Michael Lloyd Ferrar: Difference between revisions

Lieutenant-Colonel '''Michael Lloyd Ferrar'''  {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CSI|CIE|OBE}} (16 April 1876 – 25 February 1971) was a British army officer and civil servant who worked as a chief commissioner of the Penal Settlement at [[Port Blair]] on [[Andaman Islands]] and [[Nicobar Islands]].

Born 1876, son of Michael Lloyd Ferrar, Ferrar was educated at St. Columba's College, Rugby and the [[Royal Military College, Sandhurst]] where he was a contemporary of [[Winston Churchill]]. He joined the [[Indian Civil Service]] in 1861 and arrived in [[India]] in 1863. He joined the Indian Army at the age of 20 in 1896. Ferrar opted to move to the Civil Service and was inducted into the Punjab Commission. During the five years that he was in the army (where he served on the [[Tirah Campaign]] 1897-98), he studied Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Punjabi and Pashto.  

He worked as a settlement officer in Oudh around 1875.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.501974|title=The regular settlement and revised assessment of the district of Sitapur in the Province of Oudh|author=Ferrar, M.L.|publisher=Government of India|year=1875|place=Lucknow}}</ref> Before becoming Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands he served at various positions in northern and northwestern parts of British India. From 1902-1906 he commanded the Baloch Levy, was a postal censor at Bombay, 1915-18, and deputy commissioner Lahore, 1919-23, during which time he was involved in the arrest of [[Lala Lajpat Rai]] and [[Satyananda Stokes|Satyanand Stokes]] on charges of sedition.<ref>{{cite book|title=An American in Gandhi's India: The Biography of Satyanand Stokes|author=Sharma, Asha|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2008|page=147}}</ref> Ferrar was responsible for increasing agriculture on the Andamans. Under his management, tea, coffee and rubber were tried on the island and land was allotted to settlers between 1923 and 1926. On the advice of Colonel Christopher Covell, swamps were drained.  [[Ferrargunj]] was named after him and was originally a settlement for Bhantus who were then designated as a [[Denotified Tribes|criminal tribe]]. The settlement was attacked by [[Jarawas (Andaman Islands)|Jarawas]] and Ferrar launched punitive measures against the Jarawas.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|title=New Histories of the Andaman Islands. Landscape, Place and Identity in the Bay of Bengal, 1790–2012|last=Mazumdar|first=Madhumita|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2016|isbn=9781139924641|editor1=Anderson, Clare|pages=29-61|chapter=Improving visions, troubled landscapes: the legacies of colonial Ferrargunj|editor2=Mazumdar, Madhumita|editor3=Pandya, Vishvajit}}</ref> He initiated measures to protect fishing grounds in the Andamans from being poached by Singapore fishermen for ''[[Trochus]]'' shells.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1931|title=Report on the Zoological Survey of India for the years 1929-30, 1930-31 and 1931-32|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.zoological.records.033.01/page/n35|journal=Records of the Indian Museum|volume=33|pages=ii-iii}}</ref> Ferrar retired in 1931 and returned to  England<ref name=kelly/> serving as a Major in the Home Guard around 1940-41.<ref name=kelly /> In 1932 he wrote a chapter on the history of Islam in India.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=India| author=Ferrar, M.L.|title=Whither Islam? A survey of Modern Movements in the Moslem War| editor=Gibb, H.A.R.| publisher=Victor Gollancz Ltd.|place=London|year=1932|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.217616/page/n173 171]-236|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.217616}}</ref> His proficience in Indian languages led to him being appointed an examiner in Urdu at [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]] from 1934-62.<ref name=kelly>Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1967, p.730</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite journal|title=Lt. Col. M.L. Ferrar- The "butterfly mad" Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands| author1=Mohanraj, Prashanth| author2=Veenakumari, K.| journal=Current Science| volume=87| issue=10| year=2004| pages=1467-1469|url = https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_087_10_1467_1469_0.pdf}}</ref>