84), and especially Sir William Muir (1885–1903; Figs. 18 & 19), frequently urged students to ‘turn your eyes Eastward’.13 Prominent Scots in high service in India were asked to intervene with the India Office on particular issues. Donald Mackay (Lord Reay), governor of Bombay, tried, unsuccessfully, to get the India Office to extend to Edinburgh some scholarships reserved to Oxbridge alone.14 Letters to the press on ICS matters continued, especially to the Scotsman and the Courant, but also to the London Times. Efforts were made to boost the provision of Indiarelated courses in Edinburgh’s Arts faculty in order to persuade candidates successful in the Open to ‘stay on’ for probation. In reply to an India Office enquiry in 1862 the Edinburgh Senatus emphasised its chair in Sanskrit, endowed just the year before, whose professor, ‘prepares for both the Indian Civil Service examinations’ in classes held four to six times weekly, adding that ‘a large proportion of the members of the present class have those examinations in view’.15 The letter also stressed the university’s capacity to provide teaching in the other required Indian languages and in law, and that although, as yet, the university had no chair in political economy, its moral philosophy professor would fill the gap. This detailed reply suggests that Edinburgh was keen to be seen as welcoming to any students who wished to do ‘special training’ for an Indian career. Indeed, 12 James Wilson. 1885 [2010]. The India Civil Service as a Career for Scotsmen. Edinburgh: Kessinger Publishing, LLC. 13 Sir William Muir. 1885. Inaugural Address to the Students of Edinburgh University. Edinburgh: T & A Constable. 14 Lord Reay to William Muir, 14 June 1886, Muir papers, Dk. 2.13, p. 52, Edinburgh University Library (EUL). 15 ‘Letters from the universities.’ 1862. Seventh Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the Civil Service London, HMSO. pp. 389–90.

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Edinburgh’s offerings appeared, on paper at least, much stronger at this early date even than Oxford’s. Unfortunately, Edinburgh failed to build in the coming years on this promising start, partly because reform of the Arts faculty was long delayed. Some provision was made, however, for one-to-one tutoring of individual ICS candidates by exchanging expertise with other Scottish universities. Notably, David Rennet at Aberdeen, a renowned private tutor, taught mathematics to Edinburgh students and John Muir, a Vedic scholar, taught Sanskrit to St Andrews’ students. Gradually, however, Edinburgh candidates began to slope off to London for short periods of what was soon castigated as ‘cramming’ with private tutors whose sole function was to prepare civil service candidates. James Wilson, the above-mentioned pamphleteer, admitted, for instance, that in spite of good teaching at Edinburgh, he had attended for a few months ‘Mr Wren’s famous “cramming establishment” in London’ before taking the Final.16 When, after a period of considerable recovery in the 1860s and 1870s, Edinburgh’s successes in the Open suddenly fell to an all-time low in the late 1870s to then remain low throughout the 1880s and early 1890s, direct assaults on the India Office began in the form of letters, memorials and finally, delegations of senior university staff to the India Office in London. These started with a mild request to alter the timing of the ICS examinations to suit the Edinburgh academic year. Protest then came to a head in 1878 over proposed drastic changes to the age thresholds and to the regulations for probation. There were further memorials in the 1880s and 1890s, mainly over the age thresholds, and a protest in 1893 over the low allocation of marks for philosophy, Edinburgh’s vaunted strength. The kinds of argument put forward to push Edinburgh’s case will be exemplified here by the memorials to the Secretary of State in 1878 when Lord Salisbury planned, after an exhaustive survey of ICS opinion in India, to lower the age bands to 17–19, and to make residence at one of a select number of universities compulsory for all probationers. These memorials were taken physically to the India Office by the four university principals, led by Edinburgh’s Sir Alexander Grant, who had earlier served as an examiner for the ICS and as director of education in Bombay. Grant, on behalf of the Senatus Academicus, in Edinburgh’s memorial first stressed Scotland’s historically strong role in Indian administration, ‘greater in proportion to the population than … the whole of England’. But at present, he wrote, Scots middle class students were disadvantaged in seeking access 16 James Wilson. 1885 [2010]. The India Civil Service as a Career for Scotsmen. pp. 19–20.

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to the ICS because of the poor state of Scotland’s secondary schools. Despite this, Scotland’s tradition of early entry to university at about 16 allowed them to make up their educational deficiencies and obtain an MA degree by age 20, in good time to prepare for the ICS Open. Salisbury’s proposed lowering and narrowing of the age bands to 17–19 would prevent this, and Scots would thus be driven degree-less to the notorious crammer, thus vitiating the quality of their education. ‘Cramming’ over several years, here referred to more delicately in India Office jargon as ‘special training’, would anyway be too expensive for the Scots middle-classes. Secondly, Grant was eager to disabuse Salisbury of the notion that because Scottish universities were non-residential, Edinburgh would be unable to take ‘moral responsibility’ for the probationers under the new stricter rules being proposed; Edinburgh’s ‘rules of discipline’, though ‘different in kind’ (from Oxbridge was implied) are just as ‘effectual in securing the morality and good conduct of the students’. The memorial concluded with a revised list of the courses that Edinburgh could provide for such probationers, stressing Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and law, with the addition now of political economy and the natural sciences, the latter a bonus for ICS officers in being ‘most conducive to the development of the resources of a country’.17 An accompanying ‘Joint Memorial’ from all four universities, which had been drawn up after a meeting in Edinburgh, then repeated most of the same points, but elaborated on some perceived special qualities of the student experience in Scotland, such as independence, a high moral tone, hard work, frugality, for these ‘manly, careful, practical qualities are brought out by their mode of life and study’, and are ‘of great value to an Indian administrator’.18 Despite much cross-faculty support, and on occasion, as in 1878, combined action across the Scottish universities, such special pleading was usually unsuccessful, sometimes drawing amusement in the inner recesses of the India Office, notably for some over-playing of the poverty card. On this particular occasion, in 1878, the lowering and narrowing of the age thresholds went ahead and only when the English universities joined the outcry was it revoked much later, in 1892. The right to teach for the Final was, however, secured after a struggle, Edinburgh professors undertaking to board ICS probationers in their own homes. 17 Alexander Grant, Principal, ‘The Memorial of the Senatus Academicus of the University of Edinburgh’, 1 February 1877, submitted to H. M. Principal Secretary of State for India. Edinburgh University Court, 1876–77: Centre for Research Collections, EUL-A-542. 18 Draft of ‘The Joint Memorial of the University Courts of the Four Universities of Scotland’, 1877, Edinburgh University Court, 1876–77: EUA-A-542.

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Edinburgh’s Competition-Wallahs 1855–1905 Attention turns now to the relations with their alma mater, and with Edinburgh more generally, of some Edinburgh graduates who did successfully turn competition-wallah. Discussion will follow four chronological phases, each identified by the changes in those ICS regulations already noted which were perceived to affect Scots candidates particularly, notably the age thresholds and the probationary arrangements. Consideration of such individuals, both within the service and after retirement, will contribute to reaching some tentative conclusions about social origins, prior schooling, marriage choices, career outcomes, postservice settlement and continuing roles in Edinburgh’s affairs.

‘Egregious failures’ make good 1855–61 As already indicated, the first years of competition, from 1855 to about 1861, were considered by Professor Lorimer and other Edinburgh academics, to exhibit ‘egregious failure’. Lorimer’s gloomy verdict still dominates most recent writing on ‘Scotland and India’ but without much analysis of the statistics. Michael Fry, for example, in his Scottish Empire asserted firmly that ‘the first examinations turned out a national disaster’. They ‘permanently and drastically cut the numbers of [Scots] in positions of authority’, winning on average only three or four of the thirty annual appointments.19 While it is true that the first few years were statistically alarming, it will be shown that the outcome was by no means ‘permanent’. Furthermore, it should be taken into account that during the first four years of the examinations, the number of ICS places offered was lower than it was ever to be over the whole Raj period (only 20 places in three of the early years, dropping to only 12 in 1857), compared with figures as high as 80 in some subsequent years and averaging around 50 over the whole period to 1877. Haileybury had sent out an average of 40 each year. ‘Opportunity’ was therefore severely limited in these first years wherever the candidates were educated. Judgements based on such small samples can be misleading. The number of applications should also be taken into account, varying greatly over the years, and significant for understanding what was off-putting as well as attractive to Scots about ICS service. On this the pamphlet propaganda of such as John Muir and James Wilson is illuminating. However, whatever the complicating factors, on a statistical reckoning alone, Edinburgh University certainly ‘failed’ over the first four years, 19

Michael Fry. 2001. The Scottish Empire. Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press. pp. 207, 325.

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achieving in aggregate only three places. Aberdeen gained two, but the other Scottish universities none. This was an average of less than 8 per cent of the total places available, much lower than in the Haileybury period. That in 1856, Edinburgh gained no places at all was clearly grist to the use that Lorimer and the other Edinburgh ‘reformers’ then made of the statistics. Ominous though these figures seemed at the time, this first small batch of Scots competition-wallahs achieved the kind of impact in India, and often in retirement too, that had gained their predecessors the reputation of making India a cornucopia for the Scottish middle-class, and also had some effect on subsequent improved success rates in the 1860s and 1870s. For those who made it from Edinburgh in the early years turned out to be a clutch of proactive, sometimes maverick, officers whose links with their alma mater can be followed uniquely closely. When their own accounts lack insights into their educational experiences at Edinburgh the reminiscences of two fellow-students, George Smith and William Coldstream, fill some gaps. George Smith, a product of Edinburgh’s Royal High School and Edinburgh University, went to India as a schoolmaster not a competition-wallah, but later selected for his Twelve Indian Statesmen, whose careers he eulogised, six who were either Scotland born or educated before joining either Haileybury, the ICS or the Indian army.20 William Coldstream, unlike Smith, did belong to the first clutch of Edinburgh competition-wallahs. He was to make no particular mark in India himself, seemingly happy to proceed steadily through various Punjab commissionerships, but his reminiscences provide very useful commentary both on his India-bound fellow-students from Edinburgh University, and on their teachers. This son of an Edinburgh medical doctor attended the Edinburgh Royal High School from 1851 to 1856 then, in succession, Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. He praised in particular the professor of classics at Glasgow, William Ramsay, and the professor of Greek at Edinburgh. The latter was the same John Blackie who was simultaneously writing to the Edinburgh press about the disadvantages faced by Scottish candidates for the new ICS examinations because of the elementary nature of the classics teaching he was able to impart to mere fourteen-year-old ‘schoolboys’. Particularly relevant to some persistent Scottish complaints about the relative lack of weighting given to philosophy by the Civil Service Commissioners was Coldstream’s eulogy of his logic teacher at Edinburgh, the charismatic Alexander Campbell Fraser. 20

George Smith. 1897. Twelve Indian Statesmen. London: Murray.

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Coldstream was later keen to credit Edinburgh University with his own success in the Open examination in 1860, writing nearly seventy years later, ‘considering that my training had been entirely in Edinburgh, that classics was very important, and that many of my competitors were from Oxford and Cambridge, I must say that I think my Edinburgh training stood me in good stead’. He passed fourteenth of about 287 competitors, acknowledging that he had also ‘read with private tutors’ for the Open and that in preparation for the Final examination a year later ‘I read partly in Edinburgh and partly in London’, presumably also with a private tutor, the progenitor of the later, much to be disparaged, ‘crammer’.21 One of the Edinburgh competition-wallahs mentioned admiringly by both Smith and Coldstream was Charles Umpherston Aitchison, Scotland’s sole success in the first year of the ICS examinations. Aitchison’s father, Hugh, belonged to Edinburgh. His mother’s influential family, the Umpherstons, had erected in Greyfriars churchyard the Martyrs’ Monument in memory of the Covenanters. After the Royal High School Aitchison matriculated at Edinburgh University, where he attended the last philosophy classes of the highly regarded Sir William Hamilton. After graduating MA in 1853 he pursued his philosophical and theological interests in Germany, as many Scots then did, at the universities of Berlin and Halle. His fellow-student at Edinburgh, George Smith, who considered Aitchison, ‘one of the foremost students’ among a ‘set of brilliant fellowstudents’, thought the ICS had been suggested to him by a family friend in Edinburgh, after Aitchison’s return to take further courses at New College. He had no time for any special preparation but passed sixth, aged 23, in the first Open examination in 1855. Smith reported him as ‘lionised’ in Edinburgh on his return from London. The principal of the university apparently applauded him publicly as ‘the first Scots Competition-Walla’.22 Such eulogies of its single success that first year certainly help to make sense of much subsequent concern about the seemingly ‘egregious failure’ of other Edinburgh candidates. Aitchison’s record in the ICS was certainly considerable, for like William Muir and George Campbell of the Haileybury period, he reached the highest administrative positions, including the Chief Commissionership of Burma and the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjab, the latter for more than five years. He also played a significant part in decisions 21 William Coldstream. 1927. ‘Reminiscences of Student Days in Edinburgh.’ Edinburgh Journal 2, 1: 44–51. Among Coldstream’s publications were a book on the grasses of the Punjab and the edited records on 1857 collected by his relative, Sir William Muir. 22 George Smith. 1897. Twelve Indian Statesmen. pp. 287–91.

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about opening the ICS to Indians, through his chairmanship of the 1886 Commission into the Indianisation of the civil service.23 He was highly regarded by several viceroys, with Lord Ripon considering him ‘a real good man of the best Scotch type’. Although he had spent his furloughs in Edinburgh, Aitchison did not resume strong personal links with the city of his birth on retirement, preferring to live in Oxford. Bearing no grudge, Edinburgh honoured him with the LLD. Like many other such Scots, however, some connection was maintained through family intermarriages, in this case through a daughter’s marriage to James Dunlop-Smith, a son of fellow Edinburgh student George Smith. James was himself educated at Edinburgh’s Royal High School before entering the Indian Army.24 In contrast, James Monro, selected two years after Aitchison, and Edinburgh’s only successful candidate in 1857, gaining third place, maintained very strong links with the city over a long and extremely unconventional career. Son of an Edinburgh lawyer, Monro was educated first at Edinburgh High, where he was dux in 1853, then, like Aitchison, at the universities of Edinburgh and Berlin. One of the youngest in his cohort at 19, he had topped in German, and scored highly in Sanskrit, for which he was almost certainly tutored in Edinburgh by John Muir. Posted to Lower Bengal Monro advanced through the usual district posts, rising from a district judgeship to be Inspector of Police for the whole province. To the surprise of his colleagues, after twenty-four years in India, he suddenly resigned from the ICS to spend six years in the CID branch of the London Metropolitan Police, ending up as commissioner, and faced in his duties by some very difficult cases, such as the Fenian outbreaks and the aftermath of the notorious Ripper murders.25 Then, just as suddenly, Monro resigned in 1890 and was next to be found, after a short stay in Edinburgh, engrossed in the running of an independent Presbyterian medical missionary station at Ranaghat in the same district, Naddea, where he had twenty years previously served as magistrate. Surprising though this was to many, Monro had supported missionary causes throughout his Indian service. Entirely self-funded originally, his mission was staffed mainly by members of his own family and friends from Edinburgh, thus re-establishing very close contact with 23 Ian Talbot. ‘Aitchison, Sir Charles Umpherston (1832–96).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/253. Accessed 28 August 2016. 24 Aitchison’s private papers form part of the Dunlop Smith collection, deposited in the British Library: Asian and African Studies: Mss Eur F166. 25 Mark C. Curthoys. ‘Monro, James (1838–1920).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/97913. Accessed 3 September 2016.

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his home city and alma mater, and with other Indian missionary circles in Edinburgh. His main link was fellow Edinburgh student, George Smith, already long retired to Edinburgh, through whom he received donations for the mission hospital from, for example, the Free Church’s St George’s parish in Edinburgh.26 His mission staff included two daughters, one of whom had graduated at Edinburgh’s Medical College for Women (see Chapter 9), his eldest son, Dr Charles George Monro and two Simson sisters from St George’s Church. James Monro finally retired in 1905, having transferred the mission to the Church Missionary Society, where his son continued to work until 1912. Although he himself died in Cheltenham in 1920, the Monro family maintained its strong links with Edinburgh, a grandson graduating in medicine there as late as 1932. The career of William Wedderburn, another Edinburgh first generation ‘competition-wallah’, was to prove equally unconventional but in a strikingly different way from Monro’s. His family’s ancient baronetcy, forfeited for fighting with the Stewarts at Culloden, was regained in his father’s time but carried no lands with the title. Like other impoverished Scots gentry, and fulfilling Walter Scott’s famous cornchest analogy, his father, Sir John Wedderburn, then turned to India, opting for the Bombay civil service in 1807. His eldest son, also John, was later posted to the Punjab after Edinburgh Academy and Haileybury, where he and his family were killed in the 1857 Uprising just before brother William opted for the ICS examinations. In a speech to the Bombay Congress in 1889 William would refer to the ICS, somewhat apologetically as ‘a sort of hereditary calling in our family …we are identified with what may be called the Indian official caste’.27 Wedderburn had been born in Edinburgh in 1838. His schooling was unusual, first at the Hofwyl Workshop in Switzerland, an experimental agricultural school and then at the progressive Loretto boarding school, just outside Edinburgh, which would later become popular with the parents of several other India-bound Scots. Like Aitchison and Monro, he proved an academic high-flyer, achieving third place in the Open in 1859, a ‘fiery ordeal’ he later recorded.28 His ICS career stands out, following 26 Letters from James Monro, Ranaghat Mission, Nuddea, to George Smith, Free Church Office, Edinburgh, 1897–1904, in General MS 7858 and Bengal MS 7840, National Library of Scotland. 27 William Wedderburn. 1918. ‘Presidential address to Bombay Congress, 1889.’ In William Wedderburn. Speeches and Writings of Sir William Wedderburn. Madras: G. A. Natesan & Co. p. 4. 28 William Wedderburn. c.1908, cited in Sir William Wedderburn: A Sketch of his Life and Services to India. Madras: G. A. Natesan & Co. p. 4.

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twenty-seven successful years in the Bombay presidency, for the sympathy he expressed, and the active role he increasingly took, with the cause of burgeoning Indian nationalism in the 1880s. This caused him to retire in 1887 to campaign alongside the early Congress leaders. Wanting to work through parliament for Indian causes he sought a seat in Scotland and was finally successful for the Liberals in Banffshire in 1893, a seat he held until 1900, but rather as a means to the greater end of Indian causes than for any local Scottish cause. Like Monro he returned to India in retirement, in his case to be re-elected as Congress president in 1910. He remained active until his death in 1918 in support of India’s political aspirations. With his friend, A.O. Hume, also of Scottish origin, Wedderburn was often regarded as an underminer of the ICS from the inside, yet he continued to regard his family profession as ‘the noblest career open to youthful aspirations’.29 Another ‘outsider’ was William Logan, son of a tenant farmer in the Borders, who attended Edinburgh University after schooling at Musselburgh Grammar, near Edinburgh. He scraped the Open in 1861, coming 71st out of 82 successes and was then posted to Madras, where he served mainly in Malabar’s mofassil, finishing as collector of Malabar. His ‘controversial and radical approach’ regarding tenancy problems antagonised his superiors and he retired early. However, Logan’s significance was strongly recognised retrospectively for his Malabar Manual, an encyclopaedic digest of information on the region and its peoples with whom he had achieved a very close relationship. The Manual continues to be consulted by scholars researching this region. In retirement Logan resumed his hereditary farming interests in the Borders, preferring a life in obscurity as a ‘country gentleman’.30 In illustrations he is represented as a portly country man in breeches, with his cap and a bent pipe hanging from his lips. That he had retained some contacts with Edinburgh, however, is suggested by a property he held in the Edinburgh suburb of Colinton. These four examples show that, despite their alma mater’s concerns about its students’ sudden loss of rewarding careers in the new ICS, the early years had in fact produced a handful of Edinburgh graduates who made decisive marks both in India and in Scotland, both during and after their service, in several cases in very unconventional ways. Another early ICS success, who had strong connections with Edinburgh, although 29 Ibid. p. 3; Edward C. Moulton. ‘Wedderburn, Sir William, fourth baronet.’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/41165. Accessed 28 August 2016. 30 K. K. N. Kurup. 1988. Modern Kerala: Studies in Social and Agrarian Relations. Delhi: Mittal Publications. pp. 70, 169–70.

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he actually graduated BA at Glasgow, was William Wilson Hunter. The correspondence of this prominent, but controversial, civil servant sheds much light on his Edinburgh ties. Hunter gained fifth place among 82 candidates in the Open of 1861, then topped in the Final in 1862, but in so doing his academic debts were as much to Edinburgh as to Glasgow. Even before graduation he had gone to Edinburgh to seek advice from its scholars on reading matter for his forthcoming degree. Having fallen for the daughter of one such Edinburgh scholar Hunter then spent the preparation time for both the Open and the Final in Edinburgh libraries, and for most of his Indian career his ‘home’ during furloughs was Edinburgh, close to his in-laws, the guardians of his children. It was his future father-in-law who first suggested the ICS to Hunter, by showing him an advertisement in an Edinburgh newspaper ‘proclaiming the advantages of the Indian Civil Service’, a consequence no doubt of the ongoing furore in late 1850s Edinburgh over the perceived fall-off in Scottish applicants for the service. Hunter’s parents took a house in Edinburgh to ensure he could study there efficiently. To fulfil his own declared ambition to enter ‘the circle of Power’ he swotted there the ‘Indian subjects’ required for the Final examination, including taking ‘special tuition in Sanskrit and Hindustani from Dr John Muir’.31 It all paid off when the results were declared, for his Indian language papers, especially Hindustani, which received particularly high marks. Much of Hunter’s prolific literary output on India was written or printed in Edinburgh during furloughs. For his important Statistical Account of Bengal, for example, his diary recorded ‘five Edinburgh printing houses being engaged at the same time’.32 The family base, until 1881, remained in Edinburgh where he bought a series of increasingly magnificent houses, decorated Indian style, for the family he left behind for months at a time, or from where he charged up and down to London on Indian business. A house he built at Douglas Crescent, overlooking the Dean Bridge, he decorated with Persian tiles and rare wood carved by Bombay craftsmen.33 He later sold it to Professor John Blackie, with whom he kept up a correspondence while in India. His eldest son attended the Edinburgh Academy, his father walking part way to school with him before commencing his day’s writing. The Hunters invited Edinburgh’s great and the good to literary dinners, and William lectured on India at 31 Francis Henry Skrine. 1901. Life of Sir William Wilson Hunter. London: Longmans, Green. chaps 2–3. 32 Ibid. p. 255. 33 Ibid. pp. 267–68.

