James Peile (administrator)

Sir James Braithwaite Peile (27 April 1833 – 25 April 1906) was a British administrator during the British Raj, who served as the acting Governor of Bombay in March 1885.^[1][2]

Life

Born in Liverpool, Peile was educated at Repton School, where his father, Thomas Braithwaite Peile, was headmaster,^[3] and then went up to Oriel College, Oxford. He was appointed to the Bombay civil service in 1855. He held a number of positions over the following thirty years, including municipal commissioner of Bombay, political agent in Kathiawar, and vice-chancellor of Bombay University. He was offered, but declined, the position of commissioner of Sind. After a career mostly spent in Bombay, he retired in 1887 and was appointed to the Council of India, a position he held for a further fifteen years.

Politically, he supported increased devolution of powers to the Indian provinces and a limited increase in Indian participation in the civil service.

His son, James Peile, became a clergyman, later Archdeacon of Warwick and Archdeacon of Worcester. His first cousin was the philologist John Peile.^[3]

References

1. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Peile, James Braithwaite" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
2. Buckland, Charles Edward (1906). Dictionary of Indian Biography. S. Sonnenschein. p. 332. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
3. Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement, vol. 3, ed. Sidney Lee, p. 95

• The India List and India Office List (1905), p. 585
• Hardiman, David. "Peile, Sir James Braithwaite (1833–1906)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35457. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)