John Strachey (civil servant)

Sir John Strachey GCSI CIE (5 June 1823 – 19 December 1907) was an English civil servant in British India.

Sir John Strachey (left), together with his brother Sir Richard, 1876.

John Strachey, standing at right end, with John Lawrence, Viceroy of India and other council members. c. 1864

Life

The fifth son of Edward Strachey, second son of Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet, he was born in London, England. After passing through the East India Company College, Strachey entered the Bengal civil service in 1842, and served in the North-Western Provinces, occupying a number of important positions.

In 1861, Lord Canning appointed him president of a commission to investigate the great cholera epidemic of that year. In 1862 he became judicial commissioner in the Central Provinces. In 1864, after the report of the royal commission on the sanitary condition of the army, a permanent sanitary commission was established in India, with Strachey as president. In 1866, he became Chief Commissioner of Oudh, having been chosen by Lord Lawrence to remedy as far as possible the injustice done after the Indian rebellion of 1857 by the confiscation of the rights of tenants and small proprietors of land, maintaining at the same time the privileges of the Talukdars of great landlords. As member of the legislative council he introduced several bills for that purpose, which, with the full approval of the Talukdars, passed into law.

In 1868, he became a member of the governor-general's council, and on the assassination of Lord Mayo in 1872 he acted temporarily as viceroy. In 1874 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces. In 1876, by request of Lord Lytton and the secretary of state, he consented to relinquish that office, and returned to the governor-general's council as financial minister, which post he retained until 1880.

During this time, while Lord Lytton was viceroy, important reforms were carried out. The measures for decentralizing financial administration, initiated under Lord Mayo, were practically completed. The salt duties were reduced, and the system under which they were levied was altered, and that opprobrium of the administration, the inland customs line, was abolished. The removal of all import duties, including those on English cotton goods, and the establishment of complete free trade, was declared to be the fixed policy of the government, and this was in great measure carried into effect before 1880, when Strachey left India.

The system under which military accounts were kept occasioned an erroneous estimate of the cost of the Second Afghan War of 1878–80. For this error Strachey was technically responsible; it was made the occasion of a partisan attack, which resulted in his resignation. From 1885 to 1895 Strachey was a member of the council of the secretary of state for India. He died in 1907.

Works

Strachey was joint author with his brother Lt-Gen Sir Richard Strachey of The Finances and Public Works of India (1882), besides writing India (3rd ed., 1903), and Hastings and the Rohilla War (1892). He also planned & designed the construction of The Rail-cum-Road Bridge on River Yamuna in Agra. Unfortunately he didn't get to see the completion of the Arch Bridge as he passed away in 1907. The bridge was completed in 1908, taking 10 years to complete since its construction commenced in 1898. The 1,024 metres (3,360 ft) long bridge was named after John Strachey as Strachey Bridge. It is still functional even being 112 years old carrying trains in Agra Cantonment Railway Station on Delhi - Bhopal Main line to Tundla Junction Railway station in Delhi - Howrah Main Line.

Family

Strachey married Katherine Batten, daughter of Joseph Batten, Principal of the East India Company College, on 9 October 1856,[1] and they had eight children. They included Sir Arthur Strachey (1858–1901), judge in India.[2] Their daughter Winifred married Hugh Shakespear Barnes.[3]

References

Descent and Alliances of Croslegh et. al. by Charles Croslegh, privately printed at The De La More Press, London, 1904 pp.330–3
Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Strachey, John" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Bostock, Frances. "Barnes, Sir Hugh Shakespear". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53561. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Sources

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Strachey, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 975–976.

Government offices
Preceded by The Earl of Mayo	Viceroy of India, acting 1872	Succeeded by The Lord Napier, acting
Preceded by Sir William Muir	Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces 1874–1876	Succeeded by Sir G. E. W. Couper

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[1] Descent and Alliances of Croslegh et. al. by Charles Croslegh, privately printed at The De La More Press, London, 1904 pp.330–3

[2] Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Strachey, John" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[3] Bostock, Frances. "Barnes, Sir Hugh Shakespear". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53561. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)