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learned societies such as the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, the New Speculative Society and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.34 For twenty years, and until he transferred his allegiance to Oxford, Hunter was certainly counted among the intellectual elite of his adopted city. While in India Hunter had contacts with several of the Edinburgh graduates already discussed. In spite of their differences, he regarded William Wedderburn as ‘an old friend and a true reformer’. He helped him with introductions to like-minded associates, for instance to the controversial Sir Courtenay Ilbert, when Wedderburn was in trouble with his own superiors, a bonding possibly of two ‘outsiders’. Hunter also corresponded with his friend, Professor Blackie, concerning Indian educational reform. In Madras, his host was the ‘Free Kirker’, the Rev. William Miller, graduate of New College, Edinburgh, and now head of Madras’s ‘great Christian College’, whose animated dinner parties discussing education even Hunter found ‘a regular ordeal by fire’.35 These eclectic connections demonstrate the kind of linkages between Edinburgh men that often resulted from birth, early education and subsequent residence in the same city.

Edinburgh’s Partial Recovery 1862–77 In contrast with the initial seven years of the competition, Edinburgh experienced a run of successes in the Open from 1862 until 1877, contributing 46 of the Scottish universities’ total of 86 successful Open candidates. This was during a period when the Scots gained nearly 12 per cent of a total of approximately 725 places for Britain as a whole, and hence not far short of the Haileybury average.36 Despite an overall improvement, however, large variations occurred from year to year; 1862, for example, was a bumper year, when Edinburgh had nine successes out of a total of 13 won by the Scottish universities. Edinburgh scored highly again in 1873 with five places out of the seven awarded to Scotland. But, in contrast, not a single Edinburgh candidate succeeded in 1867, nor again in 1875. When the numbers were so few overall, and the records often inconsistent, small numerical changes should not be exaggerated into a trend. As with the previous ‘failures’, more is learned about apparent ‘successes’ by engaging with some specific educational and career profiles. Indeed, in this period of apparent statistical recovery there were few Edinburgh recruits who matched in individuality the clutch who had 34

Ibid. pp. 278, 286, 290–91, 384. Ibid. pp. 317–20. 36 ‘Numbers of Selected and Unsuccessful candidates … from the Scottish Universities from 1855 to April 1878.’ IOR (India Office Records): L/PJ/6/2481, 12 December 1884. 35

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graduated in the late 1850s period of ‘failure’. It would seem, retrospectively, that Aitchison, Wedderburn and Hunter were temperamentally the last of the Haileyburians rather than the first of the competition-wallahs. Some, the critics of cramming especially, tended to blame a perceived new uniformity on the narrowing effects of recruitment by examination. Some would generalise the matter to include most competition-wallahs, not just Scots, stressing the changed nature of a post-Rebellion Raj which now demanded bureaucratic competence and uniformity rather than initiative and individuality. Philip Mason, a competition-wallah himself in the late 1920s, perhaps reinforced this stereotype by his classic characterisation of the post-1857 ICS officers as ‘the Guardians’, and although he qualified it as missing another ‘contradictory strain’ of individuality ready to defy Government authority, he found that the new system encouraged ‘a growing rigidity, a hardening of the arteries, an increasing uniformity, a sense of superiority and a lack of human sympathy, more red tape, more office work, less of the old direct human rule of one man’.37 There were certainly very few mavericks among the Edinburgh cohort, although one or two ‘failures’ and dropouts. Representative of a supposed ‘Guardian’ type among the Edinburgh University cohort in the 1860s was perhaps Sir John Woodburn, born in Bengal into a military and medical family with longstanding service in India, but educated completely in Scotland, first in Ayrshire, where his family farmed, then at both Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. He improved on a rather lowly score in the Open to rank 19th in the Final, apparently unaided by any ‘coach’. Woodburn was one of a batch of nine ‘successes’ in 1862 who marked the beginning of Edinburgh’s statistical recovery. During service in the North-Western Provinces he steadily worked his way up to the viceroy’s council, and finally the lieutenantgovernorship of Bengal. He died in that post, his administration eulogised by a subordinate as ‘sound, practical, and beneficent’, but has since elicited only the briefest of admiring biographies by a devoted daughter.38 Woodburn’s successor in the post of Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal was Edinburgh graduate Sir Andrew Fraser, a man of a very different ilk. 37 Philip Mason. 1954 [1971]. The Men Who Ruled India, Vol 2: The Guardians. London: W. W. Norton & Company. pp.14–15. See also David Gilmour. 2007. Ruling Caste; For a more iconoclastic view, Clive Dewey. 1993. Anglo-Indian Attitudes: The Mind of the Indian Civil Service. London: A&C Black. 38 Government of Bengal. 1903. Supplement to Bengal Administration Report 1901–02. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press; Anon. 1926. Sir John Woodburn, KCSI., Lieut.-Governor of Bengal from 1898 to 1902: A Biographical Retrospect. London: Stockwell.

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Like several other Edinburgh graduates of this period, he was the son of a Presbyterian missionary family, and was born in Bombay. Sent home to Scotland he attended Edinburgh Academy and the Edinburgh Institution before completing an MA at Edinburgh with honours in mathematics, Latin and English literature. Fraser’s Indian career was spent mainly in the Central Provinces, but he obtained vast all-India experience on two important commissions, on drugs and the police, before landing the highest position in Lower Bengal, where he had to deal with the fallout of Lord Curzon’s controversial partition of Bengal. In retirement he indulged himself with a book of memoirs, Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots, his recollections of ‘thirty-seven years of work and sport’ which went into three editions. He said little here about his Edinburgh education, but his reminiscences are illuminating on why, despite some men still staying on in Edinburgh or Dublin, it was London, as well as Oxford, that attracted probationers in his time.39 Fraser retired to Edinburgh, where he added a DLitt to his earlier qualifications, was awarded an LLD, and then served his community as JP and in support of missions, including chairing one of the commissions of the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. He assisted in the publication of works by some Indian writers, both Christian convert and Hindu. One of his sons also studied in Edinburgh, at Merchiston and the university, then like his grandfather, whose name he shared, Alexander Garden Fraser, he became a missionary. Andrew Fraser himself died in Edinburgh in 1919 and was buried in the Dean Cemetery, his grave marked by a St Andrew’s cross, carved in red granite. There is no doubt that this particular civilian valued his roots.40 Another son of the manse, Sir James Wilson, provides particular scope for eliciting important characteristics of this generation’s links with Edinburgh and Scotland through his pamphlet, already mentioned, The India Civil Service as a Career for Scotsmen, replete with detailed advice for Scots aspirants. Wilson studied first at Perth Grammar School, then at Edinburgh University, where he won prizes in mathematics and Latin during his MA. He took first place in the Open of 1873, aged 20, having done, he claimed, very little ‘special preparation after leaving Edinburgh University’. He admitted, however, having attended for a few 39 Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser. 1912. Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots: A Civil Servant’s Recollections & Impressions of Thirty-Seven Years of Work & Sport in the Central Provinces & Bengal. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd. pp. 15–19. 40 Katherine Prior. ‘Fraser, Sir Andrew Henderson Leith (1848–1919).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33248. Accessed 19 August 2017.

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months ‘Mr Wren’s famous “cramming establishment” in London’ before taking the Final.41 Walter Wren, who set up in 1874, and some other private tutors were just now starting to attract a few candidates from the Scottish universities. Wilson felt justified because, ‘I had more individual help given me in my studies than I could have got in the large classes at Edinburgh University’. He nevertheless claimed that ‘cramming’ had made no difference to whether he passed or not, but he felt that such one-to-one help had probably secured him an exceptionally high place in the Final examination, in which he passed second in 1875, winning a prize for an outstandingly high score in Sanskrit. Posted to the Punjab, Wilson remained in that province for the whole of a very active career, except for a short and rather unwelcome transfer to the central secretariat in Calcutta. He was a prolific writer, publishing on Punjabi dialects and tribal custom, as well as the usual district reports, followed, after retirement, by a well-received report on the economy of the Punjab. Constantly active during his long retirement, in homes in Perthshire and Edinburgh as well as in London, he communicated widely on Scottish and other dialects, including that of Robert Burns. Wilson’s maintenance of a strong base in Scotland was probably partly his Glaswegian wife’s influence. Apart from publishing advice for newly arrived ICS families in India, and a collection of her own letters from India, which contained several nostalgic references to Edinburgh and some other childhood haunts, Lady Anne Wilson (née MacLeod) had made a name in her own right before marriage as the first publisher of the Skye Boat Song.42 Among several other books was A Short Account of the Hindu System of Music; she was, no doubt, an unusually feisty memsahib, no mere angel in Wilson’s house. The fellow students of Fraser and Wilson’s cohort were mostly steady plodders who worked hard in district and divisional posts, compiled the required reports and gazetteers, were usually rewarded with a CIE or something higher, and certainly with a generous pension on returning after twenty-five or years or so to Britain. To counterbalance these ‘steadies’, there were a few failures or dropouts, some of whom abandoned the idea of an Indian career before even leaving Scotland. Among these was Thornton Arnott Lewes, son of a writer father, and stepson of George Elliot (Marian Evans), who passed the Open from Edinburgh in 1862, after schooling in 41 James Wilson. 1885 [2010]. The India Civil Service as a Career for Scotsmen. pp. 19–20. 42 Harold Boulton and Anne C. MacLeod. 1884. Songs of the North: Gathered together from the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland. Music arranged by Malcolm Lawson. London: J.B. Cramer and Company.

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London, Switzerland, and at Edinburgh High. However, Lewes, possibly lacking an Edinburgh support network, failed the Final after neglecting his Sanskrit preparation in preference for his hobby of stamp collecting and the pursuit of stamp forgers.43 More soberly, James Wallace followed Edinburgh Academy and the University, where he achieved first class honours in classics, with a sound result in the Open in 1868, but decided to abandon the Final to pursue a safer and successful legal career in Scotland.

Edinburgh’s Nadir: 1878–92 During the fifteen years after the age thresholds were lowered to 17 to 19 in 1878, the lowest and tightest they were ever to be, Edinburgh candidates had very few successes in the Open, only eleven overall and in several years, none at all. As already shown, the Scottish memorialists had warned that this would happen, but when they submitted further protests in the mid-1880s the India Office disputed their statistical accuracy and refused to reconsider. Since Aberdeen University scored several successes in the very years that Edinburgh failed, the official line remained that the Scottish universities as a whole were not detrimentally affected. There was to be no change until 1892. To pour salt into the wound of persistent failures in the Open it was during this period that, despite Edinburgh fighting successfully for the right to teach for the Final, most of the few successful Edinburgh graduates in this period moved south for their probation, lured by Benjamin Jowett’s bursaries at Balliol or the opportunity to observe court cases in London. Herbert Carnduff was one who, following schooling at Edinburgh’s Collegiate and an MA at Edinburgh, migrated to Balliol in 1881. Carnduff ’s subsequent career provides an interesting example of a Scottish family’s upward mobility through Indian service. His father, David Carnduff, originally from Ayrshire, had progressed from a headmastership in a remote part of Bengal to a college professorship and then to Bengal Education Department’s inspectorate. Herbert himself, born in India but schooled in Edinburgh, was appointed to Bengal’s judicial side. He married there the daughter of a highly successful Edinburgh-educated member of the Indian Medical Service. Having been called to the Inner Temple bar, Carnduff rose to a judgeship in Calcutta’s high court, publishing several legal works along the way. He was rewarded with both the CIE and a knighthood. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Herbert’s father David had successfully requested the Lord 43 Thornton Lewes and Edward Pemberton. 1863. Forged Stamps: How to Detect Them. Edinburgh: Colston & Son.

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Lyon King of Arms to certify the family’s arms and motto. Socially well established, with a house in Edinburgh’s New Town when he died in 1908, David was buried in Edinburgh. Herbert, however, died in office in Calcutta in 1915, unable to benefit personally from the family’s rising social status. Of his two sons, the eldest inherited shortly before being killed in France in 1916; his second son, a naval lieutenant, drowned, soon after marrying into Edinburgh’s publishing family of Chambers.44 ‘Migration’ south, a new India Office term, though increasingly resorted to, as in Carnduff ’s case, was not always chosen. Gerald and Richard Campbell, the sons of Bengal civil servant, Major-General John Campbell, who had won his military title in the Bengal Staff Corps, stayed on in Edinburgh after the Open. Financial reasons probably restricted their options. Their father was the third son of a baronet, Sir Duncan Campbell of Barcaldine castle, near Oban, who had ‘ruined his family’ through ‘a perilous course of reckless spending’.45 Having eight other children, John Campbell had managed to send these two sons to Cheltenham College, and then on to Edinburgh University, but probably could not afford to consider Oxbridge for them. Hence, they were unusual in this period in staying put in Edinburgh for their probation. Yet their father later petitioned the India Office to allow his elder son, Gerald, to leave Edinburgh for his final term in order to study Telugu at one of the London colleges, and to attend the law courts. His request was turned down, but the correspondence allows an insight into the shortcomings of the Edinburgh probationary system and why its southern rivals were beginning to poach its students.46 Younger brother, Richard, also stayed on in Edinburgh, and both were then posted to Madras. Gerald died young, at 38, but Richard had a successful Indian career, ending as private secretary to the Maharaja of Mysore, at whose court he remained after retirement, publishing from Bangalore a number of books about Mysore, including one on Tipu Sultan.47 He seems to have recouped the family fortunes and ‘honour’ and his son eventually inherited the Barcaldine title. Despite the paucity of successful candidates in this period, two Edinburgh students did pass the ICS examinations with flying colours 44

C. Hayavadana Rao. 1915. The Indian Biographical Dictionary. Madras: Pillar. pp.

79–80. 45

www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/ TNGWebsite. Accessed 25 October 2017. Major General Campbell to Secretary of State for India, Brecon, 26 April 1883. IOR: L/PJ/6/96/693. 47 Richard Hamilton Campbell. 1919. Tippoo Sultan: The Fall of Seringapatam and the Restoration of Hindu Raj. Bangalore: Government Branch Press. 46

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but then suffered early death in service. John Norrie left George Watson’s for Edinburgh University where he passed the Open in 1890, then migrated to both Balliol and London to prepare for the Final. He had won a record number of prizes at all these institutions, topped in both the Open and the Final, probably the only Edinburgh student ever to do so, and was then posted to the North-Western Provinces. However, within four years he had died in post, aged 25.48 Whereas Norrie’s possible future service cannot be conjectured, a second candidate had already accomplished some outstanding exploratory and literary achievements before a somewhat mysterious death, aged 43. He was John Gordon Lorimer, the eldest son of a Free Church minister, among whose large family of eight at least five others spent their lives in service or in scholarly activities in India, Arabia or Greece, two of them also in the ICS. After two years at Edinburgh, Lorimer took third place in the Open then migrated to Christ Church, Oxford, where he topped in the Final, winning prizes for his papers in Hindustani, Persian, Hindi and Arabic. Determined on a career in the political branch he requested an immediate appointment to the Punjab, preferably in Baluchistan, in order to hone his diplomatic skills on the Indian frontier. This was an audacious request, but it succeeded at least in part, for the India Office officials had already been made aware of Lorimer’s outstanding linguistic talents and exceptional potential during some earlier correspondence about his Arabic prize.49 Lorimer got his desired posting to the north-west in 1891. He served in frontier postings in Waziristan and the Khyber and in the foreign department of the government of India in Simla, where he was commissioned to carry out research for a massive Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Oman and Central Arabia. He had completed most of it by 1909 when he was appointed political resident in Baghdad and then consul-general in 1911. He had risen high very quickly, but killed himself accidently in 1914, while cleaning his gun in Bushehr. Although the government published Lorimer’s six-volume Gazetteer, he received no credit for it during his lifetime for its sensitive contents kept it on the ‘secret list’ until 1930. Often referred to simply as ‘Lorimer’, it is still regarded as essential reading on this part of the Middle East. Lorimer had earlier published on the customary law of the tribes of the Peshawar district and a grammar and vocabulary of Waziri Pashto and was flying high in the political department.50 He 48

IOR L/PJ/6/330/1723, 17 October 1892. IOR: L/PJ/6/306/1558; 307/1759, 21 September 1891; 21 October 1891. 50 Peter Sluglett. ‘Lorimer, John Gordon.’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https:// doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/38933. Accessed 19 August 2017. 49

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was buried where he died but, together with his parents and several of his siblings, he is memorialised on a monument in the shape of a Celtic cross in the Warriston cemetery in Edinburgh. Although his siblings’ careers and scholarly interests had dispersed them globally, Edinburgh, home of Lorimer’s widow and where his father died, seems to have remained the family pivot.

Recovery and surge: 1893–1905 After the age thresholds were finally raised in 1892, to the highest level yet of 21 to 23, Edinburgh’s candidates for the Open experienced an unprecedented statistical success, gaining almost fifty places over the period 1893 to 1905, and doing strikingly well in particular years, notably gaining six places in 1897, 12 in 1900, an all-time high, and six in 1905. This volte face was often attributed to the raising of the age thresholds alone but such an easy conclusion is complicated by the fact that Aberdeen suffered a downturn in these years, and Edinburgh principal, William Muir, was still complaining that the new minimum age of entry of 21 was jeopardising the chances of many Scots who, having graduated by 19 or 20, could not afford to hang about until aged 21. An important factor was probably the implementation in the early 1890s of the longdelayed reform of the Edinburgh Arts faculty curriculum, following the Scottish Universities Act of 1889. Honours were now available in some of the subjects required for the ICS Open. Chairs and lectureships were created, for example, in modern European languages and history.51 A third factor, not sufficiently noticed in previous studies, was the new provision of special advisory care for students wishing to take the Open. Such mentoring had long been available at Oxbridge, especially at Balliol, but this was a remarkable innovation at Edinburgh, a university traditionally proud, as the memorials on the ICS attest, of the sturdy ‘independence’ of its students. John Kirkpatrick, professor of constitutional history, the initiator, passed the baton to a colleague, David Heatley, who has been described ‘as the first “Official Adviser” in Arts, a kind of Director of Studies’, whose ‘interest in the Home and Indian Civil Services saw many of his students taking up administrative posts’. The civil service candidates of this period were even dubbed ‘Heatley’s men’.52 51 Robert D. Anderson. 2003. The University of Edinburgh: An Illustrated History, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 131–32. 52 Charles D. Raab. 2012. ‘Fifty Years and More: The Department of Politics at the University of Edinburgh.’ http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/91466/ Politics_Dept_History.pdf. Annex 1. ‘About David Playfair Heatley.’ pp. 37–40; Thomas A.

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Such an increase in numbers resulted in Edinburgh’s competitionwallahs being very widely distributed province-wise. However, a marked flow to Burma, following the annexation of Upper Burma to the Raj in the mid-1880s, created, like the Punjab after its earlier annexation, an entirely new Scots destination of choice. Scots were already active in the economic development of Lower Burma and a few Scots civilians had already been transferred there temporarily from other provinces.53 After Mandalay’s capture in 1885 non-ICS men were leap-frogged into the north for ‘pacification’ purposes. One such, who made a strong impact, was James George Scott, formerly a journalist and teacher in Burma, who had been educated at Edinburgh University and Oxford, but did not take the ICS examinations. Most English ICS candidates regarded Burma as ‘a place of banishment, a dismal rice-swamp’, usually making it their last choice for posting.54 Scots reacted differently, often making it their first or second choice. Gavin Scott, for example, a Glasgow graduate who had topped in the Open in 1898, placed it second after the Punjab because he would ‘like to see the development of Burma’.55 From about 1893 a trickle of Edinburgh graduates became a flow. There were fifteen in the period up to 1905, one almost every year, sometimes more. This Edinburgh cohort was no doubt aware of Scots’ involvement in some spectacularly successful economic enterprises and were lured too by the new civilian opportunities in Upper Burma. Perhaps interest in Burma was also affected by their common schooling, often now at George Watson’s College, followed by a camaraderie developed first at Edinburgh University and afterwards at Oxford, an educational trajectory that was common by now for many Edinburgh ICS aspirants. That brother followed brother also suggests that Burma’s ‘dismal rice-swamp’ reputation did not put them off. The Burma phenomenon can best be illustrated through the experience of one particular Edinburgh family, most of whose ‘six children built their lives around Britain’s Indo-Burmese empire’.56 This was the Keith family, children of an Edinburgh advertising agent, whose four sons followed schooling at Edinburgh’s High with Honours degrees at the University, Joynt. 1944–45. ‘Edinburgh civil servants, 1896–1944.’ University of Edinburgh Journal, 13: 114–16. 53 Alister McCrae. 1990. Scots in Burma: Golden Times in a Golden Land. Edinburgh: Kiscadale Publications. 54 Sir Herbert Thirkell White. 1913. A Civil Servant in Burma. London: E. Arnold. p. 8. 55 IOR: L/PG/6/490/1960. 56 Katherine Prior. ‘Keith, Sir William John (1873–1937).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. LINK. Accessed 30 August 2017.

