Archive / Papers / Ferrar, M.L. Papers

Description

Given by Lt. Col. Michael Lloyd Ferrar

Small Collections Box 10

Andaman and Nicobar Islands; 1929-1932 Oudh (before creation of the United Provinces) 1875-1877

Microfilm No. 32

  1. Journal of Michael Lloyd Ferrar (the donor’s father):
    • Family history; autobiography; joined I.C.S. 1861; sailed for India 15 October 1862 – the journal continues from here. Arrives in Calcutta 22 January 1863, and finally leaves India in 1899. It is a very detailed journal, recording not only events in India, but commenting on news from abroad, such as American Civil War, and is annotated in later years with remarks, deaths etc., and illustrated with newspaper cuttings, photographs, maps etc. There are comments on rates of pay, conditions of life (European), travelling and weather, and above all personalities, but little about his work or the Indian people.
  2. Letters from Lt. Col. M.L. Ferrar (son of the above) to his mother:
    • Volume I, 1913-23 Kula, Punjab; Bombay, as chief postal censor 1914-19; Lahore, Assistant Commissioner in charge of the city 1919-23. (There is a good deal of political comment in these letters on the Nationalist Movement and Civil Disobedience.)
    • Volume II, 1923-31: Andaman Islands, Chief Commissioner; comments on the Jarawas, Moplah immigration and mosquito control.
  3. Game-book of Lt. Col. M.L. Ferrar, 1913-53; this begins with a short autobiographical sketch.
  4. Diary of Mrs. F.L. Ferrar, 1913.
  5. Miscellaneous papers:
    • ‘The Anopheline mosquitoes of the Andamans’, by Major G. Covell, I.M.S. 1926
    • Andaman and Nicobar Gazette. Extraordinary. Published by authority. No. 2; Port Blair, Thursday 18th March 1926. Home Department Resolution. ‘Jails’, by J. Crerar, Secretary to the Government of India. Proceedings of the Durbar held by the Chief Commissioner on the 13th March 1926.
    • ‘Memorandum on the agriculture of the Andamans and Nicobars’, by M.L. Ferrar, Chief Commissioner … C.C.P. 5 February 1927.
    • MS draft of speech to the Local Born Association, October 1927.
    • Causeway connecting the Chatham Island with the mainland – opening ceremony 21 April 1930. Speech made by Major D. Kenny, Deputy Commissioner and by Lt. Col. Ferrar, Chief Commissioner.
    • Press telegrams. Chief Commissioner’s Press. Dated Port Blair, Saturday 11 April 1931.
    • Typescript of a complete survey of the state of the Andaman Islands, public works, population etc., made by M.L. Ferrar, 1 January 1930 and presented to members of the Standing Finance Committee of the Legislative Assembly in Delhi in January 1931, which accepted all proposals of the Government for the Andamar. Budget, 13 pp.
    • Extract from the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 13 October 1931, on bird migration notes from Port Blair.
    • TS paper written by Ferrar on ‘Swamps and reclamations in the Andamans’, 4 April 1931. 9 pp.
    • Andaman and Nicobar Gazette. Extraordinary. No. 1. Port Blair, Friday 10th April 1931. ‘Note of thanks on handing over’, by M.L. Ferrar. 2 copies.
    • The Rangoon Diocesan Magazine, June 1931.
    • TS. Comparative statement showing the mortality amongst convicts in the settlement hospitals, Port Blair, for the months of April, May, June, July, August and September 1928, 1929 and 1930. 2 pp.
    • Three MS letters of thanks from Keith Dawson to Mrs. Ferrar, and Lord Birdwood to Lt. Col. Ferrar and Mrs. Ferrar for their hospitality while Lord Birdwood stayed with them in the Andamans. Dated 7 and 8 December 1929.
    • Newspaper cutting, unnamed, undated of ‘Terrorists in the Andamans’.
    • Newspaper cuttings from the Rangoon Times, Saturday 10 May 1930. ‘The Andaman Isles’; ‘Port Blair’s deep-sea jetty’.
    • Copies of correspondence carried out between Alexander Howard and Colonel J.C. Wedgwood, M.P. in the Morning Post on conditions in the jail in the Andamans, arising from an article called ‘Hell in the Andamans’ which Colonel Wedgwood wrote. April 1931 and August 1931.
    • MS letter from Lord Irwin declining with regret to take the Chair at a meeting about the Andamans for Colonel Ferrar. 13 October 1970.
    • Correspondence from E. Shand and A.T. Hughes to Colonel Ferrar after Colonel Ferrar had left the Andamans, the first enclosing ‘Report on the Ferrar Canj Colony for the year 1931-32, and life among lifers – being a short account of the Ferrar Ganj Colony run by the Salvation Army for the Government of the U.P. India, among life-sentence convicts and their families in the Andaman Islands.’ Written for the Northampton Independent, 1932.
    • Report of the administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Penal Settlement of Port Blair, (1 April, 1939 – 31 March 1940.) Government of India Press, 1941. (HD. 4.40/110)
    • TS copy of ‘Note of a voyage in the Jarawa to the Nicobars’ written by M.C.C. Bonington. n.d.
    • Speech and correspondence by Khan Sahib Dr. Nawab Ali Alig. G.B.V.C. Port Blair, on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the new club house of the Local Born Association, by the Chief Commissioner, Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 3 December 1932.
    • Letter of thanks from Naval Intelligence Division (Section 4x) Admiralty, S.W. 1.
    • Typed programme of the Commander-in-Chief’s visit to the Andamans, December 1939 together with menu of dinner, seating plans etc.; three other seating plans.
    • Four letters to Colonel Ferrar; signatures not deciphered.
    • Article in romanized script.
    • Printed card of the Viceroy’s engagements from Saturday 11 May to Tuesday 4 June 1929.
    • Special report of an offence, Lahore District. 8 March 1923. TS copy. Dacoity with murder, rescue and escape from police custody etc. Xerox copy of an autobiographical survey written in the Spring of 1965 of Ferrar’s life to 1912; includes comments on life in India etc. (Arrived in India 1896.)