 1832 - 1917 (84 years)
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| Name |
George (Sir) Christopher Molesworth Birdwood |
| Born |
8 Dec 1832 |
Belgaum, India.  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Alt. Birth |
8 Dec 1832 |
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|
| Life Story |
1917 |
George Christopher Molesworth BirdwoodFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sir George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood KCIE MD (1832?1917), Anglo-Indian official, naturalist, and writer, son of General Christopher Birdwood, was born at Belgaum, in the Bombay (now Mumbai) presidency, on the 8th of December 1832.
He was educated at Plymouth Grammar School and Edinburgh University, where he took his MD degree. Entering the Bombay Medical Service in 1854, he served in the Persian War of 1856-57, and subsequently became professor at the Grant Medical College, registrar of the university, curator of the museum, and sheriff at Bombay, besides acting as secretary of the Asiatic and Horticultural societies.
His work on the Economic Vegetable Products of the Bombay Presidency reached its twelfth edition in 1868. He interested himself prominently also in the municipal life of the city, where he acquired great influence and popularity. He was obliged by ill-health in 1868 to return to England, where he entered the revenue and statistics department of the India Office (1871?1902).
While engaged there he published important volumes on the industrial arts of India, the ancient records of the India Office, and the first letter-book of the East India Company. He devoted much time and energy to the encouragement of Indian art, on various aspects of which he wrote valuable monographs, and his name was identified with the representation of India at all the principal International Exhibitions from 1857 to 1901.[1] That notwithstanding, while chairing the Indian Section of the annual meeting of the Royal Society of Arts in 1910, he declared that there was no "fine art" in India. When a particular statue of the Buddha was adduced as counter-example, Birdwood is said to have responded: "This senseless similitude, in its immemorial fixed pose, is nothing more than an uninspired brazen image. . . . A boiled suet pudding would serve equally well as a symbol of passionless purity and serenity of soul."[2]
His researches on the subject of incense,[3] a good example of his mastery of detail, have made his historical and botanical account of this subject a classic. Nor can his lifelong association with journalism of the best sort be overlooked. From boyhood he was a diligent contributor of special information to magazines and newspapers; in India he helped to convert the Standard into The Times of India, and edited the Bombay Saturday Review; and after his return to London he wrote for the Pall Mall, Athenaeum, Academy, and The Times; and with Thomas Chenery, the editor of The Times, and others he took the initiative (1882) in celebrating the anniversary of Lord Beaconsfield's death as Primrose Day (April 19).[4]
He kept up his connection with India by constant contributions to the Indian press; and his long friendships with Indian princes and the leading educated native Indians made his intimate knowledge of the country of peculiar value in the handling of the problems of the Indian empire. In 1887 he was created a KCIE; and, besides being given his LL.D degree by Cambridge, he was also made an officer of the Légion d'Honneur and a laureate of the French Academy.
The standard author abbreviation Birdw. is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.[5]
[edit] References^ Journal of Indian Art, vol. viii. The Life and Work of Sir George Birdwood
^ Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 2004, page 52. ISBN 978-0-19-515297-5.
^ Trans. Liun. Soc. xxvii., 1871; Ency. Brit. 9th ed., Incense, 1881; revised
^ "BIRDWOOD, Sir George Christopher Molesworth". Who's Who, 59: p. 158. 1907. http://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA158.
^ "Author Query". International Plant Names Index. http://www.ipni.org/ipni/authorsearchpage.do.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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| Alt. Death |
28 Jun 1917 |
- Ealing, Middlesex, England.
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| Died |
28 Jun 1917 |
Ealing, Middlesex, England. |
| Person ID |
I2656 |
Bruce Mathers |
| Last Modified |
16 Oct 2011 |
| Father |
Christopher (Maj-Gen.) Birdwood, b. 12 Mar 1807, Pucklechurch, England. , d. 4 Jul 1882, Pucklechurch, England. (Age 75 years) |
| Mother |
Julia Lydiana Taylor, b. 27 Sep 1815, Belgaum, India , d. 16 Feb 1892, Pucklechurch, England. (Age 76 years) |
| Married |
21 Jan 1832 |
Belgaum, Bombay, Maharashtra, India. |
| Family ID |
F1376 |
Group Sheet |
| Family |
Francis Anne [Lady] Tolcher, b. 1831, Harewood, Plympton, England , d. 18 Jan 1921, Perivale, Felpham, Sussex, England. (Age 90 years) |
| Married |
19 Feb 1856 |
Sholapore, Bombay, India |
- 19 Feb 1856.
At Sholapore, Bombay, Geo. Christopher Molesworth Birdwood, esq. M.D. to Frances-Anne, eldest dau. of Edward Tolcher, esq. of Harwood, Plymton, St. mary, Devon.
Transcribed from The Gentleman's Magazine 1856
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| Children |
| | 1. Ethel Travers Birdwood |
| | 2. Mary Brodrick Birdwood |
| | 3. Birdwood |
| | 4. Birdwood |
| | 5. George Brodrick Birdwood, b. 27 Dec 1860, Bombay, India , d. 11 Dec 1921, Dover, Kent, England (Age 60 years) |
| + | 6. Alan Roger Birdwood, b. 27 Jan 1862, Harewood House, Plympton. , d. 15 Oct 1944, ? (Age 82 years) |
| + | 7. Francis Travers Birdwood, b. 6 Dec 1865, ? , d. 17 Mar 1936, ? (Age 70 years) |
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| Last Modified |
16 Oct 2011 |
| Family ID |
F1378 |
Group Sheet |
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