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then further study at one of Oxford’s colleges. Three of them also took the Open and the Final, two opting for the ICS and one for the Home Civil Service, the latter taking up ‘colonial’ responsibilities. All had excelled academically, winning high grades, prizes and scholarships. Four of them, including one sister, ended up in Burma. William Keith, the eldest, who was fourth in the Open and top in the Final, worked his way up mainly via revenue and financial posts to Burma’s top administrative posts, but was disappointed not to receive the full lieutenant-governorship. A younger colleague attributed this, dismissively, to Keith’s being an ‘unimaginative and humourless Scot’ who was too ‘homely’ for such high office.57 William was nevertheless knighted, to then return to Scotland where he passed his retirement in voluntary local concerns, including service as bailie and magistrate. His younger brother, Steuart, was heading for high preferment in Burma too, but died early. A third brother, Alan, taught in Rangoon University and was later called to the Rangoon bar. One sister married a director of the Burmah Oil Company, and the other remained nearby through marriage to one of the Keiths’ Edinburgh University contemporaries, an ICS officer in India’s Central Provinces. The one Keith sibling who never worked outside Britain actually made a stronger link between India and Edinburgh University than any of his Burma siblings. When Berriedale Keith excelled even more than his brothers at Edinburgh, Oxford and in the Open, Edinburgh University’s principal, Sir William Muir, congratulated him on ‘the honour conferred on our University by the place you have taken’, assuming that he would choose the ICS like his brothers. But Berriedale opted instead for the London-based colonial branch of the Home Civil Service. The EdinburghIndia link was resumed, however, when he later returned to Edinburgh as Regius Professor of Sanskrit and lecturer on the Constitution of the British Empire. In addition to teaching Sanskrit to a new generation, Berriedale Keith also translated and published many important Sanskrit texts. His rich collection of works on India was later donated to the university library.58 This family, though probably unique in this period for the strong linkages it created between Edinburgh University and India, exemplifies 57 This undiplomatic character sketch can be found in Arthur J. S. White. 1991. The Burma of A.J.: Memoirs of A.J.S. White, CMG, OBE, Indian Civil Service, 1922–37, Secretary General of the British Council, 1940–47. London: BACSA. pp. 78, 98–99. White was equally indiscreet about other Scots colleagues in Burma. 58 A eulogistic, but invaluable study of A. B. Keith is Ridgway F. Shinn Jr. 1990. Arthur Berriedale Keith 1879–1944: The Chief Ornament of Scottish Learning. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. William Muir’s letter to A. B. Keith is reported on page 36.

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the more general upturn that was occurring in the new century. For in 1905 Edinburgh University students won the first three places in the civil service examinations as a whole. Of these men, one opted for the ICS, along with five other India and Burma-bound class-fellows. Consequently, in the view of one eulogistic commentator, ‘1905 was Edinburgh’s Annus mirabilis’.59

Conclusion That Edinburgh University topped the civil service examinations in 1905, having retrieved itself from the nadir of the 1880s, as it had previously from the ‘egregious failure’ of the late 1850s, casts doubt on the judgements of the Edinburgh pessimists of the 1850s, as on those of some latter-day scholars who have bought too easily into the thesis of a permanent and drastic cut to the numbers of Scots in the ICS. This chapter has shown that ‘numbers’ did not constitute the only criterion of ‘success’ or influence. Andrew Mackillop’s studies on Scots in India in the eighteenth century have led him to warn against focussing narrowly on the numbers employed by the East India Company, including its administrative service, partly because the records are inconsistent, and partly because the Scots presence has too often been extrapolated in isolation. His conclusion that the Scottish profile across time was ‘neither a linear nor an inevitable development’ in the Company’s elite administrative service, but rather ‘an erratic process of peaks and troughs’ would seem to be applicable too to that of the competition-wallahs of the second half of the nineteenth century, as the present study suggests.60 Apart from the need to take into account other factors such as changing professional opportunities, in addition to the ones laboured at the time and since, a sharper focus is obtainable by paying more attention to the difference in Edinburgh’s fortunes between successes in the ‘Open’ and the ‘Final’. If, as suggested above, Edinburgh’s trajectory in the ‘Open’ was a process of ‘peaks and troughs’, concluding in 1905 with a ‘peak’, the equivalent trajectory for the ‘Final’ was slow, persistent decline from the early 1880s to 1905 and beyond. This was certainly not because Edinburgh’s students failed to pass, but because they completed elsewhere, mainly at Oxbridge or London. While the long-delayed reform of its Arts faculty finally benefitted the Open candidates in the 1890s, Edinburgh did not improve its provision for the India-related courses needed for the Final, 59 N. Campbell and Charles Campbell. 1980. ‘James Pickering Kendall.’ In Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 26, November: 255–73. 60 Andrew Mackillop. 2011. ‘Locality, Nation and Empire.’ pp. 64–66.

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despite its claims to the contrary, to the extent that Oxbridge, the London colleges and Trinity Dublin had continued to do since the 1880s. It was probably some consolation, however, that ICS officers continued to be identified in records of their services open to public scrutiny, such as the India Office List, by the university from which they had taken the Open not the Final, and that their choice of provincial posting was dependent on the marks obtained in the Open, although their seniority in the service was determined by the Final result. There is insufficient data available as yet to generalise authoritatively about the social status of the Edinburgh competition-wallahs’ families before and after service in India. However, the occupations of 42 of their fathers can be categorised as predominately middle-class, of whom no fewer than 15 were ordained clergy, mainly ministering in Scotland, many of them in Edinburgh or its hinterland, though a few were missionaries in India. The second largest cluster was of six ‘businessmen’, respectively manufacturer, merchant/trader, banker, ship-owner and advertising agent. Three were lawyers, of whom one was an Edinburgh solicitor, and one a high court registrar in India. Three were medics, two in Edinburgh, and one in India. Three were ‘men of letters’ or ‘the arts’, of whom one was a historian, another a pianist; there were two farmers (one a large tenant farmer; one a farm labourer). Surprisingly, perhaps, only one father had earlier served the East India Company in its civilian branch in India, in strong contrast to the patronage era when sons tended to follow fathers and other relatives into the civil service. Scarce, too, were sons of Indian Army officers. As in the ICS as a whole, ‘aristocrats’ (defined by title and land) were also scarce; they tended to have already lost most of their assets if not their titles and were presumed to be seeking social and economic reinstatement through Indian service. A single educationist, civil engineer, tea planter, typesetter and astronomer made up the rest. It is certainly not possible to draw firm conclusions from such a small sample, less than half the total, but the findings so far tally with some earlier studies of the broader ICS to confirm a predominately middle class professional profile, the growing predominance of the clergy, the rise of the ‘business’ category and the decline of service in India as a ‘dynastic’ occupation. Importantly, they confirm too that many of these Edinburgh students had a family occupational linkage with Edinburgh city or its hinterland before they joined the University. How far did this generation of ICS officers maintain or resume links with Edinburgh or its university after a long career in India? It is well known that ‘Scotland was not the usual destination for the Scots’ on

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retirement, most of whom preferred London or southern England.61 That said, the discussion has shown that some families did return to Edinburgh, or to other parts of Scotland where they had relatives, or property, or where they had been schooled. Family priorities were an important factor, Scottish wives seemingly keener than their husbands to return to their roots, sometimes to enrol their sons in the same schools as their fathers. There was a growing preference for the new Edinburgh day schools that by the late nineteenth century had overtaken the High and the Academy in preparing for the civil service and other professions. The new ‘public’ boarding schools in England were also increasingly popular with wellheeled Scots. Some changes in life-style resulted from service in India. Most who had lasted the course had gained honours in India. Some of those who had been knighted, but not all, returned home as recognisable public figures. Edinburgh University used the more outstandingly successful in India as exemplars for its current students, as principal Muir did in praising Sir Charles Aitchison in his addresses to students. Occasionally families blew their own trumpets, as perhaps Herbert Carnduff ’s did with its newlyconfirmed coat of arms. House building in Indian style or ornamentation was sometimes an overt sign of newly established status as well as of nostalgia for India. Some ‘returned’ families managed to afford houses in both their birthplaces and in Edinburgh, as did Sir James Wilson and William Logan. That many wanted to perpetuate their associations with the city of their birth or education is indicated by the memorials that families chose to place in Edinburgh’s cemeteries even if the place of retirement or burial was actually elsewhere. The son of a typesetter on the Edinburgh News who returned a knight was happy with the addition of his name and honours and the ascription, ‘Indian Civil Service’ on the gravestone of his parents and sisters in the Grange Cemetery, very close to their old home.62 Despite the undoubted advantages of London for the resumption of India-related activities, there were also opportunities in Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh. Several retired Scots sought Scottish seats in parliament, but with rather mixed success both in acquiring a seat and in getting the House’s attention once ensconced. Sir George Campbell, former lieutenant-governor of Bengal, when Liberal MP for Kirkcaldy for seventeen years, was fond of ‘addressing the house on any and 61

David Gilmour. 2007. The Ruling Caste. p. 313. Sir Robert Bell, MA, BSc Edinburgh 1899; Successful Open Candidate, 1901; acting governor of Bombay, 1937. 62

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every subject’, but generally considered a bore.63 William Wedderburn was much more focussed as MP for Banffshire, especially on Indian affairs. The many ICS officers who had missionary connections were able to pursue these the better in retirement, with no fear of infringing religious neutrality in their now ‘unofficial’ capacities. Among such patrons of Scottish missions to India were Sir Andrew Fraser and Sir Charles Aitchison. Some ICS wives took interest in the newly established zanana missions to Indian women, for example the Church of Scotland’s Female Mission, headquartered in Edinburgh, and in schemes for the extension of women’s education. Other returnees were invited to lecture on Indian matters at Edinburgh’s learned societies, sometimes travelling from England to do so. Those resident in Edinburgh or elsewhere were very vigorous letter-writers to the Edinburgh press on ICS and other Indian issues. As for Edinburgh University itself, some returned ICS officers maintained their links on university committees and as lecturers on Indian subjects, as prize-givers or donors of books on India and as recipients of higher degrees. Charles Pennell, for example, had been awarded a history scholarship to complete his MA at Edinburgh in 1896. After service in Burma from 1897 to 1924 he reciprocated by endowing on retirement two history prizes which are still awarded annually in Edinburgh University. Thus did a competition-wallah mark his attachment to his alma-mater, though he chose to retire elsewhere.

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David Gilmour. 2007. The Ruling Caste. pp. 316–17, citing Henry Cotton.

9 Medical Education for Women in Edinburgh The India Connection, 1869–1914 Roger Jeffery

Introduction

Bpromoters of the education of women as doctors, and those – in the ETWEEN 1869 AND 1873, EDINBURGH WAS THE SCENE OF A BITTER BATTLE BETWEEN

University and the city’s Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians – who successfully opposed them. But in 1890, Edinburgh boasted not one but two women’s medical schools. Dr Sophia Jex-Blake, one of the seven women who attempted to enter the University in the 1870s, founded the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women (hereinafter the School) in 1886. But two years’ later, the School split, apparently over Dr Jex-Blake’s strict approach to discipline. The Edinburgh Women’s Medical College (hereinafter the College) was founded in 1889: its founding is usually linked to another icon of British feminist history, Dr Elsie Inglis. This tale has been told many times.1 Little has been said, however, about the causes and consequences of the dispute between these two iconic women; their biographers pass over the event rapidly. While the initiation of the School has been analysed, little has been said about the origins of the College. And the effects of the School and the College in terms of who they trained, and what careers they followed, has not drawn the attention paid, for example, to the graduates of the London School of Medicine for Women. What relevance has this for ‘India in Edinburgh’? India played, in several ways, crucial roles. 1. Like in London, the supporters of both the School and the College used the imagery of suffering Indian women, and the need for European women doctors to treat them, as a flag to strengthen their case – to show how the Empire would benefit. But this was not merely a flag of

1 See, for example, Lincoln 1990; Roberts 1993; Somerville 2005; Todd 1918; Lawrence 1971; Leneman 1994; McLaren 1920; Blake 1990; Knox 2006; Thomson 1998.

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convenience: of the c. 380 women who spent time training for medicine in Edinburgh and qualified between 1887 and 1914, c. 51 were born in India and c. 93 (including some of those born in India) worked in India at some stage in their careers. 2. The battle-lines between School and College were not solely over Dr Jex-Blake’s authoritarianism and her efforts to impose discipline over her students – the usual explanation – but also because she did not ‘fit’ into Edinburgh’s middle-class society, obsessed as it was by religion (especially, but not only, the Church of Scotland and its off-shoots) and overseas mission (especially, but not only, to India). 3. Networks forged in India and renewed in Edinburgh by ‘India-returned’ men were crucial to the rapid mobilisation of influential support for the College. The supposed needs of Indian women for female medical practitioners have been represented, by Antoinette Burton and Maneesha Lal (Burton 1996; Lal 1994) for example, as in some respects a smokescreen, with the real driving forces located in Britain or in Imperial interests. But the evidence from Edinburgh suggests that, while ‘the needs of India’s women’ was used by many who had no direct experience of India, there is more to be said on the subject. Edinburgh’s ‘India-returned’ and their networks played important roles in the movement for women’s medical education in the city. This case study sheds light on much wider processes in late-Victorian Edinburgh, and on how ‘India’ as idea, as experienced by prominent citizens, as the source of other ways of seeing the world, and as a basis for social organisation was one thread that ran through what transpired, politically and socially, if not economically in the city.

Background Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1916) was unsuccessful in her efforts to force the University of Edinburgh to admit her – and six other women who joined in her struggle – to its medical Faculty between 1869 and 1873. Nevertheless, she was able to qualify as a doctor from Berne and from Dublin, allowing her to register with the General Medical Council in 1876. In 1877 she failed to get the post of Honorary Secretary at the London School of Medicine for Women, which she had helped to establish. In pique, and perhaps surprisingly, she returned to Edinburgh, the site of her earlier disappointment. By then, several of the opponents of women’s medical education (including Professor Robert Christison, 1797–1882, Dr Jex-Blake’s nemesis) had retired, but others – such as the Professor of

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Anatomy, William Turner, were still influential. In June 1878 Dr Jex-Blake started a private medical practice and later opened a charitable clinic and small hospital. In 1884, the Edinburgh Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons and the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow established their combined examinations – the so-called Triple qualification – and opened them to women from the start (Dingwall 2010: 274). Once this route to registration was established, Dr Jex-Blake seized the opportunity to establish the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women (the School), with support from the National Association for Promoting the Medical Education of Women and from her friends in the city, as well as her wider network. As in London, the School was an independent body that hired extra-mural lecturers (many of whom also taught men in the University or in the extra-mural School of Medicine) and arranged sites for clinical experience. Based in Surgeons Square, recently vacated when the new University Medical buildings were opened, Dr Jex-Blake’s School prepared women for the Royal Colleges’ examinations and from 1892, for the University’s medical degrees. The 16 women who applied for admission to the School in 1886 included Elsie Inglis. For two years, all seemed to go well: over 20 more students joined the School. But in 1888 two disputes came to a head. Four students overstayed their approved hours during their clinical training at Leith Hospital: The Senior House Officer invited them to observe an interesting patient who arrived just before they were due to leave. Another student was allowed a pass in an examination on the grounds of illness, without the knowledge or approval of Dr Jex-Blake, who took a rigid stance on both cases. She demanded that the students apologise or leave. The students in the School took sides. In the first case, the students refused to apologise, because overstaying had been condoned before. But they also refused to withdraw their support for the student accused (unfairly) of manipulating her examination results, and when they were expelled, the sisters Martha and Grace Cadell took Dr Jex-Blake to court for their loss of fees. In 1890 they were awarded £50 each plus costs. Other students, including Elsie Inglis, Mona Geddes and Margaret Balfour, withdrew from the School in protest (Knox 2006).2 2 Knox calls Mona Geddes, Moira, but her full name was Alexandra Mary Campbell Geddes (1872–1936); she was the niece of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. Margaret Ida Balfour (1866–1945) became director of the Women’s Medical Service in India. Both were from well-established Edinburgh families.

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The publicity surrounding the court case (widely reported in The Scotsman) caused a loss of support for the School and for Dr Jex-Blake herself. On 3 October 1889, her opponents set up a new body, the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women (SAMEW), with essentially the same objectives and mode of operating. It rented premises in Chambers Street and started the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women (the College). The first students were those who had left or been expelled from the School. What was the context for this small, apparently petty, provincial dispute? The dispute transcended the purely provincial in large measure because of Edinburgh’s significance as a source of medical training. Edinburgh gained a reputation as a centre for medical education around the turn of the 19th century, and its professors of anatomy were particularly prominent in medical debate and controversy until the 1830s and 1840s (Comrie 1936). Even as late as the 1920s, Edinburgh’s medical world ‘was a Juggernaut, laden with the freight of the Enlightenment’ (Lawrence 2005: 7). Although the University’s medical faculty undoubtedly lived off this reputation, without necessarily all enhancing it, the numbers of students coming to Edinburgh for some form of medical training grew steadily. In 1859–60, just after the 1858 Medical Act that required doctors to have a formal qualification in order to practice as a doctor, 554 medical students matriculated at the University; in 1869–70 the figure was about the same, 560, but thereafter numbers grew rapidly, to 1,459 in 1879–80, and 2,044 in 1889–90. But the University was not the only source of medical training in the city: the Edinburgh Royal Colleges not only provided examinations leading to recognition under the Medical Act, but their members also taught between 400 and 500 students every year in what became known as the extra-mural or extra-academical School of Medicine – sometimes providing classes taught by the University professors in addition to their University classes, but all recognised by the University as qualifying courses for those taking medical degrees (Comrie 1932: 711). In total, about 300 medical students qualified every year in the 1860s and 1870s, rising to perhaps 400 a year in the 1880s and the 1890s, even after the minimum course length was extended in 1889. Most of these received the qualifications of the Royal Colleges. These students came from all over the world, as the figures for the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses show (see Table 9.1). In 1881, for example, although 38 per cent of the students were of Scottish birth, and a further 34 per cent were born elsewhere in the British Isles, 21 per cent were born elsewhere in the Empire – with over 9 per cent born in India or Ceylon.

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These proportions were approximately the same in the next two census years. What happened in medical education in Edinburgh, then, was of great interest beyond Scotland’s borders, and this gave events there a much wider Imperial significance. Table 9.1: People reported as ‘medical student,’ ‘student of medicine’ or similar, Edinburgh, 1881, 1891 and 1901 Censuses, by country of birth and sex 1881 1891 1901 Place of birth Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Edinburgh 109 0 109 151 10 161 148 13 161 Rest of 241 0 241 334 10 344 222 18 240 Scotland England 251 0 251 350 4 354 221 15 236 Ireland 43 0 43 99 1 100 102 4 106 Wales 25 0 25 43 0 43 29 1 30 India 86 0 86 119 6 125 103 9 112 (including Ceylon) South Africa 35 0 35 28 0 28 46 0 46 West Indies 27 0 27 36 0 36 40 1 41 New Zealand 5 0 5 30 0 30 32 4 36 Australia 39 0 39 73 0 73 32 2 34 Other 67 0 67 70 0 70 79 2 81 Total 928 0 928 1333 31 1364 1054 69 1123 Source: Ancestry.co.uk, digitized census records. Note: India includes ‘East Indies’, Ceylon and Burma, but excludes Penang, Singapore etc. Edinburgh is the current built-up urban area, within the city by-pass, i.e. including, Colinton, Corstorphine, Duddingston, Leith, and Portobello.

Relatively few beds per student were available in Edinburgh, compared to those available in London teaching hospitals, and the pressure to provide practical experience in the wards of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was one of the reasons cited by Professor Thomas Laycock in arguing against the admission of women medical students in 1872 (Barfoot 1992: 17–18). Not surprisingly, given the large numbers of medical students trained in Edinburgh, these men were very prominent in recruits to the Indian Medical Service (IMS), providing 336, or 18 per cent, of those entering

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the service between 1865 and 1914 (Harrison 1994: 26). But these were all male, and in the 1870s and 1880s, a growing Imperial concern was with the ‘needs’ of Indian women for female medical aid.

Countess of Dufferin’s Fund and ‘eminently perplexing problems’ The 1870s and 1880s had seen a rising tide of interest in how to provide medical aid for the women of India. British doctors and some prominent Indians argued that women in India were unable to access modern medical care if it was provided by men, because of concerns over their – and their families’ – honour. In India, classes for women started from 1875 onwards, in Madras, Bombay, Calcutta and Agra. At first, women could study in the medical schools (leading to the lower licentiate qualifications) and then a few years’ later classes opened in the medical colleges (leading to medical degrees that were recognised for practice in Britain). In the main, these women were European, ‘Eurasian’ and Indian Christians, and the numbers were never very large (Jeffery 1988: 89–91). The National Indian Association (founded in 1870 with the aim of improving education for Indian women) and the Medical Women for India Fund, founded in Bombay in 1882 (Lal 1994: 33), increasingly requested ‘English lady doctors’ to increase the supply of women doctors (Lal 1994: 50–51). In 1885, Lady Dufferin, the Vicereine, established a Fund to pay, inter alia, for scholarships for Indian women to train as doctors in India, and sent some of its funds for European and Indian women training at the London School of Medicine for Women, if they committed to going (or going back) to India to practice. The movement for opening medical education to women in Britain neatly tied together the needs of India’s women for medical treatment, the desire on the part of supporters of the Empire to show how it was contributing to ‘prosperity and progress in India’, and the demands of British women for access to medical education. As a result, elite support was forthcoming. Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale, for example, both overcame some of their reserve and allowed their names to be used to bolster public campaigns. Nightingale provided a donation of fifty pounds to help train more doctors at the National Hospital for Women, since you want efficient women doctors, for India most of all, whose native women are now our sisters, our charge. (There are at least 40 million who

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will only have women doctors, and who have none) (Nightingale 1889, cited in Heggie 2015: 287–88).

In her book, The Medical Education of Women, Dr Jex-Blake quoted comments made to her towards the end of the 1869–74 campaign, by the Rev. Narayana Sheshadri and another unnamed Indian to the effect that Indian women could not be examined by male doctors (pp. 153–54). She also referred approvingly to a speech by Lady Anna Gore Langton that made the same point, at a meeting raising money for the London School of Medicine for Women (p. 208). In an article entitled ‘Medical Women’, in The Nineteenth Century in 1887, she quoted an estimate of the number of women physicians required in India: It is … of course in India and other parts of the East that the necessity for medical women is most apparent … Over a thousand English medical women urgently needed for India in 1880, and in 1887 there are but fiftyfour women, all told, on the British register. Is it possible to have stronger evidence of the pressing need of increased facilities and national aid for the medical education of women? (Jex-Blake 1887: 701, cited in Lal 1994: 50–51).

Dr Jex-Blake’s opponents in the campaign in Edinburgh in 1888–90 used the same arguments. The promoters of SAMEW gave several reasons why their efforts, as they described them, to open up the training of women to be doctors more widely should be supported, starting with the needs at ‘home’. In the notice of the first general meeting, however, they continued: The members of the Association are especially inspired by the hope that an early fruit of their labours will be an advance towards the solution of those eminently perplexing problems which press so heavily in India and other dependencies of the Empire, and for the right solution of which the assistance of thoroughly trained Medical Women is essential (Anon. 1890a: 2).

At that meeting, the mover of the motion to establish the Association, Rev. Dr James Cameron Lees (1834–1913), was reported to have said: They all knew that, in most large cities of the country there were women practising medicine with very great success, and if there was not room for them they would not be there. They knew also that in the Indian

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Empire their work had been very greatly appreciated, owing to the special difficulties under which women in those countries lived (Anon. 1890b: 8).

