Lepel H. Griffin
Sir Lepel Henry Griffin (1838 – 9 March 1908) (सर लैपिल ग्रिफिन) was a British administrator and diplomat during the British Raj period in India.
Early life
Lepel Henry Griffin was born in Watford, England on 20 July 1838. His father, Henry, was a clergyman in the Church of England and his mother was Frances Sophia. His mother had been married previously and thus Griffin had ten half-siblings as well as two full sisters.[1]
Griffin was educated briefly at Harrow School, having also attended Malden's Preparatory School, Brighton. He did not go to University but was privately tutored for the competitive examination for entry to the Indian Civil Services. He sat and passed those examinations in 1859- 60, being ranked tenth among the 32 successful candidates.[2]
Career in India
He reached India in November 1860 and was posted to Lahore. The mannerisms of Griffin had attracted attention in India from the time of his arrival there, and in 1875 Sir Henry Cunningham satirised him in the novel, Chronicles of Dustypore, in which he was depicted as the character Desvoeux. Katherine Prior, the author of his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, describes that, "He was a dandyish, Byronic figure, articulate, argumentative, and witty. Anglo-Indian society was at once both dazzled by and scornful of his languid foppishness and irreverent tongue".[3]
In 1880 he became Chief Secretary of the Punjab.[4] He was sent as a diplomatic representative to Kabul, at the end of the Second Afghan War.[5]
He was then appointed Governor-General's Agent in Central India, Then he served as Resident in Indore; and Resident in Hyderabad.
Death
Griffin died at his home - 4 Cadogan Gardens, Sloane Street, London - on 9 March 1908 after suffering from influenza. He was cremated and his ashes were interred at a private chapel owned by Colonel Dudley Sampson in Buxhalls, Haywards Heath, Sussex. His wife remarried, while the younger of his two sons, Sir Lancelot Cecil Lepel Griffin became the last political secretary of British India. [6]
Books authored
- The Rajas of the Punjab (1873)
- The Panjab Chiefs. Lahore: T. C. McCartney-Chronicle Press. 1865.
- The Panjab Chiefs 1. Updated by Charles Francis Massy (New revised ed.). Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press. 1890.
- The Panjab Chiefs 2. Updated by Charles Francis Massy (New revised ed.). Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press. 1890.
- Revised as Chiefs and Families of note in the Punjab (1909)
- The Law of Inheritance to Chiefships. Lahore: Punjab Printing Company. 1869.
- Famous monuments of Central India (1886)
- The Great Republic (Second ed.). London: Chapman and Hall. 1884.
- Ranjit Singh. Rulers of India series. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 189
References
- ↑ "Griffin, Sir Lepel Henry (1838-1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33576
- ↑ "Griffin, Sir Lepel Henry (1838-1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33576
- ↑ "Griffin, Sir Lepel Henry (1838-1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33576
- ↑ Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series by George Robert Aberigh-Mackay - Full Text Free Book (Part 3/3)
- ↑ Abdur Rahman Khan - 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ "Griffin, Sir Lepel Henry (1838-1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33576
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