Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spry, Henry Harpur

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628707Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 53 — Spry, Henry Harpur1898Edward Irving Carlyle

SPRY, HENRY HARPUR (1804–1842), writer on India, born at Truro on 6 Jan. 1804, was son of Jeffery or Geoffry Spry (d. 1829) of the excise, by his wife Philadelphia, daughter of Joseph Knight of Bodrean, near Truro. Henry was educated as a surgeon, and entered the service of the East India Company, being appointed assistant surgeon on the Bengal staff on 10 April 1827. In 1841 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a fellow of the Geographical Society, and a member of the Asiatic Society, besides being secretary of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India. He died at Fort William, Calcutta, on 4 Sept. 1842.

He was the author of: 1. ‘Modern India, with Illustrations of the Resources and Capabilities of Hindustan,’ London, 1837, 12mo. 2. ‘Suggestions for the Introduction of Useful and Ornamental Plants into India,’ Calcutta, 1841, 8vo.

[Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, ii. 680; Gent. Mag. 1843, i. 555; Dodwell and Miles's Medical Officers of India, p. 56; Lady Holland's Memoirs of Sydney Smith, 1865, ii. 413.]

E. I. C.