Sturdy Scots and pale-faced Londoners
Every year the India Office launched a round of tests and examinations to find suitable candidates for service in British India. The files on these examinations, in the India Office Records at the British Library, can make interesting reading. One example is the file on the examinations for Indian Forest Department appointments in 1880.
Photo 211/2(5) Samuel Bourne - Forests around Darjeeling Images Online
Forty candidates applied in response to advertisements placed in leading newspapers and in the Journal of Forestry. Each candidate had an interview at the India Office on 8 January 1880, with physical examinations held the next day. Three candidates failed the medical; two were declared unfit and the other withdrew on being informed that his physical powers were imperfect.
The remaining 37 candidates were instructed to meet the examiner, Mr Sladen, at Jack Straw’s Castle in Hampstead at 9 am on Saturday 10 January 1880, where breakfast was provided. They then set out on a brisk 5½ hour walk around north London, taking in Highgate, Hornsey, Muswell Hill, Colney Hatch, Pymmes Brook to Edmonton, through Tottenham and up Lordship Lane back to Hornsey and Highgate, finishing at Hampstead. In the course of the walk, the candidates were exercised in running, fence jumping, and vaulting over five barred gates. Mr Sladen was pleased to report that all the candidates went through the test to his satisfaction, and arrived at the end of the 20 mile walk with only a few minutes interval between the first and the last.
The academic examinations were held on 12 January 1880, with the candidates being tested in arithmetic, compound addition, orthography, handwriting, English composition, algebra, geometry, plane trigonometry, botany, mechanics, physics, chemistry, surveying, plan drawing, French translation and oral, geology and mineralogy, and freehand drawing.
Map of forests in Gujarat from ‘Teak forests of India’ by Hugh Falconer, 1852, IOR/V/23/92 no 9
Eleven candidates failed in French, including three Scotsmen and some of the most robust candidates from northern and rural districts. This was the cause of some regret amongst India Office officials, with one commenting ‘I am not myself in favour of the French schooling; and am sorry we have lost these sturdy young Scotchmen’. Another wrote more bluntly that he would have preferred one or two healthy Scots to pale-faced Londoners! It was decided to ask the Civil Service Commissioners if the examination could in future be modified with regard to the standard expected for French.
Overall the standard in the 1880 examinations was reported to have been considerably higher than the previous year, and the top six performing candidates were recommended to the Secretary of State for India for nomination to the Indian Forest Service. The successful candidates in order were 1st Harold Martin Reed, 2nd George Homfray, 3rd Hugh Murray, 4th Herbert Slade (who had narrowly missed out in the last examination, coming 8th), 5th Henry Jackson Aylmer Porter and 6th Albert Wyndham Lushington.
John O’Brien
India Office Records
Further Reading:
File R 127/1880 - Examination of candidates for the Indian Forest Department, held in January 1880 [IOR/L/E/6/4, File 127]
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