Thomas Edward Ravenshaw

Thomas Edward Ravenshaw was born in Bath on 1 July 1827, to John Hurdis Ravenshaw and his first wife, Rose Melley Thuillier. He had three brother Edward Cockburn Ravenshaw; George Chandler Ravenshaw and John Henry Ravenshaw from his father's first marriage. His father John Hurdis Ravenshaw married for the second time a Harriet Lalande Biggs and a step brother and a step sister were added as his siblings. John Hurdis Ravenshaw's mother and Thomas Edward Ravenshaw grandmother, Hannah Bond was the daughter of Commodore Charles John Bond, of the British East India Company's Bombay Marine. The British East India Company was a private corporation formed in December 1600. His father was an employee of British East India Company where his grandfather, John Goldsborough Ravenshaw was the chairman. Thomas Edward Ravenshaw joined the same firm. At age 21 he was sent to India by the East India Company (1848) and arrived in Calcutta. He met and married his wife Mary Susanna Symonds in 1850 in Kolkata. They had five children, Colonel Charles Withers Ravenshaw was born in Kolkata in 1851, Lieutenant Herbert Edward Ravenshaw born in Lakhminia, Bihar in 1853. The youngest son Harold Alexander Ravenshaw was born in Bengal in 1856. Their two daughters Rose Nelly Ravenshaw (1861) and Caroline Annie Ravenshaw (1862) were born in Claines, Worcestershire, England. Little is known of Thomas Edward Ravenshaw's formal education and schooling in England. Many from the Ravenshaw family were employed in India. Officers posted to India earned better wages than their counterpart in the UK.

On Thomas Edward Ravenshaw's arrival in India he worked as a personnel with the East India Company in Bihar and Bengal provinces where his three sons were born. His younger brother John Henry Ravenshaw was a photographer in Calcutta. East India Company was taken over by the British government following the 1857 Indian mutiny in which millions lost their lives. On the take over of the Company by the Britain Thomas Edward Ravenshaw joined the British Civil Service in 1858. In year 1865 Thomas Edward Ravenshaw was appointed Divisional Commissioner at Cuttack, India where he remained till 1878 when he retired and returned back to UK. During his term at Cuttack he showed an interest in education. There is no record of him being interested in education or having experience till then. With the East India Company he was in business. While based at Cuttack Thomas Edward Ravenshaw applied to the British Government for permission to set up a College at Cuttack. Permission was granted and a college was built that started functioning in year 1868. Funds for construction and running the college came from the local Indian Rajahs. During his term as Divisional Commissioner of Orissa , Orissa had two famines, in year 1866 and 1877 during which periods millions perished.

Thomas Edward Ravenshaw returned to Britain from India and settled at 'South Hill' a farm house near Turners Hill village. Turners Hill is a village and civil parish in Mid Sussex District of West Sussex in England. He was actively involved in the day to day life of the village. His elder daughters Rose Nelly Ravenshaw was with him after the death of his wife Mary Susanna Symonds in 1880. In his later years Rose became his carer. He did not return back to India although his two sons Colonel Charles Withers Ravenshaw and Major Harold Alexander Ravenshaw were officers with the Indian army. He had four granddaughters Enid Clare, Dorothy Rose, Eileen Birkett and Gladys Nina from his son Charles Withers Ravenshaw. He had a grandson Harold Edward from his son Harold Alexander Ravenshaw. Thomas Edward Ravenshaw passed away on 4th February 1914 and lies buried at St Leonards Church in Turners Hill village. The village close to where he lived on his return from India in 1878. Rose Nelly Ravenshaw his daughter and carer passed away in 1947 and is buried in the same grave.