AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 84 of 153 trade. As far as the British were concerned they landed in Surat in 1600, moved on to Machlipatnam in 1620 and finally decided to settle down in Madras from 1639 onwards. Fort St George was constructed and it was termed as a Factory - a complex of Factors like merchants and traders. It was from here that the East India Company laid out trade routes to various parts of the Indian sub continent. In order to provide security to the merchants and traders inside the Fort, retired Sergeants of the British Army were brought to form ‘Watch & Ward’ groups having elements of French, Dutch and local workers. These groups provided security not only to the merchants and traders but to the Fort as a whole. This was the foundation for the Armed Forces in India. As trade progressed the requirement of watch and ward staff also increased. Due to vast difference in the climate between Europe and Asia, large numbers of watch and ward staff started falling sick and they had to be housed for treatment. Governor Winter therefore opened the first hospital of the western type in India with a medical college in 1660 - the foundation of the present General Hospital and Madras Medical College. It was first established as a military hospital which continued as such till the 19th century, then became a military and civil hospital and later purely a civil hospital. The hospital for the first 100 years or so was staffed only by military doctors and nurses who were gradually replaced by civilians. 35. Another major development in the 1670s was the aspect of ‘Record keeping’ started by a Governor named Langhorne and later by Master. Shri Muthiah said that every bit of transaction whether in the Government or private organisations were recorded meticulously and preserved. All the record offices in Tamil Nadu today have complete records of transactions which took place upto the day the British left. Records made thereafter are scanty and not transparent. Shri Muthiah also stated that he had access to such wonderful records especially when he wrote the history for the Parrys and the Binnys. 36. Governor Master, he said, was a shrewd, strong and a domineering type of man. He was responsible in constructing the first Protestant Church in India - The St Mary’s Church inside the Fort St George which is still functioning. One revealing fact is that this church was not under the Church of England but it was Masters’ own private church and later became the Garrison Church. The church started running a school basically for the orphans which was the first western type school in India . This school shifted later to Poonamalle High road opposite Pachaiyappa’s College and is now known as the St George’s School. Reverend Dr. Bell, the school headmaster ran the school on the Gurukulam system. He later went to Scotland and started a school called the Madras College whose system of Prefects are taken as guidelines all over the UK. Another major development was the establishment of the first Municipal Corporation in India at Madras during the Governorship of Yale in 1688. 37. The most significant contribution that Yale made was securing a Fort in Cuddalore known as Fort St David after negotiations with the locals. Some years later, a beautiful lady of mixed descent named Madame Jeanne, the artful wife of Jean Francios Dupleix, the Governor of French-ruled Pondicherry, planted an idea in his mind, that he could establish French rule in India if he could subdue the warring local factions by using the concept of “guns for hire”, and getting tracts of land in return. Ambitious as Duplex was, he ordered the French Fleet from Mauritius which occupied Fort St George after firing six cannon shots on the walls of the Fort in the year 1746, thus forcing the British to flee to Fort St. David. This was followed by a battle across the Adyar river, with the French troops numbering about 100 and 200 well trained native troops named as “Sipahis” by the French on the Northern banks and about 10,000 strong local force mustered by various rulers, then supporting the British on the Southern banks. The French, with European discipline and organisation, defeated the