Walter Elliot

Sir Walter Elliot, KCSI (16 January 1803 – 1 March 1887) was a British civil servant in colonial India. He was also an eminent orientalist, linguist, archaeologist, naturalist and ethnologist who worked mainly in the Presidency of Madras. Born in Edinburgh, he studied at the East India Company College at Haileybury and joined the East India Company's civil service at Madras in 1820 and worked on until 1860. He was invested Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in 1866.

Early life Elliot was born in 1803 at Edinburgh, son of James Elliot of Wolfelee and Caroline (née Hunter). His early education was under a private tutor and he later was at school near Doncaster. He then went to Haileybury College, with a recommendation from his aunt, the widow of the 12th Lord Elphinstone, graduated with "high distinction", and in January 1819 took up an appointment in the East India Company's Civil Service as a "writer".

India Elliot's training continued at the college at Fort St George in Madras, where he excelled in languages, winning an award of 1000 pagodas for his proficiency in Tamil and Hindustani. He later learned other languages: Kannada, Marathi, Arabic, Persian and Telugu. For two years he worked as an assistant to the collector of Salem district. He then arranged with Sir Thomas Munro and Mountstuart Elphinstone to be transferred into the newly acquired territory of southern Maratha district.

In 1824 Elliot was caught up in the Kittur insurrection, which tried to take over a territory then under the control of Kittur Chennamma. He was taken prisoner, while his superior, St John Thackeray, the political agent of Dharwar (and uncle of William Makepeace Thackeray), was killed. Elliot and an assistant Stevenson were held in imprisonment for six weeks. They received good treatment from their captors, and it was during this period that he learnt about Hindu ideas of kinship, caste and custom. The southern Maratha district was subsequently moved from the control of the Madras to the Bombay Presidency but he was allowed to stay on by the governor of Bombay, Sir John Malcolm. During this period he gained a reputation as an adventurer, historian, big-game hunter and linguist.

Elliot studied ancient inscriptions, beliefs and cultures. He was a keen numismatist and collector of coins and his main work on the topic was published in 1885, at a time when unable to see, he had to feel the coins to describe them and have written by a scribe for his Coins of Southern India. Anathana ellioti named after Elliot by George Robert Waterhouse, the genus name is derived from Tamil. He took an interest in the local zoology and spent considerable time outdoors in his early years in India. He was in correspondence with Charles Darwin and at his request he sent him skins of various domestic birds from India and Burma in 1856. He also collaborated with naturalists in India like Thomas C. Jerdon. He collected specimens of molluscs, beached whales and dolphins and a range of other species which were examined by experts in Britain like Richard Owen. He catalogued the mammals of southern India in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science and described several new species of small mammals. The rat species Golunda ellioti and the Madras tree-shrew Anathana ellioti are named after him. W. T. Blanford wrote to him "ery little work is now done on mammals in India. Everybody has gone into ornithology. So far as I am aware your paper in the Madras journal is the only good account ..." Two species of Indian reptiles are named after him: Monilesaurus ellioti and Uropeltis ellioti.

Elliot's home in Randals Road, Vepery, Madras was a focal point for scholars in the region. He encouraged many other oriental researchers including Ferdinand Kittel and Robert Caldwell. Back in Scotland, his family home became a veritable museum, and he was active until the day of his death. On 1 March 1887 he dictated and signed a letter to George Pope, expressing his enthusiasm for a new edition of Pope's translation of the Tamil Kural. He died the same evening. In his county, he continued to serve as deputy lieutenant and a magistrate.

A memorial tablet was erected in the Parish Church of Hobkirk with an epitaph by Colonel Henry Yule. The ornithologist Philip Lutley Sclater was married to a sister of Maria Dorothea. James Thomas Spencer Elliot (1845–1892) Walter Blair Elliot (1847–1869) Caroline Elliot (1852–post 1887) Edward (1852–1920), who played football for Scotland in the unofficial international matches in 1871 and 1872. Herman Elliot (1854–1895) Dorothea Helen Elliot (died 1925)

Writings Elliot was the author of : Hindu Inscriptions being an outline of the Hindu Dynasties of S India from 4th to 12th Centuries deduced from Inscriptions collected in the Dekhan. J. Roy. As. Soc. 18 Account of the Poma sodomitica, or Dead Sea Apples , Entom. Soc. Trans., ii. 1837–40, pp. 14–17. A Catalogue of the Species of Mammalia found in the Southern Mahratta Country, with their synonyms in the native languages in use there, Madras Jour., x., 1839, pp. 92–108,207–233. Description of a new Species of Naja, or Cobra di Capello, Madras Jour., x., 1840, pp. 39–41. Note on the Species of Naja (N. vittata), described; page 39, Madras Jour., xi., 1840, pp. 390–393. Carnataca Translation Of Esop's Fables 1840. Catalogue of the Mammalia found in the Southern Mahratta Country. Madras Journ Lit & Sc x 1839 Numismatic Gleanings, being a description of the most ancient coinage of Southern India. Mad Journ, vols xix & xx Flora Andhrica an identification of the Vernacular names of Plants in the Telugu Districts. Madras, 1858-9 On the Characteristics of the population of Central & Southern India. Journ Ethn Soc new series, vol i 1869 Ancient Sepulchral Remains of S India particularly those of the Nilagiri Mountains. Rep of the International Congress of Prehistoric Archaeology, 1865. On Bos Gaurus, Jour. Asiatic Soc., x., 1841, pp. 579–580. Description of a new Species of Terrestrial Planria (P. lunata), Madras Jour., xv., 1848, pp. 162–167. On the Farinaceous Grains and the various Kinds of Pulse used in Southern India, Edin. New Phil. Jour., xvi., 1862, pp. 1–25; Edin. Bot. Soc. Trans., vii., 1863, pp. 276–300. On Euphysetes simus, Ann. May. Nat. Hist., xix., 1867, pp. 372,373. On the Habits of the Indian Rock-Snake (Python molurus), Brit. Assoc. Reports, xl., 1870 (sect.), p. 115. Address on the Progress of Botanical Science , Edin. Bot. Soc. Trans., xi., 1873, pp. 1–41. On a Goshawk killed at Minto, and other Raptorial Birds, Proc. Berwickshire Nat. Field Club, vol. vi. Rarer Birds of the Hawick District, Proc. Ber. Nat. Field Club, vol. vii. Some Account of the Plague of Field Mice in the Border Farms in 1876–77, with Observations on the Genus Arvicola in general, Proc. Ber. Nat. Field Club, vol. viii. Notes on the Indian Bustard (Eupodotis Edwardsii), Proc. Zool. Soc., 1880. On the Representation and Co-operation of Naturalists' Clubs, Proc. Ber. Nat. Field Club, vol. ix,