John Strachey

Who was John Strachey?

Sir John Strachey GCSI, CIE, British Indian civilian, fifth son of Edward Strachey, second son of Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet, was born in London, England. After passing through the East India Company College, Strachey entered the Bengal civil service in 1842, and served in the North-Western Provinces, occupying many important positions. He married Katherine Batten, daughter of Joseph Batten the Principal of the East India Company College, on 9 October 1856, and they had eight children.

In 1861, Lord Canning appointed him president of a commission to investigate the great cholera epidemic of that year. In 1862 he became judicial commissioner in the Central Provinces. In 1864, after the report of the royal commission on the sanitary condition of the army, a permanent sanitary commission was established in India, with Strachey as president. In 1866, he became Chief Commissioner of Oudh, having been chosen by Lord Lawrence to remedy as far as possible the injustice done after the Indian rebellion of 1857 by the confiscation of the rights of tenants and small proprietors of land, maintaining at the same time the privileges of the Talukdars of great landlords.