Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Crosthwaite, Charles Haukes Todd
CROSTHWAITE, Sir CHARLES HAUKES TODD (1835–1915), Anglo-Indian administrator, was born at Donnybrook, co. Dublin, 5 December 1835, the second son of the Rev. John Clarke Crosthwaite, vicar-choral of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and later rector of St. Mary-at-Hill, London, by his wife, Elizabeth Haukes, daughter of Charles H. Todd, M.D., of Sligo and Dublin. After education at Merchant Taylors’ School and St. John’s College, Oxford, he entered the Indian civil service in August 1857, and served in various revenue and judicial posts in the North-Western Provinces and the Central Provinces. From March 1883 to February 1884 he was in Burma, acting as chief commissioner during the absence on leave of Sir Charles Edward Bernard [q.v.]. After his return to the Central Provinces Crosthwaite became officiating chief commissioner there, and was confirmed in that post in January 1885. Towards the end of the following year he was made a member of the public service commission; but this employment was interrupted in March 1887 by his appointment to succeed Sir Charles Bernard as chief commissioner of Burma. He had already been made a C.S.I. in February 1887, and in June 1888 he was promoted K.C.S.I.
Crosthwaite’s period of service in Burma lasted till December 1890, and during that time he did notable work in clearing the province of the rebels and dacoits who infested it, and in settling the administration. He was then recalled to join the viceroy’s council as home member; but this post he had to give up in February 1891, when he went to England on furlough. He was, however, reappointed on his return in April 1892, and retained his seat until the following November, when he was selected to succeed Sir Auckland Colvin [q.v.] as lieutenant-governor of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. In this position he again proved himself a strong and able official, at once determined and conciliatory.
Crosthwaite went home on leave at the beginning of 1895, and in the following March was appointed to a vacancy on the Council of India, where he served the customary ten years. After his retirement he devoted himself to writing. He had already (1870) published Notes on the North-Western Provinces of India and had collaborated in a work on The Land Revenue Law of the North-Western Provinces (1875). He now wrote a full account of The Pacification of Burma (1912), and followed this up by Thakur Pertab Singh and other Tales (1913). He also contributed many letters to the daily press, especially on the subject of the Morley reforms, of which he was a trenchant critic. He died 28 May 1915, at Long Acre, Shamley Green, Surrey.
Crosthwaite married twice: first, in 1868 Sarah (died 1872), daughter of William Graham, of Lisburn; secondly, in 1874 Caroline Alison (died 1893), daughter of Sir Henry Lushington, fourth baronet, of Aspenden Hall, Hertfordshire. By his first wife he had three sons and three daughters, and by his second, two sons and one daughter.
[The Times, 31 May 1915; India Office List; private information.]