https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=William_Wilberforce_Bird_%28governor%29 2026-08-19T00:54:42Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.43.6 https://en.bharatpedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Wilberforce_Bird_(governor)&diff=191396&oldid=prev 2020-10-01T15:24:47Z

<p>Alter: url. URLs might have been internationalized/anonymized. | You can <a href="https://en.bharatpedia.org/wiki/BP:UCB" class="extiw" title="wp:UCB">use this bot</a> yourself. <a href="https://en.bharatpedia.org/wiki/BP:DBUG" class="extiw" title="wp:DBUG">Report bugs here</a>. | Suggested by AManWithNoPlan | All pages linked from cached copy of User:AManWithNoPlan/sandbox2 | via #UCB_webform_linked</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}<br /> &#039;&#039;&#039;William Wilberforce Bird&#039;&#039;&#039; (1784–1857) was a British colonial administrator who served as Deputy-Governor of [[Bengal Presidency]] and, in 1844, as the acting [[Governor General of India]].<br /> <br /> William Wilberforce Bird had the same name as [[William Wilberforce Bird (MP)|his father]], who was [[Member of Parliament (UK)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Coventry (UK Parliament constituency)|Coventry]]. He was born in 1784 and educated in [[Warwick]] and [[Geneva]] before being nominated to join the [[East India Company|British East India Company]] in 1802. After training, he arrived in [[Calcutta]] in 1803, where he undertook further training at the [[Fort William, India|Fort William College]] and was then posted to [[Varanasi|Benares]].&lt;ref name=&quot;obit&quot;&gt;{{cite journal |title=Obituaries |pages=253–254 |volume=II |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London |year=1858 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=230MAAAAIAAJ&amp;pg=PA253}}&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Bird conducted himself well in Benares, including on occasions when he had to deal with civil disturbances involving local people. He was involved in both financial and judicial work before being appointed to the [[Council of India|Supreme Council of India]], of which in due course he became president when the then Governor-General of India was absent. He served as Deputy-Governor of Bengal Presidency throughout the period when [[Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough|Lord Ellenborough]] was Governor, standing in for him while Ellenborough was engaged in the [[North-Western Provinces]]. Bird then replaced Ellenborough as Governor-General of India, acting in that capacity until the arrival of [[Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge|Sir Henry Hardinge]] from England in 1844. Hardinge reappointed Bird as Deputy-Governor of Bengal Presidency but Bird had retired from service and returned to England by the end of that year.&lt;ref name=&quot;obit&quot;/&gt; In the same year, until October, he was President of [[The Asiatic Society]].&lt;ref&gt;{{cite web |url=http://asiaticsocietycal.com/president/index.htm |publisher=The Asiatic Society |title=Presidents and Secretaries of The Asiatic Society |accessdate=2016-07-28}}&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> Bird married Hannah Elizabeth Brown, second daughter of [[David Brown (East India Company chaplain)|David Brown]], in Benares on 11 August 1818.&lt;ref&gt;{{cite journal |title=Marriages |journal=Blackwood&#039;s Edinburgh Magazine |page=768 |date=March 1819 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tt_QAAAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA768}}&lt;/ref&gt;&lt;ref&gt;{{cite book|author=Holmes and Co. (Calcutta, India)|title=The Bengal Obituary: Or, a Record to Perpetuate the Memory of Departed Worth, Being a Compilation of Tablets and Monumental Inscriptions from Various Parts of the Bengal and Agra Presidencies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T-HwSiLns14C&amp;pg=PA379|year=1851|publisher=J. Thomas|page=379}}&lt;/ref&gt; He died at home on 1 June 1857.&lt;ref name=&quot;obit&quot;/&gt;<br /> <br /> In the long-running debate concerning [[education in India]], Bird favoured the secular cause, along with people such as [[Thomas Babington Macaulay|Thomas Macaulay]], as opposed to one that desired further to promote a Christian basis for schooling. He said in 1835 that secular education was having good results in India and raised concerns that a Christian approach might upset the native people, potentially leading to what he described as &quot;catastrophes of a very serious description&quot;.&lt;ref&gt;{{cite book |title=Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910 |first=Robert |last=Ivermee |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |page=30 |isbn=978-1-31731-705-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z29ECgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA30}}&lt;/ref&gt;<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> {{reflist}}<br /> <br /> {{s-start}}<br /> {{s-gov}}<br /> {{succession box|before=[[Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough|The Earl of Ellenborough]] | title=[[Governor-General of India]]&lt;br&gt;(acting) | years=1844|after=[[Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge|The Viscount Hardinge]]}}<br /> {{s-end}}<br /> {{Governors-General of India}}<br /> <br /> {{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, William Wilberforce}}<br /> [[Category:1784 births]]<br /> [[Category:1857 deaths]]<br /> [[Category:Presidents of The Asiatic Society]]<br /> [[Category:Governors-General of India]]<br /> [[Category:Members of the Council of India]]<br /> [[Category:British East India Company civil servants]]<br /> <br /> <br /> {{UK-gov-bio-stub}}</div>

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