John Peter Lucius Gwynn, born in London on June 22nd, 1916, MA (Trinity College, Dublin), Indian Civil Service (retired 1967) passed peacefully away on September 14th in Bromley, Kent, England, aged 83 years.
Peter Gwynn, as he was generally known, had a distinguished and privileged background. His parents and grandparents are linked to the Elton family of Clevedon Court, Somerset, from his mother's and grand-mother's side, making the link of Elton-Sedding. His grandmother married John Dando Sedding of the Arts and Crafts movement of the 1890s and of the Royal Institute of British Architects. As a well-known architect of British Churches, Sedding had a street named after him in London next to one of his most beautiful churches, Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square. John Betjeman, the late Poet Laureate, ranked Holy Trinity Church as one of the finest hundred in Britain.
Peter's mother, Joan Elton Sedding, married into the Gwynn Irish heritage which can be traced back over 1,000 years through the Gwynn-O'Brien genealogy to Brian Boru. From this noble line of O'Briens, Peter was the great-grandson of the rebel William Smith O'Brien, of Dromoland Castle, Co Clare, who was transported to prison in Tasmania, Australia. The Gwynn-O'Brien connection arose as a result of William Smith O'Brien's daughter marrying into the Gwynn family.
Peter's father, John Tudor Gwynn CIE, ICS (retired 1921 from the Madras Presidency) returned to Oxford with his young family where Peter's primary education began in the prestigious Dragon School. Later his father accepted the headmastership of Baymount Preparatory School for Boys in Dublin, after which Peter followed in family tradition by completing his schooling at St Columba's, Rathfarnham, and ending with graduation in Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, taking his place in a long line of scholars, senior fellows, and provosts of Gwynns from TCD, being himself a gold medallist in Classics.
It seemed a natural matter of course that his father's only son should be invited to become a member of the Indian Civil Service, as selection into this line of British administrators was considered to be a prestigious career. His father became widely known as a writer on Indian affairs in a later assignment as correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, presenting views more radical than his service contemporaries, which also became a hallmark of Peter's own views and reputation in India.
In November 1939, after his year's training at University College, Oxford, Peter arrived in Madras and entered his ICS days. Having served under the Madras Government throughout the war, he opted to remain a member of the service at the time of Indian independence in 1947. He took this decision for four fundamental reasons. First, he stated that his Irish background ensured that he grew up with a feeling of sympathy for the Indian nationalist cause; second, the Madras Government made to British members at the time of the transfer of power an offer to elect to stay for an indefinite period; third, he stated that he was fortunate in being stationed in the Nilgiris District from 1947 to the end of 1949, ending as Collector, Ootacamund which encouraged an optimistic view of what making a career in the new India might lead to; and finally, he felt that staying on in South India might provide opportunities to fulfil his ambition to learn more languages.
Having been awarded a small scholarship to study Sanskrit in Oxford, his interest in oriental languages grew steadily thereafter and during his service in a series of districts in Madras, Andhra and Andhra Pradesh at divisional and district level between 1941 and 1957, Peter developed an enduring love of the Telugu language and of its peoples. After subsequent posts as Education Secretary, during which he introduced compulsory state primary education, he retired as second member of the board of revenue as the last United Kingdom citizen still remaining in the ICS under the Government of India in an executive post.
When he later retired from Her Majesty's Treasury, Whitehall in 1976 this passion for Telugu led to his magnum opus, the compilation of the first modern TeluguEnglish dictionary since 1894, published by Oxford University Press in 1991, and generously sponsored by the Charles Wallace Trust. He worked industriously on it for 12 years, assisted by Prof J. Venkateswara Sastry. Prior to this he had also produced a "Grammar of Modern Telugu" in collaboration with Prof Bh Krishnamurti, published by Oxford University Press in 1985. For this work he received international Telugu awards in India.
His 40 years of marriage to Peggy Satur from Madras was a very happy part of his life as they shared an active, varied and eventful life together. Above all he was deeply devoted to all his family and was an indulgent father and grandfather. The keynote characteristics of his life were his simplicity and modesty which endeared him to all who came to know him.
P.M.G.