John Russell Colvin

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Tomb of John Russell Colvin inside the Red Fort of Agra.

John Russell Colvin (May 29, 1807 - September 9, 1857) was lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of British India during the mutiny of 1857, at the height of which he died.

John Russell Colvin died of Cholera during the peak of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. His body could not be carried out of the Agra Fort (which after the fall of the Mughals, the British establishment in India converted into a military garrison). The selection of the burial location is often criticized for the insensitivity, considering the significance of the place^[1] . Within the sprawling palace-fort complex, the tomb is located in the front of the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) where the Peacock Throne (now in Iran) was placed.

Colvin's was an Anglo-Indian family of Scottish descent. He was educated at East India Company College in Haileybury, then entered the service of the British East India Company in 1826.

In 1836 he became private secretary to Lord Auckland at the time of the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1837. From 1846-49, Colvin served as Commissioner of Tenasserim, in British (Lower) Burma.

In 1853 Lord Dalhousie appointed him lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of India. In 1857, at the start of the mutiny, Colvin was at Agra with only a weak British regiment and a native battery, not enough force to prevail against the mutineers. Colvin issued a proclamation to the natives that was censured at the time for its clemency, but it was similar to the approach of Sir Henry Lawrence, later followed by Lord Canning.

Colvin died shortly before the fall of Delhi. His diaries are held in the European Manuscripts Section at the India Records Office in London.

John Colvin's son, Sir Auckland Colvin, K.C.S.I., K.C.M.G., C.I.E. (1838-1908), followed a distinguished career in the same service, from 1858-92. He was comptroller-general in Egypt (1880-2), and financial adviser to the khedive (1883-7). From 1883-92 he was back again in India, first as financial member of council, and then, from 1887, following in his father's footsteps as lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces and Oudh.

He published a biography of his father in 1895, and in 1905 gave a stained glass East window to the church of St. Mary at Soham, both as a thanksgiving for the termination of the Second Boer War, and as a permanent memorial to his father [1]. Auckland Colvin died at Surbiton on the March 24, 1908.

[edit] Rare book

Colvin, Sir Auckland. John Russell Colvin. The Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Under The Company. Rulers of India Series. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1895.Cloth. 214pp.