Robert Christopher Tytler
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Robert Christopher Tytler (25 September 1818 – 10 September 1872) was a
Biography
His father, Robert Tytler (18 Nov 1787 – 17 March 1838, Gwalior), served as a surgeon in the Bengal Native Infantry and his mother, Elizabeth Schneeburg (1782–1852) was the daughter of a German count.[1] Tytler joined the Bengal army in 1834 after going to Leith High School in Edinburgh, and arrived in India in 1835 to join his father's regiment, the 34th Bengal Native Infantry.[2] He saw many years of active military service in India, and in 1842 he was promoted to baggage-master. He later became interpreter and quartermaster and took part in the actions of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42).[3]
In the
In May 1857, at the beginning of the
His first wife, Isabella née Neilson, whom he married in 1843 died aged 21 in 1847. In the following year on Tytler married
Harriet wrote several memoirs when she was between 75 and 77 years old (1903-6). These include "An Englishwoman in India; the memoirs of Harriet Tytler 1828-1858" first published in Chambers Journal in 1931 and a more detailed version published in 1986 by Oxford University Press.
Tytler was a keen naturalist, and took an interest particularly in the birds (many of his notes were communicated to Allan Octavian Hume) but also collected amphibians and reptiles. In one communication to Hume he wrote to claim priority on the discovery of the rufous-rumped grassbird:[8]
I shot these birds at Dacca in 1852, and sent a description and a drawing of them to Mr. Blyth. They were named after my esteemed friend Jules Verreaux, of Paris. They are not uncommon at Dacca in grass-jungle. I think the bird Dr. Jerdon gives in his Birds of India as Graminicola bengalensis, No. 542, p. 177, vol. ii., is meant for this species. The genus Graminicola, under which he places this bird, appears to be a genus of Dr. Jerdon's own, for it is not in Gray's 'Genera and Subgenera of Birds in the British Museum,' printed in 1855. If it is the same bird as Dr. Jerdon's, then my name, which I communicated in 1851-52 not only to Mr. Blyth but also to Prince Bonaparte and M. Jules Verreaux, and which was published in my Fauna of Dacca, has, it seems to me, the priority.
Tytler lived for a while in Shimla at Bonnie Moon on Jakko Hill. Here he established a museum with collections of birds, shells, geological specimens, manuscripts and other exhibits from around India. Lord Mayo placed him in the Home department so as to run this public museum which was closed when he died in 1872. He had suffered for almost eight years and showed symptoms of arsenic poisoning.[9] Harriet Tytler offered to gift the ornithological collections to Shimla but the collection which was packed into boxes eventually came into the possession of a Mr B. Bevan-Petman who passed it on to the Lahore Central Museum in 1917. The boxes were examined in 1918 by Hugh Whistler and only about 2500 specimens could be salvaged, the rest destroyed by moulds and beetles.[10] Harriet also established North Stoneham house known as Mayo Industrial School in 1869 which was then bought in 1872 by a trust and made later into a school for girls.[11] Tytler introduced several species of birds into the Andamans including common mynas, jungle mynas and peafowl.[12][13]
Tytler's son, Major-General Sir Harry Tytler, followed his father into the Indian Army and was also a prominent naturalist.
Eponyms
Species named for him include Tytler's mabuya,
Mount Harriet in the Andamans is named after his wife.
Writings
- Tytler RC. (1863). In Blyth E. (1899). Report of the Curator, Zoology Department. Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 32: 88.
- Tytler RC. (1865). Description of a new species of Spizaetus. Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 1865: 112.
- Tytler RC. (1865). Observations on a few species of geckos alive in the possession of the author. J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 33 [1864]: 535–548.
- Tytler RC. (1868). Notes on the birds observed during a march from Simla to Mussoorie. Ibis 2 (4): 190–203.
- Tytler RC. (1854). Miscellaneous notes on the fauna of Dacca, including remarks made on the line of march from Barrackpore to that station. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 2 (14): 168–177.
References
- ^ Crofton, O.S. (1934). List of Inscriptions on Tombs Or Monuments in Rajputana & Central India. Government of India. p. 149.
- ^ Captain in 38th Regiment Bengal Light Infantry according to his note in The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Fauna of Barrackpore. 1854. Vol. 77 pp. 365–376
- ^ a b c George Weber, Pioneer Biographies of the British Period to 1947 Appendix A Full text
- ISBN 0-415-97235-3. Page 964.
- ^ Mathur, L.P. (1968). History Of The Andaman And Nicobar Island (1756-1966). Delhi: Sterling Publishers. pp. 85-87.
- ^ Hinze, Ian (2008). "The widening distribution of the red avadavat Amandava amandava, with avicultural notes". Avicultural Magazine. 114 (4): 145–156.
- ^ Marien, Mary Warner (2006). Photography: A Cultural History. Laurence King Publishing. p. 93.
- ^ Hume, AO (889) The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds. Volume 1. p. 20
- S2CID 235441068.
- ^ Prestwich, Arthur Alfred (1963). I name this parrot-. p. 454.
- ^ Buck, Edward J. (1904). Simla. Past and Present. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co. pp. 128–129.
- ^ "Additional Notes on the Avifauna of the Andaman Islands". Stay Feathers. 4 (4–6): 279–294. 1876.
- ^ Whistler, Hugh (1918). "Colonel Tytler's collection of birds". Ibis. 10. 2: 737–739.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Tytler", p. 269).
External links
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