Arthur Grote (29 November 1814 – 4 December 1886) was an English colonial administrator.

Life

He was born on 29 November 1814 at Beckenham in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. He was the son of George Grote (1760–1830), a London banker, and Selina Peckwell (1775-1845) who was the daughter of the Rev. Dr Henry Peckwell (1747-1787) and Bella Blosset of Co. Meath, from a well-connected Huguenot family. His elder brother

George Grote George Grote (; 17 November 1794 – 18 June 1871) was an English political radical and classical historian. He is now best known for his major work, the voluminous ''History of Greece''. Early life George Grote was born at Clay Hill near Be ...

(1794–1871) became a distinguished politician and historian of Greece. He was educated at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

, and entered the

Bengal Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

in 1834, where as a civil servant he was employed in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

from 1834 to 1868 and was commissioner and member of the Board of Revenue,

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, 1861–8. He was also served as President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1859–62 and 1865 and President of the Royal Agricultural Society of India. On his return to England in 1868, he became a prominent member of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

and

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

, and wrote many papers on Natural History subjects. Grote was elected a member of the Society of Arts in 1886. He died on 4 December 1886 at his house in

Ovington Square Ovington Square is a garden square in central London's Knightsbridge district. It lies between Brompton Road to the north-west (reached via Ovington Gardens) and Walton Street to the south-east. History The freehold property on which the squar ...

, London. One of his portraits, painted by Knight, is in the collection of the Asiatic Society,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Notes

References

www.darwinproject.ac.ukjanus.lib.cam.ac.uk George Grote (1760-1830)janus.lib.cam.ac.uk George Grote (1794-1871)
* *Obituary, Society of Arts, Journal, 35 (1886:Nov. 19-1887:Nov. 11) p. 86 1814 births 1886 deaths Presidents of The Asiatic Society {{UK-gov-bio-stub