Frederick James Halliday

Sir Frederick James Halliday KCB (25 December 1806 – 22 October 1901) was a British civil servant and the first Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.

Frederick James Halliday was born on 25 December 1806 at Ewell, Surrey. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he was educated at Rugby School. However, a 1901 publication says that, although he went to Rugby in 1814, he entered St Paul's School, London in 1815, spent seven years there and thus "he may fairly be claimed as a Scholar of St. Paul's." This is also the opinion of a historian of St. Paul's, Michael McDonnell, who notes that Halliday was sent to Rugby in order to be under the influence of its head master, John Sleath, and moved to St. Paul's as a consequence of Sleath being appointed as High Master there. Subsequently, he attended the East India College in Haileybury, before joining the Bengal civil service in 1824. He attended Fort William College in Calcutta, where he was taught by I. C. Vidyasagar. His first office in the civil service was as an assistant working for the supreme court in 1825.

Halliday had become secretary to the Board of Revenue by 1836, and was appointed Home Secretary for the Government of India in 1849. He took a period of leave in England between July 1852 and November 1853, although he was frequently called upon to provide information to Parliament during that time.

Around May 1854, Halliday was appointed as the first Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. He took up residence at Belvedere House, the former home of Warren Hastings in Calcutta. Prior to that time the region had been overseen by the governor-general, and by a deputy-governor when the former was away. The deputies were appointed more on the basis of seniority than of merit. It had been recognised for some time that continued territorial acquisitions, which involved disparate populations and regions, both necessitated different administrative approaches and were causing the governor-general to be more frequently away from the area. The Marquess of Dalhousie, who was governor-general between 1847 and 1856, took the opportunity presented by the renewal of the East India Company's charter to reorganise affairs. It was anticipated that the appointment of Halliday would result in significant improvements to the administration of Bengal, and this proved to be the case because he had gained considerable administrative experience by this time.

...
Wikipedia