There was, however, a major difference between Dr Jex-Blake and her opponents on this account: a mission dimension. Dr Jex-Blake was not a supporter of mission, and her views were well-known: she ‘never went to missionary meetings’ (Lawrence 1971: 55). Margaret Todd, one of the early students at Dr Jex-Blake’s School and then her long-time partner and biographer, explained her views as follows: Moreover, she was the last person on earth to play up to the expectations of the community in which she lived. The Edinburgh of those days was a more conventional place than Edinburgh is now, and doctors above all were expected to conform to a particular standard. There was a general impression that piety paid and that an interest in missions was a great help to success in practice. … Never, moreover, since the far-off schooldays in which she had given a highly-valued shilling to “the Jews” had she taken any interest in missions. That vein in her was worked out, or transmuted into something else. The more she read of the old religions and she did read the more she found in them to admire and respect, the more it seemed to her that they were the fitting medium for the training of the people to whom they had been given (Todd 1918: 457).

As the conflict continued, and her opponents marshalled support for the new College, Todd says: There was endless propaganda; some sort of organization was got together: everybody who had a grudge against S. J.-B. remembered it now; her faults, mistakes and deficiencies particularly her want of enthusiasm for missions came back relentlessly upon her head (Todd 1918: 499, emphasis added).

Dr Jex-Blake was also willing to speak out against the practice of some missionary societies sending out as medical workers, women who had not been fully trained. Her close colleague Edith Pechey warned against ‘dilettantes — that is … women who thought they could dabble in medicine and fail to complete the whole, exacting course of training and registration.’ In the fight for the recognition of women doctors as equal to men, ‘The bogeywoman for the first women doctors in Britain was the undertrained medical missionary’ (Heggie 2015: 287). In 1888 Dr

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Jex-Blake wrote that ‘the Edinburgh school was faced with the problem of young women who “fancied that after taking ‘a few classes’ they might consider themselves competent to practice as medical missionaries or otherwise”’ (Heggie 2015: 287). She singled out the London Missionary Society in her criticisms of the missionary societies on this score (see also Heggie 2015: 287–8; Jex-Blake 1888). In the public mind at the time, and in writings since then, the opposition to Dr Jex-Blake was personified in the form of Elsie Maud Inglis (1864–1917), who came from a family background that fits many of the stereotypes of Scots whose fortunes were made by the Empire. In the male line, she was the grand-daughter of David Deas Inglis (1777–1865), son of an Inverness-born man who established plantations in Carolina, where David Deas was born.3 He joined the Honourable East India Company as a merchant in 1796, arrived in Surat in 1797, and married Martha Money (1778–1839), sister of an EIC director, William Money, in Bombay in 1806. Returning to London in 1812, he established Inglis, Forbes and Company, a merchant house trading with the East Indies, retiring from the firm in 1831. His seventh child and third son John Forbes David (J.F.D.) Inglis (1821–94), Elsie’s father, was born in London, and was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service in 1840. In Agra in 1846 he married Harriet Lowes Thompson (1827–85), who was born in India and died in Edinburgh. Their daughter Amy (1848–1929) married Robert Simson (1829–1905), who was in the Bengal Civil Service until 1878, when he returned to Edinburgh. The opportunity to be close to their grand-children seems to have helped J.F.D. and Harriet decide to come to Edinburgh in 1878 (Balfour 1919: 42). Through the Simson family the Inglis eventually gained a wide range of relatives, some distant in genealogical terms but many significant in Edinburgh life. These latter included Robert Simson’s brothers David (1827–91) and James (1835–1905), who had also been in the Bengal Civil Service; in 1889 David’s daughter Elinor Simson (1868–1943), born in Lahore, married Henry Moubray Cadell (1860–1934). Henry’s first cousins Martha Georgina Isabella Cadell (1858–1905) and Grace Ross Cadell (1856–1918) were in the same medical school batch as Elsie. They were two of the four students who overstayed in Leith Hospital in 1888, provoked the wrath of Dr Jex-Blake, and took her to court after they were expelled from the School. The Cadells were wealthy landowners in 3 http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/untoldlives/2012/10/black-labourers-in-london. html#sthash.yhSsHYEh.dpuf

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West and East Lothian, descendants of Cadells who had established the Carron ironworks.4

Edinburgh and missions to India Dr Jex-Blake’s opponents were deeply embedded in Edinburgh’s Kirkand mission-oriented middle-class society. Scottish missionary activities in India started early in the 19th century and Scottish Churches made considerable claims for their effects. The international standing of Scotland’s missionaries was affirmed by the willingness of the global missionary community to accept the offer by Scottish missionary societies to host a World Missionary Conference in 1910 in Edinburgh. The conference records claim that [N]o country was more prominent than Scotland, and no country has in proportion to its size contributed to the evangelization of the world during the last century so large a number of distinguished and devoted missionaries (cited in Ross 2010: 6).

G.R. Mellor argued for the first half of the 19th century that ‘missionary societies at home and the missionaries afield’ played strong roles in creating and reproducing an Imperial ideology of Trusteeship (Mellor 1951: 417). Scottish missionaries were at the forefront of such efforts, with a specific focus on how to combine evangelisation and education. Their aim was to create an on-going transformation in Indian society through Christianity, that would bear witness to what they saw as Britain’s God-given role there, and which would make British rule worthwhile. John Inglis (no relation to J.F.D. Inglis), a noted preacher at Edinburgh’s Old Greyfriars Church, worked hard from 1818 to turn the Church of Scotland into an evangelising body at home and abroad, and he put India in the forefront of his efforts (MacLeod 2004). Alexander Duff started the process in Calcutta in 1830 with the assistance of W.S. Mackay and Raja Rammohan Roy; John Wilson followed suit in Bombay from 1832, John Anderson in Madras in 1837, and Stephen Hislop in Nagpur in 1844. Such efforts can be linked to some aspects of the Scottish Enlightenment, with the work of those like Adam Ferguson and Dugald Stewart placing societies in developmental stages and providing reasons why monotheism 4 http://www.cadell.com/. See also Chapter 5 and their entry in the Annexure for more detail on the family’s India links.

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could emerge from polytheistic societies like India (Mills 2017). Based on these efforts, and the later turn to Africa in the footsteps of David Livingstone, Scottish missionaries and their supporters claimed a golden age of Scottish-based foreign missions in the second half of the long 19th century, despite their recurrent problems of raising enough funds and finding good recruits to send (Ross 1972). India ‘attracted the greatest effort during the nineteenth century, and it is here that the mission boards of the United Kingdom expended the greatest amounts of time, money and resources’ (Duff 2010: 7). India provided support for ideas of Scottish distinctiveness: the Scottish missionary experience of empire provides an example of … a dominant discourse of Scottish national identity, which, embedded as it was in the institutional life of the Presbyterian churches, had the capacity to generate representations and symbols of Scottish national identity which were widely endorsed in both religious and secular spheres in the age of high imperialism (Breitenbach 2005: 15).

Middle-class, Presbyterian Edinburgh folk – in whichever branch of the Church of Scotland or of the other churches active in the city at the time – regarded India as an ideal place to show their evangelism. In Scotland, a bewildering number of missionary societies and committees existed in the 1880s, almost all with an interest in India. Each of the branches of the Church of Scotland supported missionaries abroad, usually with a Ladies’ or zenana branch, and there were missionary associations at the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. One such society of particular interest and significance to Edinburgh focussed on evangelising Anglo-Indians. As with other uses of the term, there is ambiguity over its referents, with the slogan ‘our own countrymen in India’ suggesting British, or at least Europeans, in India, but the focus of the efforts (including going up and down the railway lines) suggesting that Eurasian railway staff were also a target of their activities. Such a body was first discussed in 1863, when: a number of gentlemen—Civilians, Military Officers, Merchants, Chaplains, Missionaries, and Medical men who had been in India, met in Edinburgh as Christian Anglo-Indians. The late Dr Kenneth Macqueen proposed the formation of a Society for promoting the spiritual interests of Europeans in India (A-IES Report 1892: 10).

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The first missionary went to India in 1870 under the Anglo-Indian Christian Union (A-ICU), the name being chosen to show its nondenominational approach. One of the earliest members of the A-ICU was Sir William Muir (1817–1905), then a member of the Council of India in London, who expressed the basis of his own support for the then A-ICU at its Annual Meeting in Edinburgh: … it afforded him very great pleasure to be here to see this large and national meeting, showing the interest which the people of Edinburgh have in our Eastern possessions, and in the progress of Christianity there, and in upholding Christian character among our countrymen who are scattered abroad throughout India. … The object of this society was to supply the lack of Christian ministration – the lack of Christian teaching to our countrymen among the evils to which they were all exposed. … It was a most distressing thing to see in the midst of a heathen population the representatives of Christianity—for no Englishman could be in India without being regarded as the representative of Christianity whether he would or no—as the representatives of vice and demoralisation. Now, the interests of this society were bound up with the well-being and the interests of India. In many respects they were so politically as well as morally, and above all, which was the object of this society, spiritually (Glasgow Herald, 13 January 1876).

The logic he set out was that evangelisation amongst Anglo-Indians would help to ensure that Indians had model Christians as exemplars, not ‘representatives of vice and demoralisation’: such a twin-track evangelisation programme would be more effective. By 1880 the A-ICU had incorporated a Winter Mission, and an Assam and Cachar Missionary Society, under its new name of the Anglo-Indian Evangelisation Society (A-IES). It had a dual structure, with VicePresidents and Committees in England and Scotland. J.F.D. Inglis, who had established a close personal friendship in India with Sir William Muir, joined him as a Vice-President; James Simson (brother of J.F.D.’s son-in-law Robert) was one of the Edinburgh Directors of the A-IES in 1885. In 1886 a Ladies’ Union was created. ‘Only Anglo-Indian Ladies [here, meaning of full European extraction] who, at any time of life, have resided in India, are invited to become Members’ (A-IES Report 1886: 13): The Dowager Lady Lawrence and Sir William’s wife, Lady Muir were President and Vice-President respectively; J.F.D. Inglis’ wife Harriet was already dead.

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The A-IES had a network of supporters across Britain. In many years, the Scottish branch out-performed that in England in terms of raising funds, dramatically so when the differences in population are considered. In 1888, Scotland raised £646, with Edinburgh contributing £191, some 30 per cent of the total. England and Wales raised £662, with London responsible for £313 (A-IES Report 1889). Since the population of England and Wales was approximately eight times that of Scotland, and the population of London some 16 times that of Edinburgh, the A-IES clearly appealed much more to the Scots – and within them, to people in Edinburgh – than it did to the English or to Londoners. Other missionary societies were also anxious to involve the ‘Indiareturned’ in their activities. J.F.D. Inglis was one of those whom the Free Church of Scotland was keen to involve, proposing: a quota of necessary specialists on its Foreign Mission Committee, to include military officers who have served for years in the East; India civilians who have had to deal judicially with the heathen; medical men who have seen the gospel in context with missionaries in all parts of the world’ (Free Church Missionary Record, March 1884, cited in Duff, vol. 1: 225–26)

In combination with the record of committee members, collectors and donors, then, the India-returned living in Edinburgh were disproportionately active (relative to elsewhere in Scotland or in Britain more generally) in maintaining the idea of India as an object of evangelisation at the end of the 1880s.5 Who, then, were these ‘Indiareturned,’ and did they engage in other activities as a collective?

The ‘India-returned’ in Edinburgh The reputation of Edinburgh’s medical school made a substantial contribution to temporary in-migration at the end of the century. Table 3 shows that, in 1901, of the 1,186 residents recorded as born in India or Ceylon, 104 were medical students, and that whereas almost all these medical students had European names in 1881, the proportion with ‘Indian’ 5 Further work needs to be done on the supporters of the various other missionary societies active at the time. Duff, however, states that ‘a significant number [of laymen active in missionary committees] had retired to Edinburgh from important military or civil posts overseas, principally with the British Raj in India’ but he does not provide details (Duff, vol. 1: 211).

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names increased to roughly one-third in 1901. Names are not, of course, a very reliable indicator of ethnicity, since South Indian Christians often had European names, and census enumerators may have introduced further errors. As an example, Henry Martyn Clarke (1857–1916), a medical student in 1881, and an extra-mural teacher in the medical school in the 1900s, was of Pathan origin, adopted by missionaries in Peshawar. In 1881, 1891 and 1901, just under 10 per cent of all those recorded as medical students had been born in India (see Table 9.2). Table 9.2: Ethnicity of names of India-born medical students in Edinburgh, 1881, 1891 and 1901 1881 1891 1901 Place of birth Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total European 84 0 84 102 5 107 71 9 80 Names Indian Names 2 0 2 17 1 18 32 0 32 All students 86 0 86 119 6 125 103 9 112 Source and note: as for Table 1.

As we set out in Chapter 1 of this volume, many people in Edinburgh in the last 20 years of the 19th century were thus linked to India through its medical world; but the influence was also inflected by Kirk connections. An early prompt to action came from the success of Dr John Scudder, an American medical missionary to Vellore: his example led to the creation of the Edinburgh Association for Sending Medical Aid to Foreign Countries, formed by a group of doctors in 1841 (Duff 2010: 45–46). It changed its name in 1843 to the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society (EMMS). It took several years before the EMMS could find recruits willing to serve overseas. In the interim, its practical work was carried out in a missionary clinic in Edinburgh’s Cowgate. The example of David Livingstone encouraged more medically qualified men to become missionaries, and the EMMS supported in their studies 18 men from 1861 to 1870. Fourteen of these were trained in Edinburgh, and three in Glasgow; ten went to India, two with Glasgow degrees and eight with Edinburgh ones (Duff 2010: 138). Among the first to go to India was Colin Valentine (1835–1905), of Brechin, who was sponsored by the EMMS to travel to India in 1861; he worked with students at the Agra Government Medical School and stayed

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in Agra until he retired.6 In the same year John Lowe (1835–92), went to India with the LMS but he returned to Edinburgh in 1871 because his wife was continually ill where they lived in Travancore (Duff 2010: 78). Lowe then became Superintendent of the EMMS training institution at 56 George Square, combining this position in 1883 with that of the Secretary of the EMMS, positions he held until his sudden death (Grundmann 1999: 412). Lowe was a tireless publicist of the cause of medically trained men as missionaries: his book Medical Missions: Their Place and Power went through many editions (Lowe 1886). Both Valentine and Lowe were strong supporters of the need for women to train as medical missionaries to suit India’s ‘peculiar’ circumstances (for Valentine’s support, see Fitzgerald 2012: 183). In the 1870s, the EMMS sponsored 15 men, 11 from Edinburgh and four from Glasgow, with eight destined for India; in the 1880s 40 doctors were sponsored, 19 to China, 10 to India (with two more marked as China and India), eight to Africa and one to Palestine. Again, Edinburgh graduates dominated the list, with 27 doctors, only eight of whom, however, destined to work in India (Duff 2010: 139–40). These people with medical and missionary links to India were not ‘typical’; we know much less about those from working class background, those who were rank-and-file soldiers or sailors, for example. Those who appear in the historical records came mostly from the educated middle classes, close to or members of the Edinburgh elite. They were not necessarily from the highest ranks in terms of their achievements in India, most of whom retired to London or South East England, to serve on the various London-based committees relating to India, even if they were of Scots origin.7 Presbyterian Christianity was a crucial part of their world view, and this coloured how they saw the Empire, but also other aspects of the politics of Scotland, Britain and Europe. They formed a network of people with the potential for mobilisation, and this is what happened in 1888–89, as the conflict over Dr Jex-Blake’s School unfolded.

India and Medical Education for Women in Edinburgh Elsie Inglis is the person most mentioned with respect to what I have called the College, though not always by name: she is probably one of those, for Dr Jex-Blake’s first biographer, Margaret Todd, ‘concerning whom one’s lips are sealed’ (Todd 1918: 499). The first of Elsie Inglis’ biographers, Lady Frances 6 http://www.emms.org/about-us/origins-and-background, accessed 15 December 2012. 7

For more on this, see chapter 8 by Avril Powell.

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Balfour, was similarly discreet about Dr Jex-Blake’s character and about the reasons why Dr Inglis might have found her rule difficult to accept: Success often makes people autocratic, and those who benefit from the success, and suffer under the overbearing spirit engendered, forget their great gains in the galling sensation of being ridden over rough-shod. It is an episode on which it is now unnecessary to dwell, and Dr. Inglis would always have been the first to render homage to the great pioneer work of Dr. Jex Blake (Balfour 1918: 42–43).

Elsie Inglis definitely attended missionary meetings, this being one of the sources of entertainment while she lived with her parents in 1883–85 (Lawrence 1971: 48). She and her sisters contributed regularly to the A-IES; her father was called in by the Free Church of Scotland during negotiations with the Church of Scotland over how to divide up missionary work in India in 1890;8 and all accounts of her and her father suggest that Christianity, and the role of missions, were key parts of their everyday lives (Balfour 1918; Lawrence 1971; Leneman 1994; McLaren 1920; Thomson 1998). Given the absence of women from positions of authority themselves, those who wished to push forward an agenda of reform needed to find people influential within ‘microsites of power,’ since they had always to depend in the last instance on male champions to fight for them within the bastions of male power. Therefore they were to a considerable extent forced to choose as sites for their campaigns, institutions where such champions could be found (Jordan 1998: 402).

In Edinburgh, although opponents were vociferous and powerful, male supporters of women’s medical education were also available in the 1870s and 1880s. Dr Jex-Blake acknowledged some of those who stood by her in 1869–73 and again in the 1880s, Professor George Balfour, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1869, and David Masson, Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, in particular. In the case of Dr Inglis and her father, a surprising number of their supporters had close connections to India. In The Scotsman, 74 people were named as ‘supporters’ and committee members either as signatories of the 8

Church of Scotland Foreign Mission, Annual Report for 1890, National Library of Scotland, Dep. 289/10

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announcement of the meeting on 3 October 1889 at which SAMEW was founded, or as taking formal roles at its first general meeting in January 1890. Of these 74 people, at least 14 had worked in India and ten were wives or daughters of others who did so. Two more were in households with relatives who had lived or worked in India. In total, then, 26 had direct Indian experience themselves or in their immediate household. A further eight had indirect links to India, through brothers or in-laws. Seven of the remainder were ministers of religion and had missionary connections. The remaining 33 have, to my knowledge so far, no particular connection to India. Seven of these ‘unconnected’ supporters were physicians or surgeons, and six were Professors at the University of Edinburgh (excluding the two in the medical faculty). Others for whom I have as yet no firm information are women, or with no identifying occupation. Some may be linked, but the attribution is uncertain so they have been left in the ‘unconnected’ list: for example, a Mrs Alban is probably the widow of Thomas Clifton Alban (1827–64, Bombay Army), whose son William (1860–1906) was a Major in the Indian Army. The first group – those with direct experience of India – included Sir William (1817–1905) and Lady Elizabeth Muir (1823–97), and their daughter Agnes Berry (1856–1929). Sir William Muir worked closely with J.F.D. Inglis and was probably the most influential person on their side. Born in Ayrshire, he went to India in 1841, rising to be LieutenantGovernor of the United Provinces. He became Principal of the University of Edinburgh in 1885, after the disputes over women’s medical education of 1869–73 had concluded. Muir was militant in his Protestantism and his support for missionary activities, coupled with strong interests in the history of Islam (to combat the Muslim threat in India) (Powell 2004; see also his entry in the Annexure). One of the motions at the first general meeting of SAMEW was moved by Rev. Dr James Cameron Lees (1834– 1913), at that time Minister of St Giles’ Cathedral; his wife Rhoda Clara Rainsford Hannay Lees (1843–87) had been born in India, where her father was a Captain in the EIC. After she died, Dr Lees sent for her sister Mary (1842–1900) to return from Calcutta and help look after his children. Others in this group of supporters with intense Indian connections include, on the military side, Colonel David Simpson Buist (1830–1908, Bengal Staff Corps); General Frederick Nepean Smith (1823–1911, Madras Army); and Major Charles Walsham Maynard (1829–1917, Royal Bengal Artillery). Several supporters had medical connections to India. Sir Alexander Christison (1828–1918, Surgeon-General, Bengal Army) was, ironically, one of Sir Robert Christison’s sons. Miss Elizabeth Maclean

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(1852–?), from Elgin, was living at the house of her late uncle, Hugh Maclean (1803–85, HEIC medical service). Mrs Agnes Campbell Bow (1832–1907) was the widow of an IMS officer, John Campbell Bow (1825–1877). Better known is Hugh Francis Clark Cleghorn (1820–95), who was born in Madras, and trained as a doctor in Edinburgh. In 1855 he established the Madras Forest Department, but after retirement managed an estate in Fife and was frequently in Edinburgh (Noltie 2016).9 Mrs Agnes Lowe (1841–1910), whose daughter Jessie was born in Travancore, was the wife of Dr John Lowe (1835–92). The second group, those with indirect links to India, includes the Rev. Alexander Hamilton Charteris (1835–1908), who was Professor of Biblical Criticism at the University of Edinburgh and Moderator of the Church of Scotland in 1892. His biographer states that Charteris heard Reverend Alexander Duff preach when he was six years old, and thereafter wanted to be a missionary in India, but his health did not allow this. Throughout the rest of his life he had contacts in India and wrote to them regularly. He was the moving force behind the Church of Scotland’s Young Men’s Guild, and then its Women’s Guild in 1887. In combination with the Scottish Universities’ Mission Association, in 1889 the Guilds sent John Anderson Graham to the Kalimpong Mission, where the hospital was named after Charteris in 1894 (Gordon 1912: 337–41).10 John Philips Coldstream (1842–1909) was the son of the founder of the EMMS, whose brother William was an ICS officer in the 1870s and 1880s. Colonel (Dr) George Dods (1837–1909), was previously Inspector-General of Hospitals in Hong Kong.11 William Duguid Geddes (1828–1900), was the Principal of the University of Aberdeen: his brother James Cruickshank Geddes (1841–80) died in Muzaffarpur. Jessie Macadam, daughter of Stevenson Macadam (1829–1901) and sister of Professor William Ivison Macadam (1856–1902), married Alexander William Gordon Price (1859–1924), who was born in Peshawar. Sir Andrew Douglas Maclagan (1812–1900) was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence: his brothers William Dalrymple and James McGrigor Maclagan served in India, James in the IMS. Sir Andrew’s son Robert Craig Maclagan (1839–1919), a doctor turned manufacturer, was also a signatory. 9 Stravithie had been bought by his uncle with money from India; see Chapter 5 and Cleghorn’s entry in the Annexure) 10 See also http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/serve/the_guild/about_us/history 11 George Dods and Alexander Christison were both members of the committee of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1888–1889. Dods was also one of the Edinburgh directors of the A-IES.

