Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt,
ICS,
FRGS
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
(25 June 1874 – 11 June 1963) was a British diplomat and writer.
Biography
He began his career as an English member of the
Indian 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 ...
. His duty in India began in 1896, and he started as an assistant magistrate and collector. He was originally assigned to Khulna, Midnapore, Hooghly and Calcutta. At some point he was re-assigned to the commander-in-chief in India, and later served in the British legation in Tehran.
Bradley-Birt wrote both fiction and non-fiction about his travels in India, Persia and the Middle East. In India he was attached to the Archaeological service, and this formed the basis for some of his non-fiction work. He wrote under his own name and under the pseudonym "Shelland Bradley."
Ramananda Chatterjee
Ramananda Chatterjee ( bn, রামানন্দ চট্টোপাধ্যায়) (29 May 1865 – 30 September 1943) was founder, editor, and owner of the Calcutta based magazine, the '' Modern Review''. He has been described as th ...
credited Bradley-Birt with "resuscitating" the literary study of
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (18 April 1809 – 26 December 1831) was an Indian poet and assistant headmaster of Hindu College, Kolkata. He was a radical thinker of his time and one of the first Indian educators to disseminate Western learning a ...
.
Bradley-Birt married (1 December 1920)
Lady Norah Beatrice Henriette Spencer-Churchill Of Marlborough , daughter of
George Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke of Marlborough
George Charles Spencer-Churchill, 8th Duke of Marlborough, DL (13 May 1844 – 9 November 1892), styled Earl of Sunderland until 1857 and Marquess of Blandford between 1857 and 1883, was a British peer.
Early life
Marlborough was born in Engl ...
(she was, therefore, a cousin of
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
).
Bradley-Birt owned a property known as
Birtsmorton Court
Birtsmorton Court is a Grade I listed fortified medieval moated manor house near Malvern in Worcestershire, in the former woodlands of Malvern Chase.
It is located in Birtsmorton, a small agricultural parish 7 miles south-east of Malvern Wel ...
, which he acquired from his uncle, F. R. Bradley-Birt, who bought it in 1911, re-uniting it with the neighboring property of Berrow, which was already under his ownership.
Works
''Through Persia, from the gulf to the Caspian''(1909)
''Persia; through Persia from the Gulf to the Caspian''(1910)
(1920) (with illustrations by
Abanindranath Tagore
Abanindranath Tagore ( Bengali: অবনীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 August 1871 – 5 December 1951) was the principal artist and creator of the "Indian Society of Oriental Art". He was also the first major exponent of Sw ...
)
''Chota Nagpore, a little-known province of the empire'' (1903)
''The story of an Indian upland''(1905)
''The romance of an eastern capital''(1906)
* ''Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century'' (1910)
(1911)
* ''
Poems of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio : a forgotten Anglo-Indian (1923)
Written under pseudonym
* ''The Doings of Berengaria'' (1902)
* ''An American Girl in India'' (1907)
* ''The Adventures of an A.D.C.'' (1910)
* ''An American Girl at the Durbar'' (1912)
* ''Fifty'' (1927)
References
External links
*
*
* ''Who Was Who among English and European Authors'' (1931–49)
* ''The Indian Civil Service 1601–1930''. Lewis Sydney Steward O'Malley. J. Murray 1931. p. 299.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradley-Birt, Francis Bradley
1874 births
1963 deaths
British diplomats
20th-century British writers
Indian Civil Service (British India) officers
20th-century diplomats
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
British Indian Army officers
Members of the Inner Temple
British people in colonial India