Richard Carnac Temple

Sir Richard Carnac Temple, 2nd Baronet, (15 October 1850 – 3 March 1931) was an Indian-born British administrator and the Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and an anthropological writer.

Early years

Richard Carnac Temple was born in Allahabad, India, on 15 October 1850. He was the eldest son of Sir Richard Temple (1826–1902), a baronet, and his first wife, Charlotte Frances (née Martindale, d. 1855). His father was from The Nash in Kempsey, Worcestershire and was at that time working as a civil servant in India. His father eventually served as Governor of Bombay Presidency (1877–80), a position that had also been held by Richard Carnac Temple's great-grandfather, Sir James Rivett Carnac between 1838 and 1841.

Military and administrative career

After education at Harrow School and, from 1868, at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Temple was commissioned in the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1871. He was transferred to the British Indian Army in 1877, being mentioned in despatches while serving with the 38th Dogras in the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878–79. By this time, he had risen from his original rank of ensign to that of lieutenant in the Bengal Staff Corps.

Temple was then transferred to the 1st Gurkha Regiment and appointed a cantonment magistrate in 1879 in Punjab Province. It was now that he began to take what became his abiding interest in the folklore, history and ethnology of India. Promoted to captain in 1881, he served in the Third Burmese War from 1885 and as a consequence, in 1887, was given charge of Mandalay following the removal of king Thibaw.