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Thus over half the supporters can be identified as having India connections, missionary links, or both. In addition, of the 74 supporters, five (and possibly a sixth) can be identified as office-bearers in the A-IES. In the circumstances, it is plausible to assume that they were part of a network in which these characteristics were important elements in their willingness to add their names (and money) to the SAMEW. It remains to be discovered if they came together in other ways, for example in the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, or as members of one of the Edinburgh clubs, or as Freemasons. I cannot say whether the financial support was also disproportionately from the India-returned. John Ritchie Findlay of Aberlour, the very wealthy philanthropist and proprietor of The Scotsman, took the Chair at the first general meeting, and may have been the main financial supporter. As far as I can discover, he had no strong India connection, but he was known as a proponent of women’s medical education.

Conclusion: SAMEW and an India-returned network Was the support of SAMEW members, and especially those with India connections, mainly in order to support the Empire by training women doctors for work in India, as Antoinette Burton and Maneesha Lal suggest (Burton 1996; Lal 1994)? Or were their concerns more a result of their experiences in India, where they had been supporters of female education, and they now applied the same principles ‘at home’? Who were their students, and where did they go on to work? By 1890, Elsie Inglis had gone to Glasgow, and thence to Dublin, London and Paris, to finish her medical education, but she studied briefly in the College that her father took a leading role in establishing. After she returned to Edinburgh in 1893 Dr Inglis was prominent in the activities of the College, and a member of its Council. She was a leading suffragist and used the suffragist network to raise funds and attract doctors to work in the Scottish women’s hospitals that she set up and ran as part of the war effort. The British Army snubbed her, so she is best known for the work she did for the French and Serbian armies (Fig. 20). The successor to one of the hospitals she established in Edinburgh was named ‘The Elsie Inglis Maternity Hospital’ and retained that name until the 1980s. None of her biographers as much as hint that she considered working in India, either as a missionary or as part of the nascent Women’s Medical Service – which was led from 1916–24 by her class-fellow Margaret Ida Balfour (1866–1945), who, like Elsie, started her training in the School and finished it at the College.

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Were they seriously concerned about the problems faced by women needing medical assistance in India, or did they just include reference to this ‘hope’ because it would appeal to their readers and potential supporters? Both processes were at work, and in both the School and the College. The close connections of the ‘India-returned’ to the College did not draw all the ‘India-related’ activities away from the School. For both School and College, India remained important as a career option for their graduates, as well as a magnet for women born in India who wanted to train as doctors. As far as the College was concerned, some of its supporters did push ‘India-related’ activities in their direction. In 1889 there was a call for more women medical missionaries, and John Lowe’s EMMS offered a training scheme in 1890. This was a dramatic change from 1873, when Dr Lowe first welcomed an approach from Sophia Jex-Blake to provide clinical training to women, only to be over-ruled by his committee, which did not want to involve itself in anything so complicated (Jex-Blake 1886: 131–32). One of the first women to take up the offer of EMMS support, Isabella Curr, received a scholarship of £90, provided (anonymously) by Jane Anderson, but Dr Lowe was upset to discover that Isabella was attending the School (Somerville, n.d). After that the EMMS ‘insisted that any student wishing to have a bursary from them must study at the Chambers Street College [i.e. the College] which charged lower fees’ (Somerville 2005: 265). In the 1890s the EMMS supported 33 medical missionaries. Of these, nine were women, six trained in Edinburgh, two in Aberdeen and one in Glasgow: all nine went to India. One of these women (Eleanor Montgomery) was trained in the College.12 According to the records held by SAMEW in 1907, of the 57 women who had graduated from the College during the years 1891–1899, 13 were then working in India, five as medical missionaries; a further five had previously been resident in India, all as medical missionaries. But Dr Jex-Blake also took a special interest in her ‘Hindu’ students: The first of these, Annie Jagannadham, was a young woman of such fine and finished character that her early death, soon after her return to her native land, was a matter for infinite regret, but scarcely for surprise. When she qualified as a doctor, S. J.-B. wrote to the Spectator to point out the desirability of sending back Hindu women educated in England 12 The other five seem to have been nurses, or not to have completed medical education,

since they appear neither in the Medical Register nor the Medical Directory.

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to minister to their own countrywomen; and her letter called forth a gratifying response from Mr. James Cropper of Ellergreen … offering to found a scholarship for Hindu women at her school. This was accordingly done, and a series of Hindu students was the result (Todd 1918: 504).13

The Cropper scholarship was first awarded to Rose Govindurajulu (Somerville 2005), and when Rukhmabai came to Edinburgh for her Final Professional Examination, she stayed with Dr Jex-Blake (Todd 1918: 504). The two sides were unable to find common ground. Dr Jex-Blake never forgave Dr Inglis and attempted to block any co-operation between the School and the College, or to have anything to do with Dr Inglis. Although the SAMEW committee was more influential than that of the School it was thwarted by Dr Jex-Blake in its efforts to use the Leith Hospital for teaching. Instead, it had to raise a substantial sum (£700) and endow two wards at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in order to provide clinical experience for its students – yet it was still able to charge lower fees. By 1898 the competition was over: the School closed. Dr Jex-Blake had already retired to England. Although she had argued that the need for a separate medical school for women had passed, since the University of Edinburgh now allowed mixed-sex classes, SAMEW continued until 1908, when 139 women were enrolled at their premises in Minto House. When the University of Edinburgh took over the building for its mathematics department the EMCW was forced to look for other premises: without financial support from the University – whose Principal was now William Turner, no friend of women’s medical education – they had to close the separate classes they had been running but continued to provide social space for female medical students at a hall of residence. The First World War changed the nature of medical education in Edinburgh and India, as well as that of missionary activity by Scots in India. Nevertheless, the Edinburgh Medical School continued to develop links with Indian medical colleges, and the influence of India in Edinburgh’s missionary circles remains strong. What has yet to be fully fleshed out is whether, and if so how, the influence of the ‘India-returned’ can be discerned in other aspects of Edinburgh’s life, in the latter part of the long 19th century. 13 In fact, both Annie and Rose were daughters of Christian converts. A report on Annie Jagannadham’s last days stressed how much time was spent praying with her sister (Goffin 1894); Rose Govindarajulu worked for the Mysore Medical Service from 1887–1920 and was associated with the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society activity in Bangalore.

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References Anon. 1890a. ‘Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women.’ The Scotsman Edinburgh, 18 January. . 1890b. ‘Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women.’ The Scotsman Edinburgh, 22 January. Balfour, Frances. 1918. Dr Elsie Inglis. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Barfoot, Michael. 1992. ‘“To do violence to the best feelings of their nature”: The controversy over the clinical teaching of women at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1869–74.’ Typescript. Centre for Research Collections, University Library. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. Blake, Catriona. 1990. The Charge of the Parasols: Women’s Entry to the Medical Profession. London: Women’s Press. Breitenbach, Esther. 2005. ‘National Identity: Scottish Christian Imperialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.’ PhD thesis, History Department, University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh. Burke, Bernard. 1879. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. London: Harrison. Burton, Antoinette. 1996. ‘Contesting the Zenana: The Mission to Make “Lady Doctors for India”, 1874–1885.’ Journal of British Studies 35(3): 368–97. . 1998. At the Heart of the Empire: Indians and the Colonial Encounter in Late-Victorian Britain. Berkeley: University of California Press. Comrie, John Dixon. 1932. History of Scottish Medicine, Vol. II. London: Balliere, Tindall & Cox, for the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Dingwall, Helen M. 2010. ‘The Triple Qualification examination of the Scottish medical and surgical colleges, 1884–1993.’ Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 40: 269–76. Duff, William A. 2010. ‘Scottish protestant-trained medical missionaries in the nineteenth century and the rise of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society.’ MLitt (R) thesis, Medical History Department, University of Glasgow: Glasgow. Filor, Ellen. 2017. ‘Death or a Pension: Scottish Fortunes at the End of the East India Company, c.1800–57.’ In The Scottish Experience in Asia, c.1700 to the Present: Settlers and Sojourners. Thomas M. Devine & Angela McCarthy (eds). London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 119–42. Fitzgerald, Rosemary. 1996. ‘A “Peculiar and Exceptional Measure”: The Call for Women Medical Missionaries for India in the Later Nineteenth Century.’ In Missionary Encounters: Sources and Issues. Robert Bickers & Rosemary Seton (eds). London: Routledge. pp. 174–96. Goffin, Herbert James. 1894. ‘The Late Dr Annie Wardlaw Jagannadham.’ London Missionary Society Chronicle 22: 222–23. Gordon, Arthur. 1912. The Life of Archibald Hamilton Charteris D.D., LL.D. London, New York & Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton.

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Grundmann, Christopher H. 1999. ‘Lowe, John.’ In Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Gerald H. Anderson (ed.). New Haven, CT: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 412. Harrison, Mark. 1994. Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian Preventive Medicine 1859–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Heggie, Vanessa. 2015. ‘Women Doctors and Lady Nurses: Class, Education, and the Professional Victorian Woman.’ Bulletin of the History of Medicine 89(2): 267–92. Jeffery, Roger. 1988. The Politics of Health in India. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press. Jex-Blake, Sophia. 1886. Medical Women: A thesis and A history. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier. . 1887. ‘Medical women.’ The Nineteenth Century CXXV: 692–707. . 1888. Medical Women: A Ten Years’ Retrospect. Edinburgh: National Association for Promoting the Medical Education of Women. Jordan, Ellen. 1998. ‘The great principle of English fair-play: male champions, the English women’s movement and the admission of women to the pharmaceutical society in 1879.’ Women’s History Review 7(3): 381–410. Knox, William W.J. 2006. Lives of Scottish Women: Women and Scottish Society, 1800–1980. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Lal, Maneesha. 1994. ‘The Politics of Gender and Medicine in Colonial India: The Countess of Dufferin’s Fund, 1885–1888.’ Bulletin of the History of Medicine 68(1): 29–66. Lawrence, Christopher. 2005. Rockefeller Money, the Laboratory, and Medicine in Edinburgh, 1919–1930: New Science in an Old Country. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press. Lawrence, Margot. 1971. Shadow of Swords: A Biography of Elsie Inglis. London: Michael Joseph. Leneman, Leah. 1994. In the Service of Life: The Story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. Edinburgh: Mercat Press. Lincoln, C.S. 1990. ‘Medical Women: Sophia Jex-Blake and Elsie Inglis.’ Edinburgh Historical Magazine 3. Lowe, John. 1886. Medical Missions: Their Place and Power. Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. MacKenzie, John M. 1993. ‘Essay and reflection: on Scotland and the Empire.’ The International History Review 15(4): 714–39. . 1998. ‘Empire and National Identities: The Case of Scotland.’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 8: 215–32. MacLeod, James Lachlan. 2004. ‘Inglis, John (1762–1834).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/14402. Accessed 5 January 2019. McGilvary, George. 2012. ‘Return of the Scottish Nabob, 1725–1833.’ In Back to Caledonia: Scottish Homecomings from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Mario Varricchio (ed.). Edinburgh: John Donald. pp. 90–108.

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McLaren, Eva Shaw. 1920. Elsie Inglis, the Woman with the Torch. New York: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge & The Macmillan Company. Mellor, George Radcliffe. 1951. British Imperial Trusteeship, 1783–1850. London: Faber & Faber. Mills, Robin J.W. 2017. ‘The “historical question” at the end of the Scottish Enlightenment: Dugald Stewart on the natural origin of religion, universal consent, and religious diversity.’ Intellectual History Review, DOI: 10.1080/17496977.2017.1367557, published on-line 9 November 2017. Nechtman, Tillman W. 2010. Nabobs: Empire and Identity in Eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Noltie, Henry. 2016. Indian Forester, Scottish Laird: The Botanical Lives of Hugh Cleghorn of Stravithie. Edinburgh: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Oddie, Geoffrey A. 1974. ‘India and Missionary Motives, c. 1850–1900.’ Journal of Ecclesiastical History 25: 61–72. Powell, Avril Ann. 2004. ‘Muir, Sir William (1819–1905).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35144. Accessed 5 January 2019. Roberts, Shirley. 1993. Sophia Jex-Blake: A Woman Pioneer in Nineteenth-Century Medical Reform. London: Routledge. Ross, Andrew C. 1972. ‘Scottish Missionary Concern 1874–1914: A Golden Era?’ The Scottish Historical Review 51(151): 52–72. Ross, Kenneth R. 2010. ‘Edinburgh 1910: Scottish Roots and Contemporary Challenges.’ Theology in Scotland 17(1): 5–21. Somerville, Joan M. 2005. ‘Dr Sophia Jex-Blake and the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, 1886–1898.’ Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 35: 261–67. . n.d. ‘Life of Anne Jane Anderson.’ Manuscript, cited with permission of the Somerville family; © the Somerville family, Edinburgh. Thomson, Elaine. 1998. ‘Women in Medicine: The Edinburgh Hospital for Women and Children and the Hospice (Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital), c. 1869–1930.’ PhD thesis, Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh. Todd, Margaret. 1918. The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake. London: Kessinger Publishing. Walls, Andrew F. 1982. “‘The Heavy Artillery of the Missionary Army”: The Domestic Importance of the Nineteenth-Century Medical Missionary.’ Studies in Church History 19: 287–97.

10 Afterword An Indian in Edinburgh Bashabi Fraser

When I left London I wrote of English summers Of bluebells and blackbirds And dreamt of the snow I came back to Scotland And longed for the Monsoons The flocks flying homewards In the deep sunset glow.1

MEdinburgh. I had accompanied my geographer parents to London

Y ENCOUNTER WITH SCOTLAND BEGAN LONG BEFORE I CAME TO LIVE IN

in the 1960s where my father was a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics (LSE) and my mother had an LSE scholarship. It was at LSE that my parents met the geographer, Arthur Geddes, the son of the conservation architect and town planner, Patrick Geddes. Patrick Geddes had been a friend of Rabindranath Tagore when he was in India between 1915 and 1923, invited by the latter to draw up plans for his International University, Visva-Bharati at Shantiniketan, which Geddes did.2 Arthur Geddes taught at Rabindranath’s institution for two years and was very close to the poet, whom he called ‘Gurudev’.3 Arthur Geddes spoke to my parents in perfect Bengali. Later on, when I did my Master’s degree in English at Jadavpur University in Calcutta (now Kolkata), my professor 1 Bashabi Fraser. 2004. ‘Between My Two Worlds.’ In Tartan & Turban. Edinburgh: Luath Press. p. 91. 2 See Bashabi Fraser. 2005. A Meeting of Two Minds: The Geddes-Tagore Letters. Edinburgh: Word Power Books. 3 Literally, a divine teacher, but in practice, it means a great teacher. See Arthur Geddes’ letters to Rabindranath Tagore in Fraser, ibid. pp. 164 &166.

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and head of department was another Scot, Professor Kitty Scoular Datta. Arthur Geddes taught at Edinburgh University while Kitty Datta had graduated with Honours in English from the same University. The British Council took responsibility for all international students, and the officer who was in charge of the scholars from India was Julian Dakin. Julian bought books for me which we read together. I started writing poetry for Julian and won my first poetry prize, the Commonwealth Scholar Prize when I was seven. Later Julian came to India with his wife, Carmen, to be director of the Institute of English in Calcutta and spent time with my parents at the North Bengal University campus in the foothills of the Himalayas in Darjeeling district, where my parents were teaching after they returned from London. Julian joined the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh after he returned from India. Julian died suddenly while he was cycling through the Meadows to the University. Many years later, when I came to do part of my PhD programme at Julian’s department, I stayed with his widow, Carmen who introduced me to her friend, Jeannie Geddes, the wife of Arthur Geddes and their son, Colin. So, the India-Edinburgh links were forged once again. I met my husband, Neil Fraser, a Scot, during my PhD programme, through a friend, as Neil was his PhD supervisor in Social Policy at Edinburgh University. After my PhD programme, I returned to India and married Neil in Calcutta on one of his subsequent visits, returned to Edinburgh and started as a Post-doctoral Fellow in my old Department at the University of Edinburgh. And now, for over two decades, I have been an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, staying in touch with the Geddes family and with my mentor, Kitty Datta who has retired to Oxford. The University of Edinburgh has proved a centrifugal force of the India-Edinburgh skein that has been woven through my various encounters with Scots who have been in India. I belong to the Indian diaspora, yet the story of Partition and the displacement it caused for 14 to 18 million people after the borders were announced on 17 August 1947, needs to be taken into account in any narrative or analysis of the Indian diaspora. William Safran, who laid the foundations for the theory on diaspora, speaks of six criteria which mark diasporic communities, (i) they or their ancestors have been dispersed from a ‘centre’ (their homeland) to a foreign nation, the ‘periphery; (ii) ‘they retain a collective memory, vision, or myth about their original homeland’; (iii) they remain the other, as the host community never fully accepts them; (iv) their desire to return to their homeland remains, which in their memory takes on mythical proportions; (v) collectively they share a loyalty

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to the homeland and have a conscious sense of responsibility towards it and (vi) they persevere in retaining links to the homeland.4 For migrants from the sub-continent, the identity of ‘the homeland’ is not a fixed one as Partition has problematised the reality. Many were forced to move from the land of their ancestors as a result of the violence that erupted when the border was declared, moving from what became East and West Pakistan, to India and vice versa. Some then came to the UK. Others came directly to England, before a number moved to Scotland. The military pogrom in East Pakistan in 1970 led to the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, causing another spate of enforced migration of Urdu- and Hindi-speaking citizens from across India’s eastern border and subsequently of the Hindu population in Bangladesh. A new wave of migration brought families from the land watered by the Padma to England and once again, some moved to Scotland. The question of a collective memory thus becomes fractured as communities and families have to adopt and adapt to a ‘new’ country and loyalties to a ‘nation’ shift, leading to a narrative shift in the history of the Indian diaspora. Since many of the displaced have moved more than once, the multiple ‘routes’5 they have taken leave them exhausted or unwilling to move again, and thus the urgency of establishing ‘roots’6 in the periphery stops them from nurturing a desire to return to the ‘homeland’, which now carries the burden of history and is either inaccessible or an unfamiliar land. This has led to the segmentation of the Indian community in the UK. Today, the rising stress on the primacy of religion has led to the regrouping of communities from the sub-continent along religious allegiances. My parents’ families came from east Bengal,7 migrants across the eastern border. For me as a post-midnight child, the stories of the land of the Padma remain indelible in my mind as the ‘good life’, the one that cannot be retrieved or returned to, against the harsh reality of the postPartition refugee’s struggle in West Bengal. I have thus felt an affinity with all Bengalis from both sides of the border in Scotland. While our generation was growing up in India, the language-based categorisation of Indians as Punjabis, Tamils, Marathis, Gujaratis, Oriyas, 4 William Safran. 1991. ‘Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return.’

Diaspora 1 (1) Spring: 84. 5 See Paul Gilroy. 1993 [2002]. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London & New York: Verso. 6 Ibid. 7 Except for 1905–11, Bengal was one province before Partition, so there was no official ‘east’ Bengal, hence the lower case. It is only in post-Partition narratives that the reference to east Bengal, the eastern part of Bengal that became East Pakistan, becomes relevant.

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Bengalis, etc., was discouraged as the ideal of a pan-Indian identity took hold in a new nationalism and films from Bombay spread a web across India, weaving the nation into a singular consciousness. India’s big cities are attractive to economic migrants from different parts of India in an internal migration, giving them a pan-Indian character. These are the cities from which many Indian migrants to Britain come today. The multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious social fabric that comprises India has been part of our unquestioning acceptance of its diversity. This is the reality that has shaped my own identity as I associate with Indians from across the nation here in Scotland as we share English as a common language or communicate in Bengali, Hindi and Urdu, the last language allowing a sense of continuity with British Pakistanis in spite of a physical border which is challenged by a linguistic bond. However, I have not come to Scotland as an economic or political migrant, but on account of marriage, a ‘marital migrant’, a category that has been overlooked by most theorists. Russell and Goertzen8 interpret ‘roots’ as a ‘fixity’, with an attachment to a place, nurturing a sense of belonging, while ‘routes’ imply ‘movement’, involving displacement, travel and migration. In my case, my ‘roots’ are imbued with my parents’ and grandparents’ memories of east Bengal, my own post-midnight experience of years spent in India, while my routes entail multiple journeys as a child, as a student and finally as wife to Britain. My marital migrant status involved my consent and agency, where I exercised my choice. Such an entry into the host-land meant that I entered the host community through my husband’s social circle and then supplemented that through my own contacts in my workplace and the community, which has encompassed both the mainstream and migrant communities, from the sub-continent and elsewhere. When I came as a PhD student to Edinburgh, I would often be cornered at parties and receptions and intercepted on the street and asked the inevitable question, ‘Where are you from?’ My answer, ‘India’ was an expected one and a cue for my questioners to share family histories of a father in the Indian army or navy, a grandmother in school in Ooty, a missionary aunt in Madras, an uncle as a ship’s surgeon, travelling to India or a cousin as a tea planter in Assam. Some told me how they had travelled in the late 1960s and 1970s across Europe and through West Asia, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, their destination being India, 8 Ian Russell and Chris Goertzen. 2012. Routes and Roots. Aberdeen: The Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen. p. 1.

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the land that beckoned and where their transcontinental journey ended. That romantic, adventurous journey to India has been made impossible now because of the conflict zones that have erupted on that route. Living in Scotland now, I have been struck by the number of people who have been only too happy to tell me that they, a parent or grandparent, uncle or aunt of theirs was born in India, lived and/or worked there, was married or buried there or how generations in their family have had links with India. One can say there is a fragment of India in every Scot, whether through a relative – close or distant – or through artefacts brought from India: a Kashmiri shawl, a decorated wooden elephant, a temple sculpture or a painting, or in designs that have permeated life in Scotland and have been incorporated in fabrics and objects made here.

