Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings (December 7 1732 - August 22 1818) was the first Governor-General of India, from 1773 to 1785. He was born at Churchill, Oxfordshire. He attended Westminster School before joining the British East India Company in 1750 as a clerk. In 1757 he was made the British Resident (administrative in charge) of Murshidabad. He was appointed to the Calcutta council in 1761, but was back in England in 1764. He returned to India in 1769 as a part of the Madras council and was made governor of Bengal in 1772. In 1773, he was appointed the first Governor-General of India.
For ten years Hastings managed to help expand British control across India that had been stated by Robert Clive.
Hastings resigned in 1784 and returned to England, however when he arrived in England he was charged with corruption by Edmund Burke. Burke was encouraged by Sir Philip Francis who had been wounded by Hastings in a duel in India. The trial took seven years and Hastings was acquitted.
He still had supporters though and on August 22 1806, the Edinburgh East India Club held a party to honour Hastings, asking for "Prosperity to our settlements in India".[1]
Places named after him
The city of Hastings, New Zealand and the Melbourne outer suburb of Hastings, Victoria, Australia were both named after him.
Hastings is a Senior Wing House at St Paul's School, Darjeeling, India, where all the senior wing houses are named after colonial-age military figures.
Warren Hastings Media
Warren Hastings with his wife Marian in their garden at Alipore, c. 1784–87
Portrait of Warren Hastings (Calcutta, Past and Present; c. 1905)
The trial of Warren Hastings in Westminster Hall, 1788
Hastings painted by Johann Zoffany, 1783–1784
Hastings in the late 18th century, as painted by Lemuel Francis Abbott
His memorial in Daylesford churchyard
References
- ↑ Gilbert, W.M., editor, Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century, Edinburgh, 1901: 44