Dictionary of Indian Biography/Beadon, Sir Cecil
BEADON, SIR CECIL (1816–1880)
I.C.S.: son of Richard Beadon, grandson of Dr. Beadon, grandson of Dr.Beadon, Bishop of Bath and Wells: born in 1816: educated at Eton and Haileybury: went out to Bengal in 1836: Under Secretary to the Bengal Government in 1843: Secretary to the Board of Revenue, 1847: Member of the Commission on the Indian postal system: Secretary to the Government of Bengal, 1852: Home Secretary to the Government of India, 1854: Foreign Secretary, 1859: Member of the Supreme Council 1860–2, and Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, April, 1862, to April, 1867. During this period the mission, which met with insults, was sent to Bhutan in 1864: and the Orissa famine of 1866–7 occured: for the latter, Beadon was much blamed and, on an official inquiry, his famine administration was severely censured: always sanguine, he had failed to estimate adequately the signs of distress and the local conditions: and he suffered from ill-health: his general administration showed marked ability: K.C.S.I. in May, 1866: died July 18, 1880.