Lewin Bentham Bowring : Early life, Career, Author, Notes Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lewin Bentham Bowring

British colonial administrator (1824–1910)

Lewin Bentham Bowring (1824–1910) was a British Indian civil servant in British India who served as the Chief Commissioner of Mysore between 1862 and 1870. He was also an author and man of letters.

Early life

Bowring was born in 1824. He was the second son of Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), of Exeter, Devon, Governor of Hong Kong, and was a brother of John Charles Bowring and Edgar Alfred Bowring. He was educated at Mount Radford School.^[1]

Career

Bowring joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1843. He became Assistant Resident at Lahore in 1847,^[2] and later joined the Punjab commission.^[3] From 1858 to 1862, he was private secretary to the Viceroy of India, Lord Canning.

Bowring served as Chief Commissioner of Mysore 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 and Mysore was being administered by the Mysore Commission.^[3]

The Bowring Institute in Bangalore, which was founded by Lewis Rice in 1868, is named after him.^[3]

During the last year of his incumbency, Bowring also served as the first Chief Commissioner of Coorg. He was created Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) in 1867. He retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1870 and returned to England the same year.^[3]

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.^[4] Bowring also edited his father's notes and published Autobiographical Recollections of Sir John Bowring in 1877.^[5]

Notes

^ Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton; Oakes, Charles Henry; Addison, Henry Robert (1849). Who's who : an annual biographical dictionary, with which is incorporated "Men and women of the time". London : Black. p. 165 – via Internet Archive.
^ Note: Punjab was a part of the Bengal Presidency from immediately after its annexation until 1858, when it became a separate province under a Lieutenant-Governor.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Rice 1897, p. 434
^ Bowring 1893
^ Bowring 1877

References

Bowring, John (1877), Bowring, L. B. (ed.), Autobiographical Recollections of Sir John Bowring, H.S. King & co.
Bowring, Lewin B. (1893), Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan, And The Struggle With The Musalman Powers Of The South, Rulers of India series (1974 ed.), Idarah-I Adabiyat-I Delli, archived from the original on 17 August 2011, retrieved 14 May 2011
Rice, Lewis (1897), Mysore: A Gazetteer Compiled for the Government, Volume I, Mysore In General, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company