Theodore Hope

Sir Theodore Cracraft Hope (9 December 1831 – 4 July 1915 ), often referred to as T. C. Hope, was a British born civil servant of the Government of India. His duties included Public Works, and he was an active layman of the Anglican Church.

Life

Hope Bridge of Surat was built on Tapi river when he was district collector and magistrate. The bridge's foundation was laid in 1874 and it was completed in 1877. The bridge was dismantled in 2015 and replaced by new bridge keeping the old design of Hope Bridge. Born in 1831, Theodore Hope was the only child of Dr. James Hope, F.R.S., a wealthy physician at St George's Hospital, whose research in connection with heart disease was cut short by his death from consumption in middle life. Theodore's mother, Anne was an author. Hope was privately educated for the most part, with spells at Rugby School, and afterwards at Haileybury, then the East India Company's college. From frequent yachting practice abroad he was able to secure a master's certificate before he was 20; and when he joined the Bombay Civil Service in 1853 he spoke five European languages. Next he served Sir George Clerk, the Governor, as private secretary, and then was given charge of the Ahmedabad district, where he pursued his archeological hobbies, and when he came home on long leave in 1865-66 he published three large works of the architectural monuments of Ahmedabad, Bijapur, and Dharwar. Returning to India, he spent eight years as Collector of Surat, and in 1871 he was called to Bombay, to preside over a committee appointed to deal with the unsatisfactory state of municipal finance. For a time he filled the post of the Commissioner there.

Another book is Surat, Broach and Other Old Cities of Goojerat.