John Russell Colvin

John Russell Colvin (29 May 1807 – 9 September 1857) was a British civil servant in India, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He was lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of British India during the mutiny of 1857, at the height of which he died.

Colvin's was an Anglo-Indian family of Scottish descent. He was the second son and fourth child of James Colvin (born 1768), a merchant with Colvin, Bazett & Co. of London and Calcutta. He was educated at the East India Company College at Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire; and entered the service of the British East India Company in 1826.

In 1836 he became private secretary to Lord Auckland at the time of the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1837, and named his son after him. From 1846-49, Colvin served as Commissioner of Tenasserim, in British (Lower) Burma.

In 1853 Lord Dalhousie appointed him lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of India. In 1857, at the start of the mutiny, Colvin was at Agra with only a weak British regiment and a native battery, not enough force to prevail against the mutineers. Colvin issued a proclamation to the natives that was censured at the time for its clemency, but it was similar to the approach of Sir Henry Lawrence, later followed by Lord Canning. Colvin died shortly before the fall of Delhi.

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