Paisley Paisley on your palate And paisley on your looms Paisley round your shoulders And paisley in your rooms Paisley softening cushions Paisley brightening rugs Paisley lacing tables And ornamenting jugs Brought from the Kashmir valley This curious mango shape Chained out in complex colours And designs for your landscape.9 At Edinburgh University Library, Julian’s books are there for scholars in the Dakin Collection. And I have walked through Edinburgh’s streets and been struck by Patrick Geddes’s renovation of the tenements in the Lawnmarket, his imaginative playfulness in the architectural design of Ramsay Gardens, marvelled at the two dragons carved by Arthur Geddes and wondered what stories India Street holds of the many journeys Scots made to India and what they brought back to this city. Edinburgh echoes with the footsteps of the India-returned Scots, and through my research and writing, I have discovered the multiple links that have existed between 9

Bashabi Fraser. 2004. Tartan & Turban. Edinburgh: Luath Press. p. 77.

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India and Edinburgh. My encounter with Scots in India has continued in a continuous stream that never stops to amaze me with its refreshing surprises of more links in its diverse bends and currents. It made me research and write about the historic links between India and Scotland in a poetic conversation between two great rivers linked by the jute trade and other links in an epic poem called From the Ganga to the Tay.10 I wanted to gather these stories of Scots who had returned from India and interviewed around 40 people from diverse walks of life, of those who had served in the tea, cotton and jute industries, in the British Indian army, the Indian Civil Service (ICS), those who were doctors or missionaries and children of the Raj. It was then that I discovered the family heritage in diaries, letters, photos, family film footage that are held in private collections which told the story of lived lives in India, life stories of Scots in India which are waiting to be gathered, archived and interpreted as a national treasure of life stories. Many of these ‘old India hands’ whom I have met and interviewed have become good friends and through them, I have met and been surprised to encounter the number of ‘Indophiles’ who are and have been in leading positions in the galleries, museums, libraries and the Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, actively curating exhibitions and publicising their Indian collections. Earlier, in the 1980s, the links with India were shared in private conversations with me, as if these stories had been preserved in bottles that could be opened and poured out for someone who was truly interested in a part of a life spent in India. It was over a decade later, in 1997, when India celebrated 50 years of Independence and looked back on Partition, that some major events were included at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Book Festival where my first poetry collection, Life (Edinburgh: Diehard Publishers, 1997) was launched by the Indian High Commissioner. Through the past two decades, a new consciousness and acknowledgement of the Scotland-India connection has surfaced and been nurtured and celebrated. I have pondered on whether I am a migrant or an exile from India in Scotland. In ‘Reflections on Exile’ Edward Said says that exile is ‘the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home’.11 The fact that I had agency in the route I 10

Bashabi Fraser. 2009. From the Ganga to the Tay. Edinburgh: Luath Press. Edward Said. 2002. ‘Reflections on Exile.’ http://www.dobrasvisuais.com.br/wp-content/3 uploads/2011/11/Reflections-on-Exile. pdf. Accessed 4 April 2018. p. 137. 11

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followed to come and settle in Scotland means that my displacement has not been a ‘forced’ one. Unlike political migrants, I can travel to and maintain links with my ‘native place’, so there is no ‘rift’ between me and India. When confronted with the question of which is my ‘true home’, I have a dichotomised position. India is the land of my birth, while Scotland is my adopted nation. Both lay claim to my loyalty in different ways. Some years ago, there was a reception at the National Gallery of Scotland based on the ‘India’ theme. I was invited as I was covering various Indian events that year for The Scotsman. I assumed I would meet many Indians and Scots who had links with India. India was present in the clothes people wore with pride, items that had been treasured in the family for many years or brought back recently from India, but I was surprised to find that I was the only Indian at this reception. And people were quite surprised to see me there and one kindly lady asked me what I was doing in Edinburgh and when I would go back. When I told her that I was married to a Scotsman and introduced her to my husband, she said to me ‘you are lucky’. I smiled and said, ‘he is lucky too’. She graciously agreed. My Scotsman article appeared with a title the editor decided to give it with the reference to Jim David Morris’s poem on ‘The Only Good Indian is a Dead Injun’, where an old American allusion was used for a reference to a living and thriving sub-continent. And India has thrived in Edinburgh, a reality that initially existed like submerged cities on the ocean bed, but these have now surfaced like sparkling emblems as more and more people acknowledge, speak and write about their Indian connections and even heritage, travel to India to recall what they left behind, and a new generation follows from India in the footsteps of the old, especially in the IT sector and in bank and insurance companies, renewing and fostering an interest in India. Vijay Mishra has said, ‘All diasporas are unhappy, but every diaspora is unhappy in its own way. Diasporas refer to people who do not feel comfortable with their own non-hyphenated identities as indicated on their passport’.12 I cannot say I have been unhappy or uncomfortable with my non-hyphenated description in my British passport. In fact, my British passport has meant that I can go to Europe, America, Japan or Mauritius without having to plan weeks ahead for visas. In India, I have never felt like a foreigner on subsequent visits, as I have blended with the population as soon as I have stepped off a plane. And the fact that I speak my Indian 12 Vijay Mishra. 2006. Literature of the Diaspora: Theorizing the Diasporic Imaginary. New York: Routledge. p. 1.

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languages without a foreign accent, makes me quite ‘invisible’ in India. Recently, the introduction of the Overseas Citizen of India passport has given me a new confidence of what feels like a dual citizenship, as apart from the voting right, I share all other democratic rights with Indian citizens. I have not experienced the much feared ‘rift’ between me and my birthplace. And India lives in Scotland (and in the UK in general) in the interest amongst the mainstream population in Indian arts and literature. I have witnessed the interest a Scottish audience in Edinburgh has in Indian music and dance where Indian classical dances have been staged for packed audiences and Edinburgh has given a standing applause to Ravi Shankar at Usher Hall when he entered the stage on his last visit and have been struck by the ovation paid to his daughter, Anoushka on a subsequent visit.

Anoushka in the Usher Hall The Estonian conductor had been sedate And contemplative as he let the haunting Movements sweep over the converted. After the interval, she came in, disarming The gathering with a sweeping namaste Reminiscent of her father’s inclusive charm She took her place cross legged and elegant On the floor of a special platform – The vision of a modern Mirabai Her instrument, her father’s sitar Which became her ethereal companion As the conductor now danced to her Ragamala The concerto of strings and brass Tinkling with new rhythms that raced through their Fingers and vibrated, displacing the air The drummer’s sticks cascaded like a Himalayan Jhora, while the conductor was transported To the land where the Ganga flows. We heard the thunder before the lightning struck We heard a gathering wind before the storm broke We heard the first tingle of rain on still water

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We heard the droplets sprinkle and cohere We felt the clouds opening to send a benediction To a land parched and waiting for the rain It came pouring in a joyous composition The Monsoons that moved a Scottish throng to cheer.13 This interest in the Indian arts gave me the confidence as cultural secretary of the Bengali Association, East of Scotland, to choreograph and direct several classical and folk-dance performances in Edinburgh and stage some major dance dramas of Rabindranath Tagore to appreciative Scottish audiences in Edinburgh’s theatres, galleries and museums. On one occasion, a child, having seen Rabindranath’s dance drama, Shyama said, ‘Mum, can we come back tomorrow and see the princess again?’ We have a following in the younger generation and I have taught Kathak (North Indian classical dance) at three centres in Edinburgh to adults and children from the mainstream community and second-generation Indians and students from across the world. When work pressure made me leave dancing in more capable and professional hands, there was an assured clientele with a keen interest in Indian dance, which has now been electrified with the swing and glamour of ‘Bollywood’ dancing. Edinburgh has become a gourmet city through the years where cuisines from all over the world compete with each other and Indian restaurants from across the sub-continent remain popular with the local population. When the Staff Club at the University of Edinburgh closed down much to our dismay, a colleague at the University described Kalpna Restaurant on Clerk Street as ‘the University’s extended staff club’. Recently another colleague invited us to Khushi’s after a brilliant inaugural lecture to sample their ‘authentic’ Hyderabadi Biryani. It was a genuine taste of India at a restaurant that started in 1947 after the Partition, where I had eaten as a student and which remains a favourite with many loyal clients. In Edinburgh we have no problems replicating the dishes our mothers and grandmothers made in India, for the South Asian shops offer the range of spices, vegetables, fish and various ingredients that create mini Indias in our Scottish kitchens. Edinburgh, with its global reach and enterprise, has not left much room for nostalgia and longing. In Edinburgh as all over Britain, the borders created by Partition disappears. I buy my ingredients 13 Bashabi Fraser. 2015. Letters to My Mother and Other Mothers. Edinburgh: Luath Press.

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in shops owned by British Pakistanis, I eat in restaurants owned and served by British Bangladeshis and at Hindu festivals celebrating Diwali and Holi the Festivals of Light and Colour, respectively, I have had food that is catered by Kebab Mahal, owned by a gentle and generous Mr Khan whose family comes from Pakistan. Schools in Edinburgh today allow a space for children to describe their religious festivals, so knowledge about Eid and Diwali are shared alongside Hanukkah and Easter. Some years ago, the Shadow Puppet Lab in Edinburgh with the Scottish Arts Council commissioned me to write a play which would tell the story of the Indian epic, The Ramayana, a story of the victory of good over evil that is celebrated at Diwali. The idea was that I should write a play that Scottish school children could understand, relate to and enact, which I did, and which was accepted.14 The Film House has always been (like the Cameo) a cinema which shows films with sub-titles. This is where I have curated several Indian film festivals. And now even the multiplexes show films from Mumbai, the biggest film industry in the world, where I can watch some of the latest releases from India. Once again, I encounter a mixed audience at these screenings, both from the mainstream community and from across the sub-continent. Since my first event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF), I have had several author events, including my book on the Indian Partition (Bengal Partition Stories: An Unclosed Chapter, London Anthem Press, 2006, 2008) being launched with an interview in 2007 to mark 60 years of Indian Independence and Partition, where five authors were invited from both sides of the Bengal border, thus breaking the ‘silence’ round the eastern border. The questions and comments from a Scottish audience at these events have been probing and thoughtful, illustrating a thriving knowledge of and continuing interest in India. And in 2017, Alan Riach and I launched our co-edited book, Thali Katori: An Anthology of Scottish and South Asian Poetry (Edinburgh, Luath Press, 2017) at the EIBF, bringing together voices from here and there, the elsewhere and somewhere, going back to Walter Scott, including the East India ‘Company Poets’ and Scottish poets who travelled to India like Violet Jacob, or who were born in India, like Tessa Ransford, or studied in India like Valerie Gillies, and coming up to the present with second and third generation poets from the sub-continent, who are here because Scots were once there, and who are now, as the title of a poem by Tariq Latif asserts, ‘Here to 14 However, I wrote both a stage play and a screen play, which will be published in 2019.

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Stay’.15 The Scotsman had a warm and appreciative article on the EIBF event and the anthology the next day, celebrating the Indo-Scottish Mohona, the confluence. The earlier unacknowledged legislators of India in Edinburgh have now been replaced by those who acknowledge their Indian connection with pride and even with nostalgia. This has been made possible with various India lovers curating exhibitions at Edinburgh’s galleries, museums and libraries, and the organisation of talks and lectures on Indian themes, with an assured audience who come to listen and participate. From 15 August 2017, Edinburgh celebrated, with the rest of Britain, the UK India Year of Culture, to mark 70 years of Indian Independence and Partition and a long historic association that has continued over these past seven decades between our two countries. I have participated in a panel discussion at the National Gallery of Scotland on ‘Indians in Britain: At the Heart of the Nation’, given a keynote lecture on ‘Scottish – South Asian Identity Within Poetry’ at the Scottish Parliament and been in conversation with Alan Riach at a public talk at the National Library of Scotland on ‘Scotland and India’. One major institution, the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, led by internationally renowned India scholars, has been a leading light for not only igniting but also keeping the India flame alight in Edinburgh. This is where I have found a refuge and have thus been able to pursue my Scotland-India research projects. My most recent publications include Scottish Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Continuum of Ideas (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2018), bringing together a long-shared history of what began as an encounter in the colonial space but has continued in a transnational exchange. My first poetry collection, Life was published by an Edinburgh publisher (Diehard) and since then, most of my poetry books have been published by my Edinburgh publisher, Luath Press, so it is in Britain (in London) that I started writing and it is in Edinburgh where I have been able to find my author’s ‘voice’. My first book has an Indian edition brought out by Writers Workshop, Kolkata, and its title reflects my debt to Edinburgh and India: With Best Wishes from Edinburgh (2001), and I am grateful that many of my books published in the UK are read, studied and taught in India. In my most recent collection, The Homing Bird (2017) the title poem is in two parts: Part I: Kolkata and Part II: Edinburgh. In the first 15 Tariq Latif. 2000. ‘Here to Stay.’ In Alec Finlay and Kevin MacNeil (eds). Wish I Was Here. Edinburgh: Canongate. pp. 36–37.

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part I have two refrains: ‘Kolkata do you remember me?’ ‘Kolkata do you miss me?’ In the second part I ask: ‘Edinburgh do you accept me?’ My arrival has been nondescript. I have come back to you Edinburgh, without fanfare Of welcome. Your trees were listless And the Meadows slept, while your wind Unfolded my sari, which I put away To enter your storyline in colours you accept – But have you accepted me, Edinburgh? … But will you let me blend in Edinburgh With the flowing pen power you hold in your folds? Can the Stanzas of your many steps Divide to let my lines interstice your spaces Edinburgh?16 This is a question for Scotland to answer. Mishra has said, people of diasporic communities, find themselves ‘precariously lodged within an episteme of real or imagined displacements, self-imposed sense of exile’.17 I cannot deny that I have had to struggle to attain my professional position, but this has not been because of resistance to an ‘outsider’ or the perception of me as the ‘other’. It has been because I had come when I was neither young nor well known, so I had to begin again to reach where I wanted to be. But my situation was not ‘precarious’ because of my privileged marital status and opening offered by the University of Edinburgh. I have chosen exile but have not felt alienated or uprooted. In fact, for first generation migrants who choose to migrate for romantic reasons, it is a rainbow route, full of promise, but there is also a certain amount of uncertainty about professional fulfilment, which can be taken in its stride, dealt with or moaned over. I made the second choice. Today I describe myself as a transnational writer and academic, born in India and living and writing in Scotland, not as an ‘Indo-Scot’, but an Indian with a British passport, with my feet firmly planted in Scotland. I feel I can traverse continents with a mixture of pain and ease, savouring the transcultural richness that I learnt to appreciate in India and have come to expect in Scotland and wherever I travel, I carry both my nations in my portmanteau mind with me. 16 17

Bashabi Fraser. 2017. The Homing Bird. Halwill, Devonshire UK: Indigo Dreams. Mishra, 2006. Literature of the Diaspora. p. 1.

Appendix Some prominent Edinburgh families with Indian Connections

Ais to provide some more detail on their lives than is possible without FEW NAMES RECUR IN SEVERAL CHAPTERS, AND THE PURPOSE OF THIS APPENDIX

undue repetition in the chapters. 1. William Burney Bannerman (1858–1924) and Helen Brodie Cowan Bannerman (1862–1946) Helen Brodie Cowan Watson was born at 35 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, the eldest daughter of Robert Boog Watson (1823–1910), minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and his wife Janet (1831–1912). After 10 years spent in Madeira, where her father had been Minister at the Scottish church, the family returned to Edinburgh. She was educated at Miss Oliphant’s school, sat external examinations and was made an LLA (lady literate in arts) by St Andrews University in 1887. In 1889 she married William Burney Bannerman (Edinburgh Academy [EA] 1869–76), the third son of James Bannerman (1807–68) and (David) Anne Douglas (1819–79). He was born at 7 Clarendon Crescent; his father was Professor of Theology at the Free Church College. William studied medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating MB ChB in 1881. He joined the Indian Medical Service in 1883, and rose steadily through the ranks, despite several bouts of illness. He sent skulls to William Turner. William and Helen lived in India until he retired as a major-general in 1918. They had four children: Janet Cowan Watson (1893–1976), Davie Anne Douglas (1896–1976), James Patrick (1900–155; EA 1908–?) and Robert Boog Watson (1902–88; EA 1910–?). Helen Bannerman is best known for her book, The Story of Little Black Sambo, written to amuse her two daughters during a journey from Kodaikanal to Madras. Published first in England in 1899 and then in the United States the following year, it tells the story of a little boy who is forced to surrender his clothing and his umbrella to four tigers so as to avoid being eaten by them. However, it is Little Black Sambo who has the

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last laugh when the tigers begin fighting among themselves and ultimately chase each other around a tree until they are transformed into a pool of ghee. Helen illustrated the book herself in watercolour and bound it into a small volume, with a picture facing every page. A friend took it to London and sold the copyright to a publisher for £5. The book became a runaway bestseller in the UK and in the USA, where, in later years, many of the illustrators set their pictures in the deep south of the USA. Along with the name ‘Sambo’, this associated the book with the American experience of slavery and sowed the seeds for current hatred of the book by many black Americans. William and Helen retired to Edinburgh in 1918; he died there in 1924 and was buried in Grange cemetery. She suffered a stroke in 1939, and died at 11 Strathearn Place, Edinburgh; she was cremated. Other family connections with India include William’s sister Cecilia (1848–1923), who married John Crommelin Brown (1849–91, EA 1859–66), son of an IMS officer. John passed seventh in the ICS exams in 1869 and worked in Delhi as a Sessions Judge. He was a stalwart of the Anglo-Indian Evangelisation Society (A-IES); Cecilia was treasurer of the Ladies Union of the Edinburgh Branch of the A-IES from 1898–1912. Sources: Elizabeth Hay. 2004. ‘Bannerman [née Watson], Helen Brodie Cowan (1862–1946)’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/51201. Accessed 2 November 2018; Dashini Jeyathurai. 2012. ‘The complicated racial politics of Little Black Sambo.’ https://www.saada.org/tides/article/little-black-sambo. Accessed 2 November 2018. 2. Alexander Christison (1828–1918) The son of Sir Robert Christison, professor of medical jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh, Alexander was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh University, and gradated M.D. in 1850, winning the gold medal for a thesis on cannabis indica. In the following year he became assistant surgeon in the Honourable East India Company’s Service and served with the 4th Sikh Infantry in the Burmese war, 1852–53; with the 1st Cavalry, Gwalior Contingent, in 1855–57, and with Meade’s Horse in 1858. Afterwards, he had medical charge of the 18th Bengal Infantry. In 1858 he was appointed superintendent of vaccination and lecturer in surgery at the Agra medical school, and in 1865 became principal of the school and superintendent of the Agra Lunatic Asylum. While in Agra he sent materials to the Edinburgh Museum and the Royal Botanic Garden

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[see Chapter 5], and skulls to Turner at the University [see Chapter 6]. He was promoted surgeon-major in 1871, deputy surgeon-general in 1877, and in 1879 became surgeon-general for the North-West Provinces and Oudh. He retired in 1882, when he succeeded his father to the baronetcy, and settled in Edinburgh. During his long residence there he showed great interest in medical matters, particularly in the medical education of women, being, for many years, president of the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women [see Chapter 9]. He was also president of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Edinburgh from its foundation in 1887, and was always ready to give time, energy, and influence to the promotion of the campaign against tuberculosis in Scotland. Sir Alexander Christison was twice married; by his first wife he left one son and two daughters, and by his second, who survived him, two sons and three daughters. His youngest son, a lieutenant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was killed in action in December 1915. He was succeeded [to the baronetcy] by Major R. A. Christison, R.G.A. Militia (retired). He died at his residence in Edinburgh on 14 October 1918. Source: ‘Sir Alexander Christison, Bt. M.D.’ British Medical Journal October 19, 1918 p. 452; 3. Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn (1820–95). He was born in Madras on 9 August 1820, the son of Peter (otherwise Patrick) Cleghorn (1783–1863), registrar general and prothonotary of the Supreme Court, Madras, and his wife, Isabella, née Allan (1796–1824). After his mother died he was sent to Scotland to be brought up by his grandfather, Hugh Cleghorn, who had played a major role in the transfer of Ceylon from Dutch to British control and had used his rewards to purchase the 1000-acre estate of Stravithie (or Wakefield), near St Andrews. After schooling at the High School of Edinburgh, then Madras College in St Andrews, he spent two years at St Andrews University and four at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied medicine. In Edinburgh he was apprenticed to the surgeon James Syme, studied botany under Robert Graham, and was an early member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, graduating MD in 1841. He was nominated to the Madras Presidency in 1842 as an assistant surgeon. In 1856 he was appointed Madras Presidency’s first conservator of forests, largely to ensure continuing supplies of timber for the burgeoning railway industry and military construction projects. In 1860 he returned to Britain for a year,

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during which he married Marjory Isabella (Mabel) Cowan (1838–87), daughter of the papermaker and one-time MP for Edinburgh Charles Cowan. The marriage was happy but childless. Cleghorn returned with his wife to India, where he was summoned to Calcutta and worked mostly in Punjab. His father died in 1863 and Cleghorn inherited Stravithie. After a final stint in northern India, and then in Madras, Cleghorn left India for the last time in October 1867. He was based at Stravithie for the remaining 27 years of his life, throwing himself into activities typical of a Scottish laird with intellectual interests. Among the former were county activities such as his appointment as JP, improving his estate, and becoming a director of the St Andrews and Anstruther Railway. He was actively involved with the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (as examiner in forestry), the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and the Scottish Arboricultural Society. For the last of these he played a major role in the pioneering 1884 International Forestry Exhibition in Edinburgh. Involvement with the British Association for the Advancement of Science continued, and he served on committees that awarded grants to study the effects of trees on climate and on food fish. He continued to publish; most widely known were his articles on forestry and arboriculture for the influential ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. As a benefactor he donated £1000 to St Andrews for botanical teaching, and the same amount to Edinburgh towards the establishment of a pioneering university department of forestry. Cleghorn died at Stravithie on 16 May 1895, leaving a large moveable estate, very substantially more than that of any of his medical contemporaries. The money and the landed property went to his only nephew, Major (later Colonel Sir) Alexander Sprot. The sole exception was his substantial library of botanical and forestry books (including the Indian botanical drawings), which were divided by Sprot between Edinburgh University and the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, the latter being transferred to the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, in 1940. Cleghorn was an evangelical Christian, a strong supporter of the Free Church of Scotland and of missionary work in India (especially medical missions), and this too underpinned his philosophy of justification for man’s domination of nature. Sources: Henry J. Noltie. 2016. ‘Cleghorn, Hugh Francis Clarke (1820– 1895)’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ ref:odnb/101011. Accessed 2 November 2018.

