Seth Jehangir Hormusji Kothari

Sir Jehangir Hormasji Kothari, (; 9 November 1857 – 1 November 1934), was a Parsi businessman, merchant and a prominent philanthropist from Karachi during British colonial rule. Today, he is best remembered for the Jehangir Kothari Parade, an elevated sandstone walkway used to walk to Clifton Beach, in Karachi, Pakistan, on the Arabian Sea.

Ancestry Kothari's grandfather, Hormusji Sohrabji Kothari (d. 1876), accompanied General Sir Charles James Napier as a commissariat agent during the conquest of Sindh Province in 1842-3

Life Kothari was born on 9 November 1857, in Karachi. He was educated at home and in the Karachi High School. on the second of his eleven known voyages around the globe. He published his reminiscences of his first voyage of 1883/4 when he traveled to Europe, Great Britain, United States of America, Canada, Japan, China, Straits Settlements, and northern portions of India.

Kothari was also a member of the Royal Society of Arts and North British Academy of Arts, Life Governor of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys and Royal Masonic Institution for Girls, Honorary Special Magistrate in Karachi since 1892, member of the Cantonment Committee in Karachi since 1890 and Municipal Committees in Karachi since 1884, Lieutenant in the Sind Volunteer Rifle Corps since 1895, in 1911, fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and vice-president of the Navy League. He was a patron, trustee and president of many charitable and other institutions in Karachi. He also established a school for the blind and sanatorium in Karachi around this time.

Kothari contributed to World War I by investing 2,550,000 rupees or £175,000 in the Third War Loan raised in January 1917, and acting as honorary secretary and treasurer in India for the Imperial War Fund. He performed numerous other honorary duties for the British Government for which he maintained a large staff at his own expense. and subsequently knighted in the 1921 Birthday Honours, which was conferred at Buckingham Palace by King George V on 8 July 1922.

Kothari and his wife Goolbai visited Bangalore during a trip around South India in 1923. She suddenly became ill and died, and was subsequently interred in the Parsi Aramgah or burial ground. Kothari built a memorial, the Lady Jehangir Kothari Memorial Hall, to his wife in the Bangalore Cantonment in 1931/2.

Kothari was an ardent believer in the imperial ideal of the British Empire, for whom he acted as an unofficial world ambassador, in Trieste, Italy. His estate was administered by Messrs. Barrow, Rogers & Nevill of 26 Budge Row, London in 1937.

Read also

Impressions of a First Tour Round the World in 1883 and 1884 – Embracing Travels in Europe, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, China, the Straits Settlements, and Northern Portions of India by Jehangir H. Kothari, Simmons & Botten, London 1889. Kothari, Jehangir Hormusji page 176 in Supplement to Who's Who in India - Containing Lives and Photographs of the Recipients of Honours on 12th December 1911, Together with an Illustrated Account of the Visit of Their Imperial Majesties the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress to India and the Coronation Durbar by Prag Narain Bhargava, Newul Kishore Press, Lucknow 1912. The Life History of Sir Jehangir H. Kothari, Times Press, Karachi 1922.