Page:Dictionary of Indian Biography.djvu/459

  1862–73, and at S. Kensington Exhibitions, 1870–4 : retired, 1880 : died July 29, 1892 : F.L.S., 1889 : published works on The Textile Manufactures and Costumes of People of India, 1866; Index to the Native and Scientific Names of Indian and other Eastern Economic Plants and Products, 1868 : and edited People of India, 1868–72.

WATT, SIR GEORGE (1851–)

Born April 24, 1851 : son of John Watt : educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and Glasgow University : Professor of Botany, Calcutta University, 1873 : Medical and Scientific Officer in Burma-Manipur Boundary Commission, 1882 : scientific Assistant-Secretary to the Government of India, 1884 : Reporter on Economic Products to Government of India since 1887 : Director, Indian Art Exhibition, Delhi, 1903 : author of Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, 9 vols.; Reports on Pests and Blights of the Tea Plant; Rhea and China Grass, Lac Industries; Indian Art, etc. : C.I.E. : K.B., 1903 : M.B. : C.M. : F.L.S.

WATTS, WILLIAM ( ? - ? )

In the E. I. Co.'s service : Second in Council at Fort William, Calcutta, and Chief at Kasimbazar in 1756, where he was taken prisoner by the Nawabs' orders : appointed President at Fort William, 1758, in supersession of Roger Drake (q.v.), but almost at once handed over charge to Clive : was the third husband of Frances Johnson (q.v.) : his daughter Amelia was mother of Robert Banks Jenkinson, second Earl of Liverpool (1770–1828), who was Prime Minister, 1812–27.

WAUGH, SIR ANDREW SCOTT (1810–1878)

Son of General Gilbert Waugh : born Feb. 3, 1810 : educated at Edinburgh, Addiscombe and Chatham : joined the Bengal Engineers, 1827 : to India, 1829 : attached to the Great Trigonometrical Survey, 1832 : engaged in the scientific operations connected with this survey, conducting the triangulation, 1832–43 : became Surveyor-General of India, 1843, as a Subaltern : Captain, 1844 : determined the heights, etc., of numerous Himalayan peaks, and gave its name to the highest. Mount Everest. 29,002 ft. high : continued the survey work to the W. and N.W. of India, and to Kashmir : Gold Medallist of the R.G.S., 1857 : F.R.S., 1858 : retired as Maj-General, 1861 : and was knighted : Vice-President of the R.G.S. : died Feb. 21, 1878.

WAZIR ALI (1781–1817)

Nawab of Oudh : putative, or adopted, son of Asaf-ud-daula, the Nawab of Oudh, on whose death, in Sep. 1797, he became Nawab. His wedding at Lucknow in 1795 cost about £300,000. Doubts being thrown on the legitimacy of his birth, Sir John Shore, after personal inquiry, deposed him in Jan. 1798, and deported him to Calcutta on a pension of two lakhs of rupees, via Benares. There Wazir Ali murdered Mr. Cherry, the Agent to the Governor-General, Jan. 14, 1799' and unsuccessfully attacked the Judge, Samuel Davis (q.v.). Wazir Ali fled, but was captured and taken to Calcutta, where he was imprisoned in a bomb-proof building in Fort William for years, being subsequently transferred to Vellore. There, after a total incarceration of more than seventeen years, he died in May, 1817.

WEBBE, JOSIAH (1768–1804)

I.C.S. : appointed a writer at Fort St.George, Madras, 1783 : Secretary to the Board of Revenue, 1790 : Secretary to Government, 1797 : the First Chief Secretary, 1800 : wrote an able Minute deprecating resumption of hostilities against Tippoo, which greatly displeased Lord Mornington and the Directors of the Company : appointed Resident in Mysore, 1804, and was shortly transferred in the same capacity to Gwalior : on his journey thither died on the banks of the Nerbudda : a monument was erected to him in the Fort Church, Madras : Col. Wellesley (Duke of Wellington) included him among his friends and took home an engraving from his portrait, which occupied a prominent place at Strathfieldsaye. The Duke is reported to have said of Webbe : "He was one of the ablest men I ever knew, and, what is more, one of the most honest."

WEBBER, CHARLES_EDMUND (1838–1904)

Born Sep. 5. 1838 : son of Rev T. Webber : educated at Woolwich : entered the Royal Engineers, 1855 : served in the