Robert Christopher Tytler

Robert Christopher Tytler (25 September 1818–10 September 1872) was a British soldier, naturalist and photographer.

His father, Robert Tytler, served in the Bengal medical service and his mother was the daughter of a German count. Tytler joined the Bengal army in 1834 while still in England, and arrived in India in 1835 to join his father's regiment, the 34th Native Bengal Infantry. [Captain in 38th Regiment Bengal Light Infantry according to his note in The Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Fauna of Barrackpore. 1854. Vol. 77 pp. 365-376] He saw many years of active military service in India, and in 1842 he was promoted to baggage-master. He later became interpreter and quartermaster and took part in the actions of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42).George Weber, "Pioneer Biographies of the British Period to 1947" Appendix A [http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/app-a/a-tytler.htm Full text] ]

In the first Anglo-Sikh War (1845-46), Tytler was put in charge of the campaign funds, and subsequently moved all over northern India with his regiment.

In May 1857, at the beginning of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Tytler was present when the sepoys of his own unit mutinied against their British officers at Delhi, where he later played a conspicuous part in the ensuing siege. He was eventually promoted to Colonel and appointed officiating Superintendent of the Convict Settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands from April 1862 to February 1864.

His first wife, Isabella, died aged 21 in 1847. In the following year on Tytler married Harriet Christina Earle (3 October 1828 - 24 November 1907), daughter of an officer in the 3rd Bengal Native Infantry. She had an interest in photography, and today Tytler and his wife are remembered mostly for their photographic work. Together they produced about 300 photographs, some of which formed large panoramas. [Mary Warner Marien, "Robert Christopher Tytler (1818-1872) Photography: A Cultural History" [http://books.google.com/books?id=NsolmLbz8igC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=robert+christopher+tytler&source=web&ots=eWPvHGKVvJ&sig=GnqhlJxqCwuUfunQJR1BOZ7T7Cs Full text at Google Books ] ]

Harriet wrote several memoirs when she was between 75 and 77 years old (1903-6). These include "An Englishwoman in India; the memoirs of Harriet Tytler 1828-1858" first published in Chambers Journal in 1931 and a more detailed version published in 1986 by Oxford University Press.

Tytler was also a keen amateur naturalist, and expert in particular on geckos and other lizards. [Tytler, R. C. 1865 "Observations on a few species of geckos alive in the possession of the author." "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal", 33 [1864] :535-548.] Species named for him include Tytler's Mabuya, "Mabuya tytleri", a skink, "Rana tytleri" and "Hylarana tytleri", both frogs, Tytler's Leaf-warbler "Phylloscopus tytleri" and an Asian subspecies of the Barn Swallow, "Hirundo rustica tytleri".

Mount Harriet in the Andamans is named after his wife.

References

External links

* [http://earle.50webs.com/ Genealogy]
* [http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/app-a/a-tytler.htm Biography]

succession box
before=John Colpoys Haughton
title=Superintendent of Port Blair | years=1862–1864
after=Barnett Ford