Colonel John Colvin, 1794-1871

Aged fifteen John Colvin is shipped to India to Join the Bengal Engineers.  By the time he left Calcutta he had completed 27 years service and fought two battles, introduced American cotton to Bengal and earned the title Father of Indian Irrigation.

He returned to England, married a Ludlow girl, and retired from the army.  For the next thirty years Colvin’s story provides us with an insight into the almost unbelievable variety of activities he became involved with during the Victorian era in Ludlow, Leintwardine and the Welsh Marches.

Colvin’s interests included the Ludlow Workhouse, the Wigmore Magistrates bench, Archery, the Church, growing prize vegetables, building Leintwardine school, secretary of the Ludlow Natural History Society, fishing and bringing up a family.  He was an exceptional man.

The 84 page, paperback,  ISBN 978-0-9568972-3-7, was published in 2013, and is now out of print.  A PDF copy can be made available for £5.