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4. Sir William Muir’s family The Muir family, and especially Sir William Muir (1819–1905), played leading roles in Edinburgh life over more than 50 years (c.1853–1905). Sir William’s support to Edinburgh ICS students and to missions and women’s education has been mentioned in chapters 8 and 9. This note contextualises his family’s wider significance. Schooled in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, William and his three brothers all entered the East India Company’s civil service in the North-West Provinces after education in the Arts faculties of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities and specialised training at Haileybury College. The eldest brother, John, a leading Sanskrit scholar, retired to Edinburgh in 1853 where he continued to publish on Vedic history and comparative religion, and to patronize religious and educational causes. His particular interest was to improve Edinburgh’s university through reform of the Arts faculty (partly to improve its students’ chances in the ICS examinations), and through extra-mural lectures for the benefit of Edinburgh’s citizens. His Indian pension endowed a chair in Sanskrit, and a fellowship in philosophy and assisted many impecunious students. The youngest brother, William, an Arabist, had a much more prestigious career in India, culminating in the lieutenant-governorship of NWP and Oudh (1868–74), followed by a seat on the Viceroy’s Council (1874–76). On retirement he joined the Council of India in London, then accepted in 1885 the principalship of his alma mater, Edinburgh University. For the next 17 years, William was actively involved in university affairs and the civic and religious life of Edinburgh more generally, finally retiring in 1903, aged 83. William’s view of the university’s function was influenced in several respects by his Indian career. In the words of a colleague, he saw it as ‘an imperial institution, and a training ground for the service of the Empire’, with a two-way traffic of Scots graduates into the ICS, the medical services and missions, and Indian and colonial students into Edinburgh University. He enthused in 1896, sixty years after his own student days at Edinburgh, over ‘the crowds of Indian and Colonial students who swell our numbers’. An early chemistry student from India, Prafulla Chandra Ray, later a worldrenowned researcher, was commended by Muir for an undergraduate prize essay on the ‘Indian Mutiny’, even though he had expressed strong criticism of the Raj. Among other efforts for Indian students, William supported the Edinburgh Indian Association’s appeal for a ‘local habitation’ as a centre for Indian students. His daughters patronised an ‘Indian Fair’, another fund-raising initiative by this Association. Although his own daughters had not had higher education, William now welcomed ‘the admission to

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our classes of the gentler sex’, a stance influenced by his own efforts for women’s education while in India. His Indian experience also influenced his wish to transform Edinburgh into a residential university, like the ‘Muir Central College’ he had founded in Allahabad. Although unsuccessful, his wife, Lady (Bessie) Muir, was partly responsible for securing a hostel in George Square for the growing numbers of female medical students, named in her honour, ‘Muir Hall’. Both John and William Muir donated their personal collections of Sanskrit and Arabic manuscripts and books to the university library. Improved relations between ‘town and gown’ were also attributed to William. He chose to reside in the New Town rather than the university, a colleague commenting that, ‘Dean Park House …will long be remembered as the centre of a warm and gracious hospitality [helping] to cement cordial relations between the University and all sections of the community’. That his influence extended widely is suggested by a letter received after his Golden Wedding celebrations were publicised in the local press, from a (self-described) ‘representative of the working class’, in appreciation of the interest William had taken ‘in the welfare of our city’. Throughout, he maintained close contacts, with the India Office and the Royal Asiatic Society in London, with officials in India, and with Indians, including maharajas, nawabs, and intellectuals such as Keshab Chandra Sen, and Indian Christians. William was a member of the city’s Speculative Society and other learned and musical societies but, following a life-time’s concern with the history of the Arab world, with India’s Muslims, and Christian evangelism, his leisure-time was mainly occupied with related literary and religious interests. He continued to publish prolifically on Islam (including his histories of the Caliphate and further editions of his controversial, Life of Mahomet), and on Muslim-Christian relations. Ecumenically minded within Protestantism, he worshipped and lectured in Edinburgh at Episcopalian, Church of Scotland and Free Church services and meetings, and supported missionary bodies of all denominations. Among these were the Anglo-Indian Evangelical Society, and CMS missions in Agra and Allahabad where he had served. He was in demand to write prefaces to publications on missions and medicine by others. He supported Christian and missionary evangelism within the university, inviting revivalist speakers to the Oddfellows and McEwan Halls. William’s wife Elizabeth (1822–97), known as Bessie, was by nature selfeffacing, but played to perfection the role required in India of a Victorian memsahib and mother of fifteen. However, in their Edinburgh retirement

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she assumed more active roles, presiding hospitably over Dean Park House, supportive in particular to Indian students and to the first generation of female students, especially medical. Two personal concerns were zenana missions and her presidency of the Edinburgh Ladies’ Committee of the A-IES, such activities making her in the opinion of a journalist interviewer, one of ‘Edinburgh’s foremost women’. Source: Avril Powell. 2010. Scottish Orientalists and India: The Muir Brothers, Religion, Education and Empire. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer. 5. Elsie Inglis (1864–1917) Although now seen as a Scottish feminist icon, Elsie Inglis was born in India. Both her parents came from imperial families. Her father, John Forbes David Inglis (JFD) (1821–94) was born in London. His father, David, had been born on the family plantation in South Carolina, was educated in London, made his fortune in India and married the daughter of an East India merchant before retiring in 1812 to run a merchant house in London. JFD was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service in 1840. Elsie’s mother was Harriet Lowes Thompson (1827–85), born in India to a family entrenched in elite Anglo-Indian family connections. Nine of Elsie’s maternal uncles held offices in India, one ending his career as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. None of her father’s siblings worked or lived as adults in India, although three of them were born there. JFD established a close personal friendship in India with Sir William Muir (1819–1905) while they both worked in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh: they were briefly on the Viceroy’s Council together, and once both were back in Britain, they were both Vice-Presidents of the A-IES. JFD resigned from the ICS when he was overlooked for promotion in 1876 and left India, taking his wife and the three youngest children to Tasmania, where two of his elder sons were living. When he felt they were adequately settled, he took the rest of the family in 1878 to Edinburgh, where Elsie’s eldest sister Amy (1848–1929) had just set up home with her husband Robert Simson (1828–1905). Robert, his brother David, and his brother-in-law Charles Robertson were members of the ICS who retired to Edinburgh; all three (along with Amy) were active in the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women (SAMEW). Elsie went to school in Charlotte Square from 1878 to 1882 and then spent a year at a finishing school in Paris. She returned to Edinburgh and

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spent the next three years with her parents, in a quiet life with missionary meetings and church services providing key elements in their weekly round. Elsie had developed an ambition to become a doctor while still at school, but the opportunity to act on this came only in 1886 when Sophia Jex-Blake opened the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women. Following the dispute summarised in Chapter 9, Elsie’s father and his influential friends established SAMEW and founded Edinburgh’s Medical College for Women. Elsie completed her medical classes there, and then her clinical training in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, in Dublin and in London. She took the ‘Triple’ qualification of the Scottish Colleges, in 1892; in 1898, once the University of Edinburgh finally opened its medical Faculty to women students, she gained her medical and surgical degrees there. After completing her training, Elsie set up a practice in Edinburgh, working until 1914 in private practice and through dispensaries and hospitals she established for the poor. She was active in Liberal Party politics, supporting the 2nd Boer War in 1901–03 and becoming a leading suffragist, consistently arguing that only legal means should be used in the ‘common cause’ of women’s suffrage. In September 1914 she travelled from Edinburgh to London to discuss with other suffragists how to contribute to the war effort. She took her ideas to the War Office but was dismissed with the words ‘My good lady, go home and sit still.’ Instead, on her return to Edinburgh she organised what became the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. While the British Government was originally blind to the possibilities of women’s hospitals behind the front lines of battle, the Belgian, French and Serbian Governments saw things differently. The Scottish Women’s Hospitals raised over £200,000 (some £20 million in today’s money) to equip hospitals, and to send out teams of women doctors, nurses and administrators to provide care to the wounded and dying. Dr Inglis herself was honoured by the Serbian Government, and her name is still remembered there. But her health was weakened by the work involved, and after a marathon journey back from Russia with Serbian troops, she arrived in Newcastle on 25 November 1917, said goodbye to the Serbian officers, and died from cancer the next day, aged 53. Sources: Leah Leneman, 2004. ‘Inglis, Elsie Maud (1864–1917).’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/34101. Accessed 2 November 2018; Francis Balfour. 1919. Dr Elsie Inglis. New York: George H. Doran Co.

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6. Prominent Anglo-Indian Cadells The Cadell family are unusual in that their India connections came after they had been established as a powerful trading, manufacturing and landowning family in the East of Scotland: the India connections added money and status but were not the origins of their significance. William Cadell (1708–77) (first generation) was a merchant who also managed collieries near Tranent, East Lothian. In 1749, John Roebuck and Samuel Garbett partnered with him to establish a sulphuric acid works at Prestonpans; in 1759 the partners established a modern ironworks that became the Carron Company, near Falkirk, West Lothian. By 1762 the firm employed 615 men and was thus many times the size of any other industrial undertaking in the country. William had married Christeen Hog (b. 1703), daughter of John Hog, a shipmaster at Prestonpans in 1734. They had three sons and three daughters. Their eldest son, also William (1737–1819) (second generation), was born at Cockenzie, East Lothian. He ceased to be manager at the Carron works in 1769 and became a coal and ironmaster first at Cramond just outside Edinburgh, and then at Grange near Bo’ness, not far away in West Lothian. Grange was a small estate on the edge of the Forth over a good coal seam. The coal was mined profitably by the Cadells until nationalisation in 1947, and the estate continued to be owned by the family. In addition to those listed in Chapter 7, several of the descendants of William Cadell of Grange who did not attend the Edinburgh Academy had India connections. In the fourth generation, two married into the Simson family: in 1889 Henry Moubray Cadell (1860–1934) married Elinor Simson (1868–1943), born in Lahore, a daughter of David Simson (1827–91), of the Bengal Civil Service. Henry’s brother John Macfarlane Cadell (1862–1942), an IMS officer, married Mary Simson (1870–1955), daughter of James Simson (David’s brother). Henry’s first cousins Martha Georgina Isabella Cadell (1858–1905) and Grace Ross Cadell (1856–1918) were key participants in the dispute at the Edinburgh Medical School for Women (see Chapter 9); Martha worked for three years as a medical missionary in Sialkot, Punjab. William’s younger brother John Cadell (1740–1814) (second generation) was a mine owner at Tranent. In 1772 he married Marie Buchan (1753–1841); they had eight sons and four daughters. Among John’s children, in the third generation, William Cadell (1773–1840) was briefly employed at Cramond before becoming treasurer of the Bank of Scotland; Robert Cadell (1788–1849) was Sir Walter Scott’s publisher; Jane (1785–1806) married the East Indiaman captain Francis Simpson in 1804;

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and William Archibald Cadell (1775–1855), traveller, mathematician, and friend of Sir Joseph Banks, described Indian sculptures without, however, traveling there himself (see Chapter 3). Source: Patrick Cadell. 2004. ‘Cadell family (per. c. 1740–1934)’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/47486. Accessed 2 November 2018. 7. James Bentley Monro (1838–1920), and family Born in Edinburgh, educated at Edinburgh High School, Edinburgh University, and Berlin University, he passed the 1857 examination for the ICS (see Chapter 8). He was a magistrate and collector in Calcutta, later a district judge, and married Ruth Littlejohn (1843–1931). They had two sons and two daughters who lived to adulthood, all of whom were sent back to Edinburgh for some of their education. James Monro was appointed inspector-general of police in Bengal in 1878. While on leave in Britain in June 1884, he was appointed to take charge of the criminal investigation department (CID) of the Metropolitan Police but resigned in 1890, over the failure to improve pensions for his staff, and because his nominee for an assistant commissionership, formerly of the Bengal police, was overturned. Monro had been a member of the Church Missionary Society’s committee in India and after his resignation from the Metropolitan Police he left his London home, in Church Road, Norwood, and set out for Calcutta in November 1891, where he and his family began independent missionary work. He founded and himself financed the Ranaghat Medical Mission at a railway junction north of Calcutta, providing medical assistance on condition of attendance at religious services. Though a member of the Church of Scotland, he co-operated with the Church of England diocese. He returned to Britain in 1905 and lived for a while in Cheltenham. He died in Chiswick, Middlesex. His staff at Ranaghat included his daughter, Margaret Penelope (1870– 1952) who married Charles Neill (1868–1947), who had been a medical student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge with James Monro’s son Charles George (1868–1927). Both Charles Monro and Charles Neill worked for a while as doctors at Ranaghat. Another doctor who worked at Ranaghat was one of Margaret’s close friends at the Edinburgh Women’s Medical College, Mary Harriet Simson (1871–1963), daughter of Amy Inglis (Elsie Inglis’ sister) and Robert Simson. For a while, Mary’s sister Evelyn Anne Simson also worked as a nurse at Ranaghat. Mary Simson left

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Ranaghat in 1903 when she married another medical missionary, Malcolm McNicol; they eventually returned to Edinburgh and worked there in the 1920s and 1930s. Source: M. C. Curthoys. 2010. Monro, James (1838–1920). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/97913. Accessed 2 November 2018.

Index

Abbotsford 67 Aberdeen 11 University of 75, 164, 168, 172, 182, 185 Aberdour, Lord 29 Adam, John 62–63 Adam, Robert 89 Adams, Violet 127 Adogame, Afe 7 agency houses 30–33, 36, 40 Agra Bank 146 agricultural revolution in Scotland 46 Ainslie, Charles Alexander 146 Ainslie, Whitelaw 99 Aitchison, Sir Charles 173–75, 179, 190–91 Alban family 208 Alfonso de Albuquerque 76 Alivardi Khan, Nawab of Murshidabad 93 Allan, Alexander 87 Allan, W.G. 51 Allen, N.C. 84 Alwar, Maharaja of 87–88 Amherst, Lord 77 anatomy as a scientific subject 115 Ancestry.com 138, 141 Anderson, Arthur Edward 52 Anderson, David 28–29, 34 Anderson, James 28–29 Anderson, Jane 211

Anderson, John 89, 105, 120, 128, 201 Anderson, Robert D. 136–37 Anderson, Thomas 37 Anglo-Indians 202–03 Anstruther, Sir John 89 Archaeological Survey for Southern and Western India 50 Archer, Mildred 93 Argyll, Dukes of 25–28 Arnott, George Walker 103 art and artists 88–94 Indian 93–94 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 64 Asiatic Society 65 Asiatick Museum, Calcutta 61 Aurangzeb, Emperor 76, 78 Bailey, Eric 128, 130 Bailey, Frederick 116, 118, 126–28 Baillie, John 89 Baillie, William 38, 44 Baird, David 78–79 Baird, Robert 29 Balfour, Lady Frances 206–07 Balfour, George 207 Balfour, John Hutton 97, 105–09, 145 Balfour, Margaret 194, 210 Ballantyne, James Robert 155 Bangladesh 218 bank failures 34 banking in India 146

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Banks, Sir Joseph 100 Bannerman, William Burney 127, 228–29 Barron, Rose 85 Baxter, Charles 64 Bayley Balfour, Isaac 99, 109–10 Beck, James 29, 36, 44–45 Belhaven, Lord 41 Bell, A. Montgomerie 145 Bell, G.J.H. 124 Belzoni, Giovanni Battista 59 Bentinck, Lord William 77 Berrie, William 34 Berry, Andrew 99 Bickers, Robert 6 Bidie, George 128 bills of exchange 32–33, 37–38 Blackadder, Elizabeth 90–91 Blackie, John 165–66, 177–78 Blinkworth, Robert 101 Bomanji, Sir Dhunjibhoy 157 Bonaparte, Napoleon 59 Borland, Christine 129 botanical linkages 97–98, 104 Botanical Society of Edinburgh 107 Botanical Treasures 96–108, 111, 193 Bourne, Samuel 74, 76, 84, 87 Bowcher, Frank 89 Brand, Sir Thomas 33 Brandis, Dietrich 104 Breitenbach, Esther 202 Bremner, Fred 75, 80, 92, 94 Bridge, John 51 British Museum 51–52, 57, 61, 67 ‘British World’ debate 8 Britishness 7–8 Brown, Alex 29 Brown, Robert 102, 110 Brown, William 97 Bruce family 30, 44, 55–56 Buccleuch, Duke of 44 Buchanan (later Hamilton), Francis 96, 100–01 Buchanan, James 89

Buddle, Anne x, 16; author of Chapter 4 Buist, George 49, 81 Bulkley, Edward 99 Buller family 12–13, 140 Burdon, Sir Ernest 144 Burma 186–87 Burns, Robert 7, 181 Burton, Antoinette 193, 210 Bute, Earl of 25–26 Caddell, William 81, 86 Cadell family 51, 56–57, 60–61, 64, 66, 126–27, 143, 147–51, 155–56, 194, 200–01, 236–37 Calcutta 11 Campbell, Sir George 163, 173, 190–91 Campbell family 33, 44, 82, 107, 183 career networks involving Edinburgh schools 154–55 Carlyle, Thomas 12–13, 140 Carnduff, David and Herbert 182–83, 190 Cave-Browne, Patrick 75 census figures 138, 141, 205 Chambers, William 65 Charteris, Alexander Hamilton 209 Chatham, Earl of 27 Cheap family 36, 39, 44 Chinnery, George 78, 86–87, 89 Christie, A.T. 107 Christison family 48–9, 108, 193, 208, 229–30 Church Missionary Society 146–47, 175 Church of Scotland 201–02, 207, 209 cities, imperial connections of 9 Civil Service careers 143–44; see also Indian Civil Service Clark, Henry Martyn 14, 205 Cleghorn family 45, 96, 104–07, 110, 209, 230–31, 256 Cleghorn Memorial Library 105 Clerk, Duncan 28 Clerk, Sir John 28, 44 Clive, Robert 77, 79

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clubs 41 Clyde, Baron 79 Cochrane, Basil 33–34 Cockburn, Archibald 44 coffee planters 145 Coldstream, William 104, 172–73 Coleman, Charles 68 collecting 17–18 Colville, Charles 59 ‘competition-wallahs’ 162, 171–73, 179, 186–91 Convention on Biological Diversity 112 Cookson, Mary Anne 108–09 Coombe, George 124, 129 Cooper, Roland Edgar 96, 110–11 Cordiner, James 82 Cork, Charles 128–29 Cornwallis, Lord 33, 77, 79, 86 Cosway, Richard 90 ‘cousin effect’ 154 Coutts, James 37 Coutts, Thomas 31, 34 Cox, Anthony 11 ‘cramming’ 169–70, 173, 179–81 craniology 114–15, 118–25, 129 of India 120–25 Cropper, James 212 Cumming, Sir John 37–38, 44 Cunningham, Daniel John 115 Cunningham, David Douglas 126–27 Curr, Isabella 211 Curzon, Lord 117, 180

Davidson brothers 35 Davie, Alan 91 Davis, Bernard 123 Davis, Peter H. 110–11 Deas, George 146 Dempster, George 30 Dent & Co. 33 Devine, Tom 7–9 diaspora Indian 217–18 Scottish 8 diasporic communities in general, definition of 217, 222 Dick, Mary 29 Disraeli, Benjamin 9 diversity, acceptance of 219 Dods family 209 Douglas family 28, 31, 44, 74 Downie, Robert 42 Driver, Felix 10–11 Drummond family (and Drummond’s bank) 25–28, 31–38, 81 Dryander, Jonas 100 Du Bois, Charles 98 Du Bois, Daniel 99 Duff, Alexander 201–02, 209 Duff, Patrick 90 Dufferin, Lady 197 Dundas, Henry 25–28, 31, 44 Dundas, Laurence 28, 41 Dundee 11 Dunlop-Smith, James 174

Dakin, Julian and Carmen 217, 220 Dalhousie family 74, 77, 81, 98, 107–08 Dalrymple, Sir Hew 28, 35, 39, 43 Dalzell, N.A. 108 Dance, George 89 Daniel Stewart’s College 136, 157 Daniell, William and Thomas 91 Dapper, Olfast 85 Darwin, Charles 106 dastaks 30–31 Datta, Kitty 216–17

East India Company (EIC) 2, 7, 22–38, 42–5, 63, 66, 69, 81, 92, 96, 99–101, 105, 138–44, 155, 163, 188–89, 200 recruitment to posts in 23–24 trading rights of company servants 33 Eastlake, Lady 91 Ede, Jim 75 Edinburgh banks and financial institutions in 34

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as a centre of education generally 1–2, 15–16, 18, 134–59, 162, 192 as a centre of medical studies 96, 195, 212 definition of 18 Indian influences on 3, 11–12, 16, 40, 69–70 involvement in the lives of those who went to India 12–16 maps of 250–51 New Town 4, 45 pre-eminent position within Scotland 24, 26, 45, 49 public institutions 42 restaurants and cuisines in 224–25 Royal Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians 192, 194–95 School of Medicine for Women 192–95, 200, 206, 210–12 wealth repatriation to 29–41, 45–46 Women’s Medical College 192–93, 195, 199, 206, 210–12 Edinburgh Academy 136–58, 190 etching of 258 Edinburgh Indian Association 1 Edinburgh Institution for Languages and Mathematics 136–39, 152–55, 158 Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) 225–26 Edinburgh International Festival 221 Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society (EMMS) 205–06, 211 Edinburgh Phrenology Society 124 Edinburgh Royal High School 174, 190 Edinburgh Royal Infirmary 212 Edinburgh University 18, 97–99, 103– 04, 107–09, 130–31, 162–64, 173, 188–91, 193, 212, 217, 224, 227 Centre for South Asian Studies 226 extra-mural School of Medicine 195 and ICS examination 164–70, 178– 82

