Allan Octavian Hume
Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS, was a British member of the Imperial Civil Service. He was a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. Hume rose in the ranks of the Indian Civil Service but like his father Joseph Hume, the radical MP, he was bold and outspoken in questioning British policies in India.
About Allan Octavian Hume in brief
Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS, was a British member of the Imperial Civil Service. He was a political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. Hume rose in the ranks of the Indian Civil Service but like his father Joseph Hume, the radical MP, he was bold and outspoken in questioning British policies in India. As an administrator of Etawah, he saw the Indian Rebellion of 1857 as a result of misgovernance and made great efforts to improve the lives of the common people. He founded the journal Stray Feathers in which he and his subscribers recorded notes on birds from across India. He left India in 1894 to live in London from where he continued to take an interest in botany and founding the South London Botanical Institute towards the end of his life. Hume has been called “the Father of Indian Ornithology” and, by those who found him dogmatic, “the Pope of Indian ornithology”. He was briefly a follower of the theosophical movement founded by Madame Blavatsky. Hume was born at St Mary Cray, Kent, a younger son of Joseph Hume,. the Radical member of parliament, by his marriage to Maria Burnley. Hume sailed to India in. 1849 and the following year, joined the Bengal Civil Service at Etwah in the North-Western Provinces, in what is now now Uttar Pradesh. His career in India included service as a district officer from 1849 to 1867, head of a central department from 1867 to 1870, and secretary to the Government from 1870 to 1879.
He married Mary Anne Grindall in 1853. Shortly after he began education and held public posts in the Indian Service, he began introducing free primary education and public meetings for their support. Hume also organized and managed an Urdu-dui journal, Muhibi-i-dua, which was only for only a few years before its fame spread. He died in London in 1912 and was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, where he was buried with his wife Mary Anne and their three children. He is survived by his wife, Mary Anne, and their four children, all of whom were born in 1849. Hume died at the age of 83 in London. He had a son, William, who was born in 1861 and a daughter, Mary Ann, who died in 1883. Hume is buried at the University College Hospital in London, a former home of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of England. He also had a grandson, David Hume, who became the first British citizen to be awarded the Order of the British Empire for his services to the Indian National Congress. Hume had a great deal of success in his career as an administrator in India and was awarded the Companion of the Bath in 1860 for his actions during the Indian Rebellions of 1858. Hume’s reforms led to the district being considered a model of development. Hume blamed British ineptitude for the uprising and pursued a policy of’mercy and forbearance’
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