Henry George Keene (1826–1915)

Henry George Keene CIE (1826 – 26 March 1915) was an English historian of medieval and modern India.[1]

Henry George Keene

Born1826
Died(1915-03-26)26 March 1915
Westward Ho!, England, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Parent(s)

Life

Keene was born at the East India College, Haileybury. Henry George Keene (1781–1864) was his father.[2] He was educated at Rugby School and Wadham College, Oxford, going to India as an East India Company employee in 1847. His career as an official was limited, but he began to write.[3]

From 1847 to 1882 Keene served in the Bengal Civil Service. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 he was Superintendent at Dehra Doon. In his subsequent service Keene was in frequent disagreement with his superiors, and he confessed that a certain "unfortunate habit of levity and not always seasonable joking" hindered promotion. A wit and raconteur, he failed to do himself justice as an official. He often had good practical ideas, but was too changeable and too little master of detail to them effect. So when he reached the 35 years' limit he had not got beyond the grade of a district and sessions Judge. But he retired with the decoration of CIE, and with a literary reputation which he was able to turn to account in providing for the needs of a large family. Mr. Keene was twice married and is survived by four sons and five daughters. Among his sons are Mr. Henry George Keene, late of the Indian Financial Department, Colonel Alfred Keene, D.S.O., editor of the Journal of the National Service League, and Captain Geoffrey Keene, 29th Punjabis.[4][5]

Keene died on 26 March 1915 at his residence in Westward Ho!.[6]

Works

Keene's books included:

"Keene's Handbooks" covered a number of Indian cities.[13] He also wrote for the Dictionary of National Biography and Chambers's Encyclopaedia.[14]

Notes

  1. George Sampson (1941). The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature. CUP Archive. pp. 912–. GGKEY:2J1T4J40K28.
  2. "Rugby School Register, 1675-1842, Volume 1, Page 339". Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  3. s:The Times/1915/Obituary/Henry George Keene
  4. Robert Barlow Gardiner, The Registers of Wadham College, Oxford vol. 2 (1889), pp. 412–3; archive.org.
  5. Great Britain. India Office (1819). The India List and India Office List for ... Harrison and Sons. p. 162.
  6. "Obituary: Henry George Keene, C.I.E. (1915)". The Times (40814). 29 March 1915.
  7. Henry George Keene the younger (1865). Chabeena. Trivial talk on Indian topics.
  8. Gregory Claeys (9 May 2013). Mill and Paternalism. Cambridge University Press. p. 100 note 181. ISBN 978-0-521-76108-6.
  9. Waldemar Hansen (1 January 1986). The Peacock Throne: The Drama of Mogul India. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 542. ISBN 978-81-208-0225-4.
  10. Allyn Miner (1 January 1997). Sitar and Sarod in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 246. ISBN 978-81-208-1493-6.
  11. Ronald H. Fritze; Brian E. Coutts; Louis Andrew Vyhnanek (2004). Reference Sources in History: An Introductory Guide. ABC-CLIO. p. 321. ISBN 978-0-87436-883-3.
  12. Michael H. Fisher (2006). Counterflows to Colonialism: Indian Travellers and Settlers in Britain, 1600-1857. Orient Blackswan. p. 454. ISBN 978-81-7824-154-8.
  13. Aparajita Mukhopadhyay, Wheels of Change? Impact of Railways on Colonial North Indian Society, 1855–1920, (PDF), at p. 115, note 441.
  14. s:The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915)/Keene, Henry George
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