Elliott Colvin (died 1883)

Elliott Colvin was born in 1836 in Calcutta, now Kolkata, to John Russell Colvin.^[1][2][a] His siblings included Auckland Colvin and Walter Colvin.^[4][5] In 1850 he became a naval cadet.^[6] He was educated at Eton and from 1853 to 1855 was at Haileybury.^[7][4][8]

On 18 September 1862 in Nainital, he married Edith, the eldest daughter of Peter Cunningham.^[9][10][b] The Times of India later noted that "he was peculiarly happy in his married life".^[4] He learnt French, German and Russian, and was familiar with several Northern Indian dialects.^[4]

Colvin returned to India on 6 November 1855.^[13] In November 1856 he was attached to the North-West Provinces where he was posted assistant in the Agra division and then assistant magistrate and collector to Agra.^[13] In May 1857, at the onset of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, he was transferred to Mathura.^[4][13] He fought at Hathras, Aligarh and the surrounding areas.^[14][15] He also became well known at Budaun.^[4] He spent a few months at Meerut before being appointed as superintendent of the Terai District towards Rohilkhand.^[4][16] Between 1857 and 1878, he also held various posts at Meerat, Bareilly, Moradabad, Benares.^[13]

In 1880 Colvin held posts in Muzaffarnagar and Benares.^[2][13] Later, he became settlement officer, collector and commissioner back at Meerut.^[4] There, he led the search for European graves and commissioned maintenance of the burial sites.^[14]

At the age of 47, Colvin's health began to deteriorate.^[4] He died of "inflammation of the lungs" on 3 November 1883 at Sahanpur, and his body was taken to Meerut.^[4][17][18] He was buried at Meerut cemetery.^[4] At Meerut, he was succeeded by Mr. Quinton, a member of the Viceregal Council.^[19]

Following his death, a gate in his memory was constructed at a cost of 4,000 rupees at the east wall of Moti Bagh in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, at the instruction of Frederic Growse.^[20] Growse wrote in his 1884 book Bulandshahr; or, Sketches of an Indian district; social, historical and architectural that Colvin's "sudden untimely death, on the 3rd November 1883, was deeply felt by all classes of the community".^[20] An illustration of the gate was planned for inclusion in the second part of Growse's Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in New Buildings in the Bulandshahr District.^[21]