Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Danvers, Frederic Charles
DANVERS, FREDERIC CHARLES (1833–1906), writer on engineering, born at Hornsey on 1 July 1833, was second son of Frederick Samuel Danvers of Hornsey, an officer in the East India Company's service, by his wife Mary Matilda, daughter of H. Middleton of Wanstead, Essex. After education at the Merchant Taylors' School, King's College, London, and Addiscombe, he studied for two years as a civil and mechanical engineer. Then, adopting his father's career, he became, on 26 Jan. 1853, a writer in the old East India House. On the creation of the India office he was, in September 1858, made a junior clerk in its public and ecclesiastical department, and after being deputed in 1859 to Liverpool and Manchester to report on the fitness of traction engines for use in India, where railway construction was in its infancy, he was transferred on account of his technical knowledge to the public works department of the India office in 1861. He there rose to be senior clerk in June 1867, and assistant secretary in February 1875. Plans by him for a tunnel under the Hugli to continue the East India railway into Calcutta were forwarded by Sir Stafford Northcote [q. v.] to India in 1868. In addition to his official duties, he engaged in literary work, mainly of a technical character. He contributed articles on public works in India to 'Engineering' (1866–75), and an article on 'India' to Spon's 'Information for Colonial Engineers' (1877), besides compiling memoranda on Indian coal, coal washing, and artificial fuel (1867–9), and publishing 'Statistical Papers relating to India' (parliamentary paper, 1869), 'Coal Economy' (1872), and 'A Century of Famines, 1770-1870' (1877).
In 1877 Danvers was transferred as assistant secretary to the revenue department of the India office, and was in January 1884 made registrar and superintendent of records. Marked efficiency in this capacity led to his being sent to Lisbon in 1891 to study records of Portuguese rule in the East. His report, based on research in the Torre do Tombo archives and the public libraries in Lisbon and Evora, was published in 1892. There followed his 'History of the Portuguese in India' (2 vols. 1894). This, his most ambitious work, was marred by want of perspective and incomplete reference to authorities. In 1893-5 Danvers studied at the Hague records of Dutch power in the East, but published nothing on the subject. He retired from the India office in July 1898.
Danvers read papers before the Society of Arts on 'Agriculture in India' (1878), 'Famines in India' (1886), and 'The India Office Records' (1889). The first and third of these papers gained the society's silver medal. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1880, subsequently served on its council, and read papers before it on 'Agriculture in Essex' (1897; Stat. Soc. Journal, lx. 251-69) and 'A Review of Indian Statistics' (1901; ib. lxiv. 31-65).
He died on 17 May 1906 at Broad Oaks, Addlestone, Surrey, and was buried at All Saints' Church, Benhilton.
Danvers married in 1860, at Hove, Louisa (b. 2 Nov. 1837), daughter of Elias Mocatta. She died at Sutton, Surrey, on 29 May 1909, and was buried beside her husband. There was issue three sons and five daughters.
Danvers also wrote:
- 'The Covenant of Jacob's Heritage,' 1877.
- 'Bengal, its Chiefs, Agents and Governors,' 1888.
- 'The Second Borgian Map,' 1889.
- 'Israel Redivivus,' 1905 (an endeavour to identify the ten tribes with the English people).
He edited 'Memorials of Old Haileybury College' (1894), and wrote introductions to 'Letters received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East' (1896); 'List of Factory Records of the late East India Company' (1897); and 'List of Marine Records of the late East India Company ' (1897).
[The Times, 21 May 1906; the Engineer, 25 May 1906; Soc. of Arts Journal, 1906; India Office List, 1905; private information.]