Lewin Bentham Bowring (1824–1910) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Indian civil servant in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

who served as the Chief Commissioner of Mysore between 1862 and 1870. He was also an author and man of letters.

Family

He was the second son of Sir

John Bowring Sir John Bowring , or Phraya Siamanukulkij Siammitrmahayot, , , group=note (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was a British political economist, traveller, writer, literary translator, polyglot and the fourth Governor of Hong Kong. He was a ...

(1792-1872), of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, Devon,

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

, and was a brother of

John Charles Bowring John Charles Bowring (24 March 1821 – 20 June 1893) was a Hong Kong businessman, a partner in the firm Jardine, Matheson & Co., and a keen amateur naturalist and JP for the County of Devon. He was the eldest son of Sir John Bowring (1792–18 ...

and

Edgar Alfred Bowring Edgar Alfred Bowring (; 26 May 1826 – August 1911) was a British translator, author and civil servant, serving as librarian and registrar to the Board of Trade (1848–1863), secretary to the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and Lib ...

Career

Bowring joined the

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 ...

Civil Service in 1843. He became Assistant Resident at

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

in 1847, and later joined the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

commission. From 1858 to 1862, he was private secretary to the

Viceroy of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...

Lord Canning Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, (14 December 1812 – 17 June 1862), also known as The Viscount Canning and Clemency Canning, was a British statesman and Governor-General of India during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the first Vice ...

. Bowring served as Chief Commissioner of

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

from 1862 to 1870. This was during the period between 1831 and 1881 when the Maharaja of Mysore had been dispossessed of his state by the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

and Mysore was being administered by the ''Mysore Commission''. The Bowring Institute in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, which was founded by Lewis Rice in 1868, is named after him. During the last year of his incumbency, Bowring also served as the first

Chief Commissioner of Coorg Below is a list of chief commissioners of Coorg Province Coorg Province was a province of British India from 1834 to 1947 and the Dominion of India from 1947 to 1950. Mercara was the capital of the province. It was administered by a Commissi ...

. He was created

Companion of the Order of the Star of India The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes: # Knight Grand Commander (GCSI) # Knight Commander ( KCSI) # Companion ( CSI) No appointments ...

(CSI) in 1867. He retired from 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 ...

in 1870 and returned to England the same year.

Author

After retiring from service, Bowring turned his efforts to writing. He authored the book ''Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan and the struggle with the Mussulman powers of the south,'' which was published in 1893 for the

Rulers of India series The ''Rulers of India'' was a biographical book series edited by William Wilson Hunter and published from the Clarendon Press, Oxford. Hunter himself contributed the volumes on Dalhousie (1890) and Mayo (1891) to the series. Background William ...

. Bowring also edited his father's notes and published ''Autobiographical Recollections of Sir John Bowring'' in 1877.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

The Bowring Institute
1824 births 1910 deaths 19th-century British writers Indian civil servants Lewin Bentham British people in colonial India Companions of the Order of the Star of India {{England-writer-stub