The imposing statues of two king-emperors look down from their pedestals in a sun-dappled corner of the Government Museum complex. They may have known the great grandfather of the man with a kind professorial air, about to address a packed audience at the Centenary Exhibition Hall, a rotunda that thrums to the sound of air conditioning. Kavitha Ramu, Director of Museums, Government of Tamil Nadu, and Sujatha Shankar, Convenor, INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), Chennai chapter, welcome and introduce Mark Tatchell, who, as destiny would have it, is set to speak on Henry Irwin, at the very site of the buildings he designed a century ago.
The 66-year-old Tatchell seems an unlikely heir to British colonial architect Irwin who designed some of India’s most defining Indo-Saracenic buildings such as the Madras High Court complex, Railway Station, Egmore, Amba Vilas Palace, Mysore, and the Viceregal Lodge, Shimla. In the pictures at the talk, Irwin comes off as stern, riding crop in hand, his wife Henrietta standing beside him in an Edwardian bustle dress.
MYSORE, 28/03/2012: A view of grand Durbar hall inside the Amba Vilas Palace, in Mysore.Photo: M.A. Sriram 28/03/2012
Tatchell’s eyes crinkle with laughter when he introduces his wife Rhonwen, his slight frame belying a lifetime spent studying insects and guiding wildlife tours in Antarctica. “I was raised in Somerset in south-west England. It was an idyllic childhood, one spent crawling through hedgerows and wandering around the countryside discovering the natural world. I must’ve been six when my friend arrived with butterflies pinned to a board. Collecting insects was a fad that didn’t end for me and I absorbed a lot from being out in the woods and fields,” says Tatchell in his deep baritone.
It led to him pursuing degrees in Zoology and Entomology from Imperial College, London, and later a doctorate. “I moved on to research and for more than three decades helped in writing research papers. I succumbed to Britain’s fascination for the ‘heroic age of exploration’ and read up the diaries of Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton. On my 50th birthday, Rhonwen permitted me to visit Antarctica,” he laughs. It was the first of many visits to both poles, leading tours to see wildlife and capturing it in award-winning photographs.
CHENNAI: The Old Connemera Public Library building at Chennai has been restored by the ASI, Chennai Circle. The restoration work done by the ASI includes the stained glass panel on the vaulted roof, paintings on the roof, floral stucco work above the arches, wooden balustrades etc. This building is hundred and ten years old. Photo: S. Thanthoni 15-09-2006
The India connection
But there was another place on the globe, and the family legacy associated with it, waiting to be discovered. “I always knew that my family had India connections. My father, a German prisoner of war, had served with the Royal Mountain Artillery in the North West Frontier Province. I knew his mother Helen was born and raised in India. When I was going through some papers after my parents passed away, I chanced upon the marriage certificate of my paternal grandparents — Helen and Edward Tatchell — who were married at St Stephen’s, Ootacamund. The father of the bride was mentioned as Henry Irwin.”
A view of the Government Museum in Chennai, the capital of the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu. The Pantheon Complex was built before 1789 and was a place of assemblage for the British till it was bought by the Government in 1830. Later, several new buildings were added to it. Today, this complex houses the Government Museum, the National Art Gallery and the Connemara Public Library.The museum was established in 1857 and has the country's best collection of South Indian bronzes, both ancient and modern.
Cutting through a large swathe of time and peeling back the decades, Tatchell discovered that the Irwins had had 13 children and there were now innumerable cousins but those who had direct links had passed on. “I wish I hadn’t left it this late.”
It was after that, that the Tatchells came to India for the first time on their 25th wedding anniversary. Although they did a tourist trail, they visited St Stephen’s church, St Thomas’ church where Irwin is buried and the Amba Vilas, where Tatchell delivered a talk. He was so fascinated with the grandeur of the durbar hall that it drove him to pore over the annual administration records of the Public Works Department (part of the India Office Records) at the British Library.
“The Irwins had spent almost all their lives in India, except for the early years. Henry started his career in Ceylon building roads, then moved to the Central Provinces in India. In Nagpur, he built the Mayo Hospital, followed by a church in Pachmarhi, that was a replica of any found in the English countryside,” says Tatchell. “It was only when he moved to Madras that he built in the Indo-Saracenic style, adding to what his predecessor Robert Chisholm developed. Namberumal Chetty was the contractor. He was known for the trademark red bricks used in these iconic buildings and even had his own ‘brick train’.”
The interiors of the restored building of the Connemara Public Library, designed by Henry Irwin in 1896, are resplendent with floral murals, glass tiles on the vaulted roof, and the richly carved woodwork. Photo: Shaju John, Chennai (20-11-2006)
(INTACH had tracked down and invited a descendant of Chetty for the talk where Tara Murali, co-convenor, emphasised on the contribution of the expertise of Indian artisans to the buildings.)
Imperial architecture is a physical representation of the might of Empire but the Indo-Saracenic style with its bulbous domes, pointed arches, jaali work, minarets, overhanging eaves and stained glass is an amalgamation of Mughal, Persian and Hindu elements of building. Irwin designed a glut of buildings in this style, including the Museum Theatre, Connemara Library, State Bank of India headquarters in Chennai and the American College, Madurai.
Although pigeons now nest in the arches, damp has left a moss trail on the walls, and some of the intricate work is crumbling, Tatchell who spent considerable time exploring forgotten nooks and crannies in these buildings, says, “They were thought of and constructed in a moment of history and have contributed to the fabric of the country and in a way to my family’s legacy.”
