John Russell Colvin (29 May 1807 – 9 September 1857) was a British administrator of the East India Company, and Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces from 1853 until his death from cholera during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
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Biography
Colvin was born in Calcutta, then part of the Bengal Presidency, the second son and fourth child of James Colvin (born 1768), a merchant with Colvin, Bazett & Co. of London and Calcutta. The Colvin family were a prominent Anglo-Indian family of Scottish descent. He was educated at the East India Company College in Hertfordshire, England and entered the service of the British East India Company in 1826.
In 1836 he became private secretary to Lord Auckland at the time of the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1837, and named his son after him. From 1846 to 1849, Colvin served as Commissioner of Tenasserim, in British (Lower) Burma.
In 1853 Lord Dalhousie appointed him lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of India. In 1857, at the start of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Colvin was at Agra with only a weak British regiment and a native battery, not enough force to prevail against the mutineers. Colvin issued a proclamation to the 'natives' that was censured at the time for its clemency, but it was similar to the approach of Sir Henry Lawrence, later followed by Lord Canning. Colvin died shortly before the fall of Delhi.
His body could not be carried out of the Agra Fort (which after the fall of the Mughals, the British establishment in India converted into a military garrison). The selection of the burial location is often criticized for the insensitivity, considering the significance of the place. Within the sprawling palace-fort complex, the tomb is located in the front of the Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) where the Peacock Throne was placed.