A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices/Bethune, John Elliot Drinkwater

by John Hutchinson

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Admitted 12 January, 1821.

Eldest son of John Drinkwater, of Fitzroy Square, the historian of the siege of Gibraltar. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and soon after his call to the Bar, 4 May, 1827, was employed as Counsel to the Home Office. In this position he drafted many important measures, including the Municipal Reform Act, the Tithe Commutation Act, and the County Courts Act. In 1848 he became a member of the Supreme Council of India, where he was helpful in passing many measures of reform, and where his name is identified with the establishment of a school for educating native girls of the higher classes, known as Bethune's Girls' School, now taken over by the State. He died at Calcutta, 12 Aug. 1851.