John Colvin
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.Colvin's was an Anglo-Indian family of Scottish descent. He was educated at Haileybury, then entered the service of the East India Company in 1826.
In 1836 he became private secretary to Lord Auckland at the time of the first Afghan war of 1837. From 1846-9, 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 South African War, and as a permanent memorial to his father [1]. Auckland Colvin died at Surbiton on the March 24, 1908.
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