Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Lloyd Ferrar (16 April 1876 – 25 February 1971) was a British Indian army officer and civil servant who worked as a chief commissioner of the Penal Settlement at

Port Blair Port Blair () is the capital city of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (''tehsil'') of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South An ...

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

and

Nicobar Islands The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located southeast of the Indian s ...

. Born 1876, son of Michael Lloyd Ferrar, Ferrar was educated at St. Columba's College, Rugby and the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

where he was a contemporary 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 ...

. He joined the Indian Army at the age of 20 in 1896 and served on the North West Frontier during the

Tirah Campaign The Tirah campaign, often referred to in contemporary British accounts as the Tirah expedition, was an Indian frontier campaign from September 1897 to April 1898. Tirah is a mountainous tract of country in what was formally known as Federally ...

1897-98. Ferrar opted to move to join the Home Department of the Government of India in 1901 and was inducted into the Punjab Commission. He studied Urdu, Punjabi, Baluchi and Pashto. Before becoming Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands he served at various positions in northern and northwestern parts of British India. From 1902-1906 he commanded the Baloch Levy, was a postal censor at Bombay, 1915-18, and deputy commissioner Lahore, 1919-23, during which time he was involved in the arrest of

Lala Lajpat Rai Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 - 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter, and politician. He played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was one of the three members of ...

and

Satyanand Stokes Satyananda Stokes (born Samuel Evans Stokes, Jr., 16 August 1882 – 14 May 1946) was an American who settled in India and participated in the Indian Independence Movement. He is best remembered today for having introduced apple cultivation to t ...

on charges of sedition. Ferrar was responsible for increasing agriculture on the Andamans. Under his management, tea, coffee and rubber were tried on the island and land was allotted to settlers between 1923 and 1926. On the advice of Colonel Christopher Covell, swamps were drained. Ferrargunj was named after him and was originally a settlement for Bhantus who were then designated as a criminal tribe. The settlement was attacked by Jarawas and Ferrar launched punitive measures against the Jarawas. He initiated measures to protect fishing grounds in the Andamans from being poached by Singapore fishermen for ''

Trochus ''Trochus'' is a genus of medium-sized to large, top-shaped sea snails with an operculum and a pearly inside to their shells, marine gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Trochinae of the family Trochidae, the top snails.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. (2 ...

'' shells. Ferrar retired in 1931 and returned to England serving as a Major in the Home Guard around 1940-41. In 1932 he wrote a chapter on the history of Islam in India. His proficience in Indian languages led to him being appointed an examiner in Urdu at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

from 1934-62.Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1967, p.730 A keen naturalist and student of the butterfly fauna, he collected over 4000 specimens which are now in the Natural History Museum at London. He was in close contact with other lepidopterists such as Brigadier W. H. Evans who visited the Andamans towards the end of Ferrar's tenure there. Ferrar's older sister, Beatrice, married Sir Thomas Wolseley Haig (1865-1938), a civil servant in British India, and later Professor of Arabic, Persian and Hindustani at Trinity College, Dublin, and then a Scottish herald.

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrar, Michael Lloyd 1876 births 1971 deaths British naturalists British Indian Army officers English lepidopterists Companions of the Order of the Star of India Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Officers of the Order of the British Empire