John Claude White

John Claude White (1 October 1853 – 1918) CIE was an engineer, photographer, author and civil servant in British India. From 1889 to 1908, White served as the Political Officer in Sikkim, then a British protectorate. As part of his remit, he also managed British India's relations with Tibet and Bhutan.

John Claude White
Born1 October 1853 
Died1918  (aged 64–65)
OccupationPhotographer 
Signature

Early life

The son of army surgeon John White (1871-1920) and Louise Henriette (Claude) Pfeffer White, he was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. His education included a period at Rugby School for six months in 1868. White later studied at the Royal Indian Engineering College in Cooper's Hill, Surrey before joining the Bengal Public Works Department as Assistant Engineer in 1876.[1]

India and Sikkim

White originally worked in Bengal, Nepal and Darjeeling. In 1883, he was assigned to the British Residency in Kathmandu, Nepal where he photographed the architecture and monuments.[2]

In 1889, White was appointed Political Officer in Sikkim which had come under British protectorate by this time.[1] White served as the Chairman of the Council that advised Sikkim's Chogyal Thutob Namgyal whereafter he reorganised Sikkim's administration. He ordered land and mineral surveys and developed unused wasteland. He also established a forestry department and the first police post in Aritar as well as introducing English apple cultivation in the northern towns of Lachung and Lachen.[3]

Following the 1893 Convention of Calcutta signed by Britain and Qing China regarding the Sikkim–Tibet boundary and trade relations with Tibet, White was despatched to Yatung in the Chumbi Valley in Tibet to assess the trade situation at the new outpost. He subsequently reported that although the Chinese were friendly towards him, they "had no authority whatever" and were unable to control the Tibetans. White concluded that "China was suzerain over Tibet only in name".[4]

In 1903, the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, appointed a Tibet Frontier Commission under Francis Younghusband,[5] which led the 1903-04 British expedition to Tibet. The putative aim of the expedition was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-Tibet border but in reality it became (by exceeding instructions from London) a de facto invasion of Tibet. White was asked to as the deputy to Younghusband. He unhappy with this secondment and complained to Lord Curzon. Younghusband saw this as insubordination, as did his masters in Shimla, and the appointment was confirmed. Younghusband would have his revenge for White's truculence when he later left him in the leech-infested jungles of Sikkim to arrange mule and coolie transport to Tibet.[5]

White is claimed to have been the only member of the Tibet expedition permitted to photograph Lhasa's monasteries.[2]

He made five trips to Bhutan and in 1907 photographed the coronation of the country's first king.[2]

Personal life

On 12 September 1876, before departing for India, White married his distant cousin Jessie Georgina Ranken at All Saints Church in Kensington, London. They had a daughter, Beryl born in Bengal in 1877.[1]

Photography

White created a rich and detailed photographic account of the culture and scenery of the Himalayas during his travels through the region. John Falconer, curator of photographs at the British Library’s Oriental and India Office Collections described White's work as "probably one of the last, and certainly among the most impressive products of a tradition of quasi-amateur photography which had flourished among administrators and military personnel in India since the 1850s."[6]

The 2005 book In the Shadow of the Himalayas: Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim : a Photographic Record by John Claude White, 1883-1908 contains an anthology of Himalayan photos taken by White.

Works
  • Sikhim & Bhutan: Twenty-one years on the North East Frontier 1887-1908. London: Edward Arnold. 1909.

See also

References
  1. "John Claude White - career". King's College London. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  2. Hannavy, John (2013). Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Routledge. p. 1496. ISBN 978-1-135-87327-1.
  3. Rajiv Rai (2015). The State in the Colonial Periphery: A Study on Sikkim’s Relation with Great Britain. Partridge Publishing India. ISBN 978-1-4828-4871-7.
  4. Younghusband 1910, p. 54.
  5. Patrick French (2011). Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer. Penguin Books Limited. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-14-196430-0.
  6. "John Claude White - politics". King's College London. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
Bibliography

Further reading
  • Meyer, Kurt; Meyer, Pamela Deuel (2005). In the Shadow of the Himalayas: Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim : a Photographic Record by John Claude White, 1883-1908. Mapin. ISBN 978-1-89-020661-1.
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