Sir Edward Penderel Moon, OBE (1905–1987) was a British administrator in India and a writer. He served as a finance minister for the Bahawalpur State in the British Raj. After India's independence, he stayed on in India and worked as the chief commissioner of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

, as chief commissioner of

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

state.Mason, Philip. "Moon, Sir (Edward) Penderel (1905–1987), administrator in India and writer." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 23 Sep. 2004. .

Life and career

Moon was born 13 November 1905 in Mayfair, London to a cardiologist, Robert Oswald Moon who wrote about

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and Greek medicine as well as diseases of the heart. Dr Moon also stood several times as a Liberal candidate for parliament. He followed in his father's footsteps, first to

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

, then to

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

. In 1927, he was elected a prize fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He joined 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 Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

in 1929, being posted to the Punjab. He wrote several books on British rule in India including ''Divide and Quit''.

Works

* ''Strangers in India'' (1944) * ''The Future of India'' (1945) * ''Warren Hastings and British India'' (1947) * ''Divide and Quit'' (1961) * ''Gandhi and Modern India'' (1968) * ''Wavell: The Viceroy's Journal'' (editor, 1973) * ''The British Conquest and Dominion of India: 1858-1947'' (1989)

Life and career

Works

References

Further reading