Introduction

The Times obituary of Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth in 1886 paid the former ICS representative a dubious compliment in placing him highly in the group of ‘men of second rank’ within the ‘modern history of British India’. Forsyth was not unique in having combined a somewhat forgettable and modestly paid Indian government career with a move into the City. His boardroom appointments within Indian railways straddled several companies and geographical regions. The manner in which he promoted those companies, attracting public- and private-sector support, illustrates the division of power within Anglo-Indian commerce in the late nineteenth century. Forsyth used business, diplomatic and ICS/India Office contacts to negotiate advantageous arrangements on financings for companies representing the military, famine protective and commercial aspects of Indian railways. He forged close relationships with business mavericks in the Stafford House Committee (SHC), a charitable organization which transformed itself into a holding company for railway promoters. In the diplomatic arena he worked with ambitious and frustrated consular representatives to deliver combined British and Portuguese guarantees to a small Goa railway. Indian government guarantees were then negotiated to support funding for a contiguous railway, which stretched across large parts of the south. The Southern Mahratta promised to make the Deccan region free of famines, but failed to deliver famine protection. In the North, Forsyth promoted vast military expenditure in partnership with the Indian railway pioneer W. P. Andrew.