to the Burmese court with Dr. John Forsyth, of Afghanistan and Jalálábád fame, and Thomas Oldham [q. v.], superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, and Captain (afterwards Sir Henry) Yule as secretary. The desired treaty was not obtained; but information of much value concerning the country, the people, and their government was collected (see Yule's Report). Phayre was promoted major in 1855, and lieutenant-colonel in 1859. In 1862 the province of British Burma was formed by combining the divisions known as Arakan, Iráwadi, Pegu, and Tenasserim, and Phayre was appointed chief commissioner. He was made C.B. in 1863. His success attracted the favourable attention of Sir John Lawrence, who, when Phayre contemplated departure on sick leave, wrote on 2 Feb. 1867 expressing his deep regret, and recommended him for the distinction of K.C.S.I. Phayre left Burma in the course of that year, and never returned. His successor, Colonel Albert Fytche, justly reported that his administration was throughout conspicuously wise and conscientious.
During his absence on leave (February 1868) he declined Sir Stafford Northcote's offer of the post of resident at Haidarábád, one of the best appointments in India. Next year he travelled to India, visited Kashmir, China, Japan, and America, and, returning home in 1870, settled at Bray, near Dublin, for four years. He was promoted major-general in 1870, and lieutenant-general in 1877. In 1874 he was appointed by Lord Carnarvon to be governor of the Mauritius. His administration was both successful and popular, and he held office till the end of 1878, when he retired from the army and was created G.C.M.G. Settling again at Bray, he employed himself in compiling the ‘History of Burma,’ which he published in 1883. The book is an excellent piece of work, founded chiefly on the ‘Mahárájáweng,’ or ‘Chronicles of the Kings of Burma,’ and on other Burmese authorities. One of his last public acts was to write a letter to the ‘Times’ (13 Oct. 1885) intimating his approval of the annexation of independent Upper Burma. He died unmarried at Bray on 14 Dec. 1885, and was buried at Enniskerry.
Phayre was tall, dignified in bearing, and excessively courteous in manner. By his firmness, justice, and liberality he built up the great province of Burma, where his name became a household word.
There is a portrait of Phayre in uniform, painted by Sir Thomas Jones, P.R.H.A., in the coffee-room of the East India United Service Club, and a statue has been erected to his memory in Rangoon.
Phayre's publications, besides the ‘History of Burma,’ are ‘Coins of Arakan, of Pegu, and of Burma’ (part of the ‘International Numismata Orientalia’), 1882, 4to, and many papers detailed in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society’ (1886, p. 111).
[Information kindly furnished by his brother, Sir Robert Phayre, K.C.B.; Yule's Narrative of Major Phayre's Mission to the Court of Ava (Calcutta, 1856); Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1886, viii. 103–12, obit. notice by Colonel Yule.]
PHAYRE or PHAIRE, ROBERT (1619?–1682), regicide, possibly a son of Emmanuel Phaire, who in 1612 became rector of Kilshannig, co. Cork, was born about 1619, for on 24 March 1654 his age is reported as thirty-five. He came into prominence in connection with the outbreak of the second civil war. In February 1648 he held a command as lieutenant-colonel in the south of Ireland, when he was arrested, with three other officers, for refusing to join the royalist rising under Murrough O'Brien, first earl of Inchiquin [q. v.] (Carte, Life of Ormonde, iii. 356). On 4 Oct. these four were exchanged for Inchiquin's son, and brought to Bristol in December by Admiral Penn, whence Phayre made his way to London. The warrant for the execution of Charles was addressed, on 29 Jan. 1649, to Colonel Francis Hacker [q. v.], Colonel Hercules Huncks, and Lieutenant-colonel Phayre. He was present on the 30th at Whitehall when the orders were drawn up for the executioner. In April he was given command of a Kentish regiment to join Cromwell's expedition to Ireland. In November the town of Youghal capitulated to him, and he was made one of the commissioners for settling Munster. On 10 April 1650 he took part, under Broghill, in the victory at Macroom over the royalist forces under Boethius MacEgan, the Roman catholic bishop of Ross. Next year (1651) he was appointed governor of Cork county, and held this office till 1654. He was a parliamentary republican, dissatisfied with the rule of the army officers, and unfriendly to the protectorate. He seems to have retired to Rostellan Castle, co. Cork.
In 1656 Henry Cromwell reported that Phayre was attending quaker meetings. He does not appear to have become a member of the Society of Friends, though one of his daughters (by his first wife) married a Friend. It is somewhat remarkable that Phayre himself married, as his second wife, Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Thomas Herbert
