List of Indian Civil Servants

Information on some notable members of the Indian Civil Service.

• Alexander Dalrymple 1737-1808 page 217 ‪The General Biographical Dictionary: Volume 11 by Alexander Chalmers 1813. Appointed a writer 1752 in Madras. Obtained a grant of the island of Balambangan (an island off North Borneo) controlled by the Sultan of Sulu (Sooloo) for the East India Company in 1763. Hydrographer.

Alexander Dalrymple’s Treaties with Sulu in Malay and Tausug 05 June 2014 British Library Asian and African studies blog.

• John Beames (Wikipedia) served in India 1858-1893 in the Civil Service. In addition, he was a scholar of Indian history, literature and linguistics. He wrote Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian, which describes his work "defending powerless peasants against rapacious planters, improvising fifteen-gun salutes for visiting dignitaries, and presiding over the blissful coast of Orissa". Available to buy through Amazon.co.uk from the FIBIS Shop. Also available at the British Library. This book may be read online on the Digital Library of India website.
• Henry Mortimer Durand (Wikipedia) was Foreign Secretary from 1884-1894. Further information in Simla Rifles.

• Richard Walmesley Blair, who joined the Service 1875, was in the Opium Department, and was the father of the author George Orwell.
• Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer. Joining the service in India in 1885 he was first posted to Shahpur in the Punjab.In December 1912, he was appointed to be lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, a post which he held until May 1919. Like many administrators O'Dwyer believed that ‘extremist’ nationalist politics and terrorism were inter-connected. His decision to implement martial law in some parts of the Punjab was controversial. oxforddnb.com
  • His book India as I knew it, 1885–1925. published in 1925, is available toread online on the Digital Library of India website.

• Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Patrick Robert Cadell. (dnw.co.uk) He entered the ICS in 1891 in the Bombay Presidency He was Commissioner at Sind, 1925; retiring from the Indian Civil Service in 1926. He was President of the Council, Junagadh State, 1932-35; and similarly for Sangli State, 1937 and Rajkot State, 1938. Photographic Portrait, National Portrait Gallery

• Olaf Caroe (Wikipedia) joined the Indian Political Service in 1923; served as Foreign Secretary (1939-45) and as Governor of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) from March 1946 to June 1947. "Caroe's lessons" by AG Noorani, a review, from Frontline May 2006, of the book The Future of The Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India's Independence, and the Defense of Asia by Peter John Brobst. This book is available through Amazon.co.uk from the FIBIS Shop.

• Philip Mason joined the Civil Service in 1928. He was the author of the books about the Indian Civil Service, The Men Who Ruled India, published in two volumes, The Founders (1953) and The Guardians (1954). The books were originally published under the name Philip Woodruff. A one volume abridged edition was published in 1985. His many books include an autobiography A Shaft of Sunlight: Memories of a Varied Life (1978).
  • Philip Mason wikipedia
  • Obituary: Philip Mason uk Independent Newspaper

• Alexander Redpath. An India List post transcribes the 2 May 1996 Daily Telegraph( London) obituary of Alexander Redpath of the Indian Political Service. He joined the Indian Army in 1929. His career with the IPS, which began in 1934, took him from the Rajput states, through Multan, Indore, Gilgit, Lahore and Calcutta, to a final post as Secretary to the British Legation in Kabul. In 1948 he became Deputy Secretary in the Foreign Ministry to deal with the accession of States to Pakistan, and Pakistan's relations with India and Afghanistan.