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'''Sir Oliver Beauchamp Coventry St John''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCSI}} (21 March 1837 – 3 June 1891) was an administrator in [[British Raj|British India]], who took a close interest in the zoology of the region. He served as the [[List of Chief Commissioners of Baluchistan|chief commissioner]] of [[Baluchistan (Chief Commissioner's Province)|Baluchistan]] for ten years and was involved in the establishment of a telegraph network to India.<br />
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==Early life==<br />
Oliver St John was born on 21 March 1837 in [[Ryde]], [[Isle of Wight]]. His father was Captain Oliver St John of the [[Madras Army]] and his mother was Helen {{nee}} Young (widow of Henry Anson Nutt). He studied at the [[East India Company]]'s [[Addiscombe Military Seminary|Military College at Addiscombe]] (1855–57),<ref>{{Cite book |first=H. M. |last=Vibart |title=Addiscombe: its heroes and men of note |place=Westminster |publisher=Archibald Constable |year=1894 |url=https://archive.org/details/addiscombeitsher00viba/page/n7/mode/2up |page=[https://archive.org/details/addiscombeitsher00viba/page/698/mode/2up 699] }}</ref> and joined the [[Bengal Engineers]] on 12 December 1856.<ref name=obit>{{cite journal |last=Goldsmid |first=Frederic |year=1891 |title=Obituary: Colonel Sir Oliver Beauchamp Coventry St John, RE, KCSI |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography |series=New Monthly Series |volume=13 |issue=7 |pages=434–437 }}.</ref><br />
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==Career==<br />
[[Image:DendrocoposMediusSanctijohannis.jpg|thumb|''[[Middle spotted woodpecker|Picus sanctijohannis]]'', named after St John by [[William Thomas Blanford]]]]<br />
After serving in the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh]] in the public works department, St John volunteered for work in [[Persia]] under Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Stewart of the Royal Engineers. This mission was mainly to establish a telegraph line between Persia and India including a cable in the [[Persian Gulf]] and a land cable line for telegraphic link to [[Bosporus]]. Stewart and his brother Champain had already worked on a survey in Turkey. St John worked on the expedition under Captain Murdoch Smith, RE.<br />
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He later took charge of the line from [[Teheran]] to [[Bashahr]] (March 1866), and during this time a second telegraph line was added. He went home in May 1867 and he was then sent to Abyssinia to organize telegraph lines for the war. This line was 200 miles from the coast and the work led to his promotion. Towards the end of 1868 he returned to Persia and he remained here till 1871 with a break in September 1869 when he married Janette, daughter of James Ormond, of Abingdon, Berkshire. In October 1871, St John was sent to Baluchistan for the survey of the Perso-Kelat frontier. He returned to England in October 1872 and worked on preparing maps at the India Office. These maps were based on longitudes of the Persian telegraph stations fixed in co-operation with General [[James Walker (Surveyor General)|James Walker]] of the Indian [[Great Trigonometric Survey|Trigonometric Survey]], Captain [[William Henry Pierson|William Pierson]], RE, and Lt Stiffe, IN.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=F.G.J.|date=1891|title=III. Obituary Notices|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|language=en|volume=23|issue=3|pages=493–498|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00021225|issn=1356-1863|doi-access=free}}</ref><br />
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St John published his notes in the ''Narrative of a Journey through Baluchistan and Southern Persia'' (1876). He returned to India in 1875 and became principal of the [[Mayo College]] in [[Ajmer]]. After August 1878 he became part of the staff of Sir [[Neville Bowles Chamberlain|Neville Chamberlain]]'s mission to [[Kabul]]. He then became chief political officer to the Kandahar [[Field Force]], becoming later Resident in [[Kandahar]]. An attempt was made on his life during a trip in southern Afghanistan on 10 January 1879. He was also posted on special duty in [[Kashmir]] (January 1883), acting resident in [[Hyderabad]] (April–July 1884), resident in Kashmir (August 1884), agent to the governor-general at [[Vadodara|Baroda]] (December 1887), resident at [[Mysore]] and chief commissioner in [[Coorg]] (January 1889). He was later recalled from southern India to Baluchistan. He died in [[Quetta]] of pneumonia after an attack of [[1889–1890 flu pandemic|influenza]] and was buried at Quetta.<ref name=obit/><ref name=":0">{{cite ODNB|author=Prior, Katherine|year=2004|title=St John, Sir Oliver Beauchamp Coventry (1837–1891)|id=24505}}</ref><br />
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==Natural history==<br />
During all his time in Abyssinia, Persia and Baluchistan St John took a keen interest in natural history and hunting. His personal notes from the Persian border commission expedition of 1871 are included in the zoology report of the expedition prepared by [[William Thomas Blanford]]. Blanford's own account includes notes on St John's experiences with lions in Persia, while another account is provided of him chasing a tiger that threatened a colleague. St John also corresponded with ornithologists in the region, including [[Allan Octavian Hume]].<br />
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He was a member of the Royal Geological Society and the Zoological Society of London and sent many animals back for the collections, including a live [[bactrian camel]].<ref name=":0" /> A species of woodpecker (''[[Middle spotted woodpecker|Picus sanctijohannis]]'', now considered a [[subspecies]] of ''[[Dendrocoptes medius]]'') and a species of snake (''[[Fowlea sanctijohannis]]'') are both named after him.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("St. John, O. B. C.", pp. 254-255).</ref><br />
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==Death==<br />
St John died on 3 June 1891 in [[Quetta]] of [[pneumonia]] after an attack of [[influenza]] during a recurrence of the [[1889–90 flu pandemic|1889–90 pandemic]].<ref name=obit/><br />
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==References==<br />
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{{succession box |title=[[List of Chief Commissioners of Balochistan|Chief Commissioner of Balochistan]]|<br />
years=1877–1887|<br />
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after=[[Robert Groves Sandeman|Sir Robert Groves Sandeman]]}}<br />
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{{succession box |title=[[List of Chief Commissioners of Balochistan|Chief Commissioner of Balochistan (acting)]]|<br />
years=1891|<br />
before= [[Hugh Shakespear Barnes|Sir Hugh Shakespear Barnes]]|<br />
after=[[Hugh Shakespear Barnes|Sir Hugh Shakespear Barnes]]}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:St John, Oliver}}<br />
[[Category:Administrators in British India]]<br />
[[Category:1837 births]]<br />
[[Category:1891 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]<br />
[[Category:People from Ryde]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of Addiscombe Military Seminary]]<br />
[[Category:Bengal Engineers officers]]<br />
[[Category:St John family|Oliver]]<br />
[[Category:Deaths from the 1889–1890 flu pandemic]]<br />
[[Category:People educated at Norwich School]]</div>Bot