Dictionary of Indian Biography/Birdwood, Sir George Christopher Molesworth
BIRDWOOD, SIR GEORGE CHRISTOPHER MOLESWORTH (1831–)
Born at Belgaum, Dec. 8, 1832, son of General Christopher Birdwood, of the Indian Army (q.v.): educated at Plymouth Grammar School, Dollar Academy and Edinburgh University (M.D.): entered Bombay Medical Service 1854: served in Persian war, 1856–7, and on return to Bombay took a prominent part in the life of the city, influencing, by his great popularity with the leaders of native thought, the endowments which were made to the newly established University: the construction of some of the public buildings: and the carrying out of improvements which have earned for the town and island the title of "Bombay the Beautiful." He was for a time Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, and of Materia Medica and Botany at Grant Medical College: also Curator of the Government Central Museum: Hony. Secy. Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and of the Agri-Horticultural Society: Registrar of the University: one of the founders of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the designer of the Victoria gardens at Byculla: Sheriff of Bombay, 1846: returning to England on account of ill-health, he joined the staff of the India Office, and was Special Assistant there in the Revenue and Statistical Department from 1878 to 1899, when he retired after two extensions of service beyond the ordinary age limit. He held a leading position in all the principal International Exhibitions from 1857 to 1901: founded Primrose Day: author of Economic Vegetable Products of the Bombay Presidency, 1888; The Industrial Arts of India, 1888; Report on the Old Records of the India Office, 1891: First Letter Book of the East India Company, 1895: of papers on The Genus Boswellia (Frankincense Trees): on Incense, and other articles in Encyc. Brit: and of erudite prefaces and introductions to various well-known works, such as Count d'Alviella's Migrations des Symboles, besides many official reports on economic products, etc.: a prolific contributor to leading journals and reviews, including the Times, the Athenæum, the Quarterly Review, and the Journal of the Society of Arts, the latter containing a great number of his speeches and essays in connexion with the work of the Society. C.S.I., 1877; K.C.I.E., 1877: LL.D. (Cambridge) 1886: Knight of Grace of St. John of Jerusalem.