Henry Meredith Parker

Portrait sketch by Colesworthey Grant

Henry Meredith Parker (1796–1868) was a British writer who lived in Calcutta, India, working in the Bengal Civil Service, who wrote poems and essays. He contributed a lot to local Indian periodicals such as the Calcutta Review.[1] Along with Theodore Dickens, Ashutosh Dey and others he established the Union Bank of Calcutta in 1829.

Parker's mother was a famous Covent Garden Theatre dancer and in his youth he played violin at the playhouse. He started work for Lord Moira at the Tower of London followed by a clerkship in the Commissariat. He served in the Peninsular War and joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1813 as a writer. He worked as an assistant to the Superintendent of the Western Salt Chaukis, as an assistant Salt Agent in Chittagong and then in the Customs department. He retired in 1842. In his spare time he wrote farcical plays for the Calcutta theatre, many drawn from French sources. He supported James Silk Buckingham and the publication of his Calcutta Journal.[2] He was known for supporting cultural integration between Indians and Europeans. Henry Louis Vivian Derozio wrote a Sonnet to Henry Meredith Parker.[3][4] Kasiprasad Ghosh wrote a poem to Parker.[5]

In his Indian War Song published in 1824 he foresaw the 1857 rebellion. This was written under the initials "C.J." but he also wrote under other pseudonyms including Bernard Wycliffe.[6]

Let the Musulman rise, with his old battle cry,
For the glad hour of freedom and vengeance is nigh;
Let him think on the sceptre his forefathers swayed,
And the might of past ages shall rest on his blade.

Will the fiery rajpoot hear the trumpet that rings
With a nation's appeal to the offspring of kings,
Nor rush to the field, like his proud sires of old,
The vanguard of valour, and guide of the bold?

Sound! sound to horse! hark! the loud clanging hoof
And the neigh of impatience gives gallant reproof;
March! and the trump of our Durrahs shall roll,
Like a fast-moving storm on the infidel's soul.

References

  1. ↑ Dunn, Theodore Douglas (1921). Poets of John Company. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co. pp. 66–77.
  2. ↑ Dewar, Douglas (1922). Bygone days in India. London: John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd. p. 188.
  3. ↑ Derozio, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1828). The Fakeer of Jungheera, a Metrical Tale: And Other Poems. Samuel Smith.
  4. ↑ Song of the storym petrel. Complete works of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. 2001. p. 201.
  5. ↑ Ghosh, Kasiprasad (1830). The Shair And Other Poems. pp. 53–54.
  6. ↑ [C.J.] (1824) Oriental Herald 2:62
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