Dictionary of Indian Biography/Aberigh-Mackay, George Robert
ABERIGH-MACKAY, GEORGE ROBERT (1848–1881)
Born July 25, 1848: son of Rev. Dr.James Aberigh-Mackay, Chaplain in Bengal: educated privately in Scotland, at Magdalen College School, Oxford, and St. Catherine's College, Cambridge: entered the Education Department at Bareli in the N. W. P., 1870: Professor of English Literature at the Delhi College, 1873: Tutor to the Raja of Ratlam, Central India, and Principal of the College there, 1876: Principal of the Rajkumar College at Indore, 1877: Fellow, Calcutta University, 1880: wrote a number of educational works: also Notes on Western Turkistan, a Hand-book of Hindustan, a Manual of Indian Sport, Native Chiefs and their States, The sovereign Princes and Chiefs of Central India: at one time wrote largely for the Pioneer, and constantly for other English and Indian papers, including letters in the Bombay Gazette under the nom de plume "The Political Orphan": but his best work was his Twenty-one Days in India, being the Tour of Sir Ali Baba, a series of sketches of Indian life and society which appeared in Vanity Fair in 1878–9, and were afterwards published together. For brilliant wit, his work has not been approached in modern days in India. His bright and sympathetic humour, his "suspicion of cynicism which is the soul of modern pathos," his freedom from malice, his command of style and language, the keen edge and truth of his criticisms, his grasp and range, took the public by storm: a distinguished literary career lay before him, when he died, Jan. 12, 1881, from tetanus, caused by a chill caught at lawn-tennis: he was also an ardent sportsman, and lover of birds and animals.