Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/French, Thomas Valpy
FRENCH, THOMAS VALPY (1825–1891), first bishop of Lahore, the eldest son of Peter French, vicar of Holy Trinity with Stretton, Burton-on-Trent, was born at the Abbey, Burton-on-Trent, on 1 Jan. 1825. Educated first at Reading grammar school, Burton grammar school, and Rugby, he matriculated from University College, Oxford, on 20 March 1843, graduating B.A. in 1846 and M.A. in 1849. In 1848 he won the chancellor's prize for a Latin essay, and in the same year was elected a fellow of University College. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Ripon in 1848, and priest by the bishop of Lichfield in 1849. In 1850 he offered his services to the Church Missionary Society, and was sent out as principal of St. John's College, Agra. During the mutiny he was foremost in protecting native Christians. In 1858 he came home, but in 1861 returned to found the Derajat mission on the Indian frontier. In 1863 he came to England again, and was vicar of St. Paul's, Cheltenham, from 1865 to 1869. He then returned to India and founded the Lahore divinity school. After short incumbencies at Erith, Kent, and St. Ebb's, Oxford, he was consecrated first bishop of Lahore on 21 Dec. 1877, and received the degree of D.D. from Oxford University on 11 Dec. French was equally remarkable as an evangelist, an administrator, and a linguist. In 1887 he resigned his see, and in 1891 he went as a simple missionary to Muscat, where he died on 14 May 1891. He published a number of sermons.
[Birks's Life and Correspondence of T. V. French; Stock's History of the C.M.S., vol. iii.; Record, 1891, pp. 509, 510.]