Natural History Museum 53–54, 60–64 Elgin family 77, 81 Elibank, Lord 35 Elliot, George 181 Elliot, Sir Gilbert 26, 38, 89 Elliot, Sir Walter 110 Elphinstone, John 86 Elsie Inglis Maternity Hospital 210 emigration from Scotland 6, 39, 137 Erskine, Charles 26 ethnicity denoted by names 204–05 evangelism 202–04 Fabian, Ann 130–01 Fairlie, William 30, 34 Falconar, Andrew 42 Falconer, Hugh 104 family connections 138, 147–48, 154, 174, 189 Fayrer, Joseph 49, 105 Fenton, Bessie Cambell 67 Ferguson, Sir Adam 28, 30, 78, 201 Ferguson, James 13 Fettes College 136–39, 151–59 film festivals 225 Filor, Ellen 15 Findlay, David 38 Findlay, John Ritchie 210 Fleming, John 99 Fletcher, Andrew see Milton, Lord Fletcher, Harold Roy 97, 110 Fontein, Joost 130 Forbes, Sir William 31, 39 Forbes Mackay, Frank 75, 80, 85 Forrest, George 109 Forrest, Thomas 81 Foskett, Daphne 90 Fothringham, George 30 Foulis, Charles 31 Fraser, Alexander 147, 172 Fraser, Sir Andrew 179–80, 191 Fraser, Bashabi xi, 18, 90; author of Chapter 10

Index

Fraser, James 38 Fraser, Neil 217 Freer, Adam 99 French, Joseph Charles 52 Fry, Michael 3, 171 Fullerton, J. 44 Fullerton, William 93 Fullerton-Elphinstone, William 32, 38–39 Gall, Franz Joseph 129 Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner 79 Gangolf, Paul 75 Geddes, Andrew 81, 89 Geddes, Arthur 216–17, 220 Geddes, Patrick 5, 90, 216, 220 Geddes family 194, 209 George Heriot’s School 135, 156 George Watson’s School 135–36 Gibson, Alexander 102–03, 105 Gibson Craig, James Thomas 58 Gilbert, David 11 Gilbert, John 10 Gilbert, Wallis 92 Gilchrist, John 156, 258 Gilchrist, John Borthwick 89, 103 Gillies, Valerie 225 Glasgow 3–4, 24 Glasgow University of 103, 110 Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons 194 Glassford brothers 145–46 Glencorse, Lord 60 Goodsir, John 115 Gordon, George 4 Gore-Langton, Lady Anna 198 Govindurajulu, Rose 212 Graham, Maria 65–66 Graham, Robert 101–07 Graham brothers (George, John and Thomas) 32, 34, 36, 39 Grant, Alexander 14, 35, 168–70 Grant, James William 66–69 Grant, John Charles 145

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Grant Duff, Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone 152–53 Graves, D.H. 122 Gray, George (father and son) 39 Great Britain, concept of 40 Great Game, the 116–17, 127 Greville, Robert Kaye 106–07 Grierson, Andrew 111 Guthrie, Charles Seton 50 Guthrie, James 79 Haeberle, Curt 81 Haggerty, Sheryllynee 10 Haileybury College 162–64, 171 Haldane, James Alexander 37 Haliburton, David 13 Halkett, Peter 44 Hamilton, Claud 58 Hamilton, Francis see Buchanan Hamilton, William 44, 173 Hannay family 38 Harding, Henry 77 Hare, James 100 Hargreaves, John 11 Harper, F.P. 126 Harper, Ian x, 18; co-author of Chapter 6 Harries, John 130 Harris, Eleanor 16 Hastie, William 126 Hastings, Marquis of (and Lady Hastings) 62, 64 Hastings, Warren 23, 77, 89 Heatley, David 185 Heber, Reginald 82 Hedge, I.C. 98 Hedges, William 64 Heggie, Vanessa 199 Henderson, Douglas 110–11 Henderson Trust 125 Heriot, James 29, 43 Hill, David Octavius 23–25, 74 Hills family 143–45 Hindustani language 155 Hislop, Stephen 201

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historical scholarship, trends in 3, 9–10 Hodges, William 86, 90–91 Hodgkin, Howard 91 Holland, Sir Thomas 14 Home, Robert 86 Honourable East India Company (HEIC) see East India Company honours and decorations 152–53, 190 Hooker, Joseph 106, 108 Hope, John 99–102, 107 Hope, Thomas 44, 107 Hopetoun, Earls of 44 Houston, Robert 3 Hume, Sir Abraham 34 Hume, A.O. 176 Hume, David 28 Hunter, Alexander 48, 104 Hunter, Robert 104, 146 Hunter, William Wilson 176–79 Ilay, Archibald see Argyll, Dukes of Ilbert, Charles 178 imperial cities 9–12 imperialism 3, 6–7, 10 India connection with women’s medical education in Edinburgh 206–10 Edinburgh schools’ involvement with 139–40, 157–58 Edinburgh students careers in 141– 43, 158, 176, 206, 211 geographical definition of 76 as an imagined entity 12, 193 impact made on Edinburgh 155–58, 192–93, 212 links with Scotland as a whole 220– 26 India House Museum 101 Repository 57 India Office 164–65, 168–70, 182–84 ‘India returned’ Scots 14–16, 191, 193, 204, 211–12, 220–21

India@NGS collection 73–78, 82, 85– 86, 89–90, 94–95 Indian Army 15, 151 Indian Civil Service (ICS) 144, 151–52, 158, 62–64 competitive examination for entry to 164–70, 178–82, 188–91 Indian ‘Mutiny’ 29, 140, 145, 175 Indian women medical needs of 193, 197–98, 211 training as doctors 211 Indianisation 153–54, 174 industrial revolution in Scotland 46 Inglis, David Deas 8, 200 Inglis, Elsie 8, 192, 194, 200, 206–07, 210, 234–35, 260 Inglis, J.F.D. 200, 203–04 Inglis family 60, 62–63, 66, 201, 208 international dimensions of Scottish history 6, 11 Irwin, John Conran 57 Jacob, Violet 225 Jacobite rebellion (1745) 27 Jaffray, John 82 Jaffrey, Andrew 108 Jagannadham, Annie 211 James, Sir William 81 James Gillespie’s School 136 Jameson, Robert 60–62, 64, 107 Jameson, William 105, 107–08 Jardine, Sir Henry 58 Jardine, William 8–9 Jardine Matheson & Co. 33, 154 Jarvis, Sarah 109 Jeffery, Roger ix, 18; editor, author of Chapter 9 and co-author of Introduction and Chapters 6 and 7 Jex-Blake, Sophia 192–95, 198–201, 207, 211–12 John Watson’s School 136 Johnson, Jim 5 Johnson-Marshall, Percy 94 Johnstone, A.A.J. 51–52

Index

Johnstone, Alice 85 Johnstone, H.C. 89 Johnstone, John 39 Jones, William 64–65, 68 Jowett, Benjamin 165, 182 Keeper of the Signet 27–28 Keith family 186–88 Keppitipola Nilama 131 Kerr, James 99, 102 Kettle, Tilly 75, 81 Kew Gardens see Royal Botanical Gardens Killican, David 34 King, Anthony D. 9–10 King, George 74–75, 89 Kipling, Lockwood 50 Kirkpatrick, John 185 Kyd, James 31 Lace, John Henry 110 Lahiri, Shompa 1 Lahore Museum 50 Laing, David and James 78, 93 Lal, Maneesha 193, 210 Lamond, J.M. 98 landscape painting 86–88 Landseer, Sir Edwin 76 language skills 155–58, 164 Larson, Frances 131 Latif, Tariq 225–26 Lauder, John 38 Law, Sir John 44 Lawrence, Andrew 7 Lawrence, Sir John 79 Lawrence, Lady 203 Lawrence, Margot 199 Lawrence, Stringer 77 Laycock, Thomas 196 Lear, Edward 87 le Bas, Charles 86 Lee, William Alexander 127 Lees family 198–99, 208 Leith 41

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Lennox, John 31 Lewes, Thornton Arnott 181 Lind, Maria 130 Liverpool 10 Livingstone, David 12, 202, 205 ‘local turn’ in historical scholarship 3 Loch, Robert 29 Lochhead, Elspeth 5–6 Logan, William 176, 190 London 10–11, 34, 40–41 London Missionary Society 200 London School of Medicine for Women 192–93, 198 Long, David 111 Loretto House 136, 175 Lorimer family 165–66, 171–72, 184–85 Lowe, John 206, 209, 211 Lowenthal, J. 82 Lowrey, John 5 Ludlow, Frank 96, 111 Lumsden, Ernest 90 Lush, Charles 104 Macadam family 209 Macaulay, Thomas 164 McDonald, John 92 Macdonald, Kenneth 59–60 McGilvary, George K. ix, 11, 16; author of Chapter 2 McKay, Alexander 117 Mackay, George (father and son) 29, 43 Mackay, W.S. 201 Mackenzie, John 8–10, 25–28, 35–38, 44 Mackenzie family 26, 31, 35 Mackillop, Andrew 11, 188 Maclagan family 209 Maclean family 208–09 MacLeod, Alex 34 McNab, James 106–08 McNab, Thomas 112 McNair, Isabella 75, 83 Macpherson, Sir John 76–77, 89 Macrae, James 34 Madden, Edward 104, 108

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Malabar Manual 176 Malcolm, Sir John 68, 74, 78 Malde, Pradip 76, 94 Markus, Thomas 4 Marshall, Mary Tara 94 Martin, David 82 Martin, Sir Donald 78 Martin, Montgomery 68 Mason, Philip 179 Masson, David 207 Matheson, James 8–9 Maurice, Thomas 82 Mayne, John 58 Mayne, Robert 35, 50–51, 58–59, 66 Mayne, Sir William 35 medical students in Edinburgh, numbers of 195–97, 204–05 Medical Women for India Fund 197 Meikle, George 57–58 Mellor, G.R. 201 Melrose, Andrew 44 Melville, H.B. 122 Melville, Margaret 82 Menzies, Archibald 107 Merchiston Castle School 136–39, 152–55 middle-class society 15, 40, 135–36, 168–72, 189, 201–02 military careers 153 military life shown in collections 78–80 Miller, William 178 Milton, Lord 25–28, 37, 44 miniatures 93–94 Minto, Lord 75, 77, 89 Mishra, Vijay 222, 227 missionary activity 199–208, 211 Mitchell, David 38 Moffat, John 80, 254 Moir, D. Macbeth 121–22 Moira, Lord 75 Money, Duncan ix; co-author of Introduction Money, William and Martha 200 Monro family 17, 175, 237–38

Monson, William 33 Montgomery, Eleanor 211 Moor, Edward 57, 65, 68 Morris, Jim David 222 Morris, Robert 3–4, 7 Morten, Samuel 131 Morton, Earl of 28, 44 Morton, Graeme 3–4, 7 Motte, Thomas 34 Mountbatten, Earl 47 Muir, Sir William 14, 104, 259 Muir family 14, 163–74, 177, 185, 187, 190, 203, 208, 232–34 Mulholland, Honor 4 Munro, Robert 38 Mure, William (Baron) 26, 28 Murray, James 35 Murray, Peter 156 ‘nabobs’ 11, 14–15, 42–45 Nagoya Protocol (2014) 112 National Association for Promoting Medical Education of Women 194 National Gallery of Scotland (NGS) 16–17, 78, 86, 93–94, 222 national identity British 7–8 Indian 219 Scottish 7, 202 National Indian Association 197 National Museums of Scotland 16–17, 67 nationalism, Indian 176 Natural History Museum, London 111 Nauroji, Dhanjiobai 82–83 Nicoll, Ian A. 157 Nightingale, Florence 197–98 Nimes, Isaac 33 Nisbet, Walter 66 Noltie, Henry J. x, 17; author of Chapter 5 Norrie, John 183–84 North, Lord 25 Ogilvie, John 38

Index

Oman family 144 opium, growing of and trading in 30, 33–34, 49, 108 Orientalism 64–69 Outram, Sir James 78 Overseas Citizen of India passport 223 Oxford and Cambridge Universities (‘Oxbridge’) 164, 168, 185, 188 Parker, James 7 Partition of the subcontinent 217–18 Paterson, George 124 Paterson, John David 65 patronage 23–30, 163, 189 managers of 23–28 recipients of 26–30 Pattullo, Francis Archibald 147 Peal, Samuel Edward 109 Pechey, Edith 199 Pennell, Charles 191 Penrose, Roland 90 Petiver, James 99 Phillips, Thomas 77 phrenology 17, 124–25, 129 physical anthropology 123–25 Pibworth, Charles 89 Pitt, William the Younger 26–27 Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford 130 Pittock, Murray 134 planters 144–47 Plukenet, Leonard 99 poetry 222, 225–26 political management system 24–28 Pope, Robert 155 Powell, Avril [Ann] xi, 14, 18; author of Chapter 8 Presbyterianism 202, 206 Preston, Sir Robert 31 Pringle, Alex 29 Pringle, John 59–60 Prior, Nick 5 racism 1–2 ‘scientific’ 131

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247

Raffles, Sir Stamford 68 Raffles, Sir Thomas 61 Raghuji III, Raja of Nagpur 75 The Ramayana 225 Ramsay, William 172 Ramsay Gardens 220 Rannie, David 26, 29, 38–91, 43–44 Rannie, Janet 44 Ransford, Tessa 225 Ray, John 99 Reading, Lord 83 Reay, Lord 168 Redpath, Anne 91 religious festivals 225 Rembrandt van Rijn 88 remittance of funds 32–41, 45–46 total value of 40 Rennet, David 169 repatriation requests 130–31 retirement, places chosen for 2, 12, 14, 18, 189–91 Reynolds, Sir Joshua 77, 89 Reynolds, Sian 5 Riach, Alan 225–26 Riddell, Peter Fletcher 73–75 Rigg, William 39, 43 Ripon, Lord 174 Robertson, Alexander 156 Robertson, Archibald 38 Robertson, David 29, 39, 43 Robertson, James 99 Robertson, William 13 Robison, Sir John 58 Rod, James 32 Rodger, Richard 4–5 Romney, George 78, 81 Rosenburg, Lou 5 Ross, Alexander 144 Ross, George 35 Roxburgh, William 96, 100–02, 104, 107 Roy, Jamini 94 Roy, Raja Rammohan 201 Royal Asiatic Society 47

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Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh (RBGE) 17, 41, 96–112 Indian collection 97–98 Museum of Economic Botany 97, 104, 107 Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew 100, 108 Royal Collection 84 Royal High School, Edinburgh 136–38, 155–57 Royal Scottish Academy 93 Royal Scottish Geographical Society 5–6, 177–78 Royal Scottish Museum 47–48, 70, 97, 128 Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) 2–3, 5, 53–54, 57–58, 61–62, 64, 100, 127 rubber planters 146 Rutherford, Daniel 102–03, 105, 107 Safran, William 217 Said, Edward 1, 221 Salisbury, Lord 169–70 Sandilands, Lord 44 Scarce, Jennifer 47–48, 52–53, 69 Schneer, Jonathan 10 schools in Edinburgh, differences between 151–53 The Scotsman (newspaper) 49, 222 Scott, David 26–27, 30–31, 34, 75, 81 Scott, Gavin 186 Scott, Helenus 99 Scott, James George 186 Scott, John 44, 106 Scott, Sir Walter 13, 67, 78, 162, 175 Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women (SAMEW) 194–95, 198, 208–12 Scottish Centre for Tagore Studies 90 Scottish Enlightenment 41, 99, 201 Scottish Geographical Society see Royal Scottish Geographical Society Scottish identity see national identity Scottish National Portrait Gallery 17, 73–75, 77, 86

Scottish Naval and Military Academy (SNMA) 136, 155–56 Scudder, John 205 sculpture, Indian 47–70 settler colonies 7–8 Seven Years War (1756–63) 27 Shankar, Ravi and Anoushka 223–24 Shapin, Steven 5 Sharp, John 165, 167 Sherriff, George 96, 111 Sheshadri, Narayana 198 shipping and shipbuilding 31 Sibbald, Sir Robert 107 Sikhism 69 Simpson, David 127 Simpson, Francis 54–57, 60, 252 Simson family 151, 175, 200, 203 Singh, Duleep 69 Sivright, Thomas 66 Skelton, Robert 93 Skinner, James 62, 140 Skirving, Robert 81 The Skull Room (Edinburgh University Anatomy Department) 115, 257 skulls, collecting of 17–18, 114–31 Smart, John 76, 90 Smith, Charles 156 Smith, George 156–57, 172–75 smuggling 32 Snodgrass, Gabriel 81 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (SAS) 53, 56–59, 62, 66 Sproul, Samuel 63, 253 Stainton, Adam 111 Stair-Dalrymple, William 38 Stanley, Henry Morton 6 Steell, John 74 stereoscopic cards 92 Stevenson, Robert Louis 13, 156 Stevenson, Sara 91–92 Stewart, Daniel 136; see also Daniel Stewart’s College Stewart, Dugald 66, 201 Stewart, John 35

Index

Stewart, Lindsay 108 Storr, Paul 94 Stuart, Andrew 28 Stuart, Charles 64 Stuart, James 78 Stuart, John see Bute, Earl of Sulivan, Laurence 23–24 Suttie, George 43 Swinton family 54, 64, 69, 151 Sydenham, Thomas 87 Tagore, Rabindranath 5, 216, 224 Taj Mahal 88 Taylor, Charles 38 tea planters 145 Thane, G.D. 123 Thomson, Murray 51 Thomson, Thomas 108 Thwaites, H. 126 Tibetan skulls 116–20, 130, 257 Tipu Sultan 101 Tod, James 62, 68 Todd, Margaret 199, 206 Trapaud, Elisha 84, 86, 88 Turner, A. Logan 125 Turner, J.M.W. 87, 91 Turner, Sir William 17–18, 114–15, 118–29, 148, 193–94, 212 Tytler, John 62–63 UK India Year of Culture (2017) 226 university reform 165–69, 185, 188–89 Valentine, Colin 205–06 van Rheede, Hendrik 99 Vico, Enea 85 Victoria, Queen 197 Voigt, Friederike ix‒x, 16; author of Chapter 3 Wagner, Kim 125, 131 Walker, Alexander 57, 63, 66 Wallace, James 182 Wallich, Nathaniel 101, 107

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249

Walpole, Robert 25, 36 Ward, John 82 Waterston, Charles 53–54 Watson, George 135–36 Watson, H. 81 Watsonian clubs 156 Watt, Sir George 96, 109 wealth repatriation 30–7 sources of 30–32 Webster, Anthony 10 Wedderburn family 44, 175–79, 191 Wellesley, Arthur 77 Wemyss, David Douglas 91 Whatley, Christopher 7 White, George Francis 87 White, Nicholas J. 10 Wiebe, Hauke x‒xi, 18; co-author of Chapter 7 Wight, Robert 31, 96, 102–07, 110 Wilkie, David 76, 78, 88–89 Wilkinson, Sir Thomas 75 Williams, C.L. 122 Wilson, George 48 Wilson, Sir James and Lady Anne 168– 71, 180–81, 190 Wilson, John 201 Wilson, Leslie Hamilton 74, 80, 85–86 Wilson Gamrie, Margaret 67 Wimberley, C.N.C. 116, 119 women’s education in general 210 women’s medical education 18, 192–212 connection with India 206–10 promotion of 194, 197 Woodburn, Sir John 179 Wren, Walter 181 Wright, William 100 Wright Smith, William 110 Younghusband, Sir Frank E. 118–19 Youngson, Alexander 4 Yule, Henry 14 zanana missions 191

Illustrations

Figure 1: Map of Edinburgh, c. 1890 List of locations 1. Royal Botanic Garden (from 1820) 2. Fettes College (from 1870) 3. Edinburgh Academy (from 1824) 4. National Portrait Gallery (from 1889: housed the Society of Antiquaries till 2009) 5. Daniel Stewart’s College (1852–1972) 6. Caledonian United Service Club (1824–1901) 7. Edinburgh Institution (1853–1920) 8. Royal High School (1829–1968) 9. Royal Society of Edinburgh, Royal Institution building (1826–1908) 10. National Gallery (from 1859) 11. Scottish Naval & Military Academy (1831–1863) 12. University of Edinburgh, Old College (from 1791) 13. Industrial Museum (from 1854) 14. George Heriot’s School (from 1659) 15. George Watson’s School (1748–1869); University Medical School (from 1877) 16. Merchiston Castle School (1833–1930)

Illustrations

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Figure 2: Map of Edinburgh’s environs

Figure 3: Main Gallery of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, with plaster cast of the Sanchi Gate (on right, with carved elephants), 1884

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Figure 4: Figure of Avalokiteshvara, seated on a lotus throne, northeast India, Pala period, 10th–11th century, collected by Francis Simpson between c. 1789–1800, acc. no A.1956.565, © National Museums Scotland

Figure 5: Marble panel depicting a leogryph (vyalaka), Chandravati, India, 14th century, collected by Robert Mayne between c. 1812–1831, acc. no A.1956.568, © National Museums Scotland

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Figure 6: Figure of Indra, Java, 8th–9th century, arrived in Edinburgh between c. 1815–1819, acc. no A.UC.111, © National Museums Scotland

Figure 7: Marble image of Vishnu, India, probably early 19th century, donated by Samuel Sproul, 1825, acc. no A.UC.48, © National Museums Scotland

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Figure 8A: Sir Gilbert Elliott (Recto) Figure 8B: Sir Gilbert Elliott (Verso)

Figure 9: John Moffat, Indian Troops Marching, Princes Street, Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland

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Figure 10: Mughal drawing, Untitled (composite camel), National Galleries of Scotland. Collection of the late Richmond Inglis Cochrane; presented by his younger son through the Art Fund 1997

Figure 11: Specimen of butterfly pea (Clitorea ternatea) collected by Dr Edward Bulkley at Fort St George [Chennai, Tamil Nadu], 1700. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

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Figure 12: Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), watercolour made for H.F.C. Cleghorn by an un-named ‘Marathi’ artist, Shimoga, Karnataka, July 1846. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Figure 13: Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum), specimen grown at RBGE in 1866 from seed collected at Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

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Figure 14: Skull Room, Anatomy Museum, University of Edinburgh. © David Cheskin

Figure 15: Drawings of Tibetan Skull, 1907, Reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 45, 3: 781–818, Plate 5

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Figure 16: Boys playing in front of the Edinburgh Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland. Etching by W.H. Lizars after W. Burn, 1823–1836. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Figure 17: Heriot’s College, Plaque of Dr John Gilchrist. © Hauke Wiebe

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Figure 18: Principal Sir William Muir, 1896. Courtesy of Edinburgh University Library

Figure 19: Cartoon of Principal Sir William Muir, 1903. Courtesy of Edinburgh University Library

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Figure 20: Elsie Inglis, Great Tapestry of Scotland, 2016, Stitched in Edinburgh by Fiona Kirton, Jo Macrae and Deborah Ramage