An interesting book. The Stracheys were an ancient, although not very influential, landed family from Somerset, notable for having sent thirteen members from four generations to work in India - over a period of two hundred years. A Strachey filled, at one stage or another, almost every senior position in the Indian government or military, from Acting Viceroy to Lieutenant-Governor and on downwards. John Strachey was a member of the ICS who rose to become Finance Member on Lord Mayo's Viceregal council - while his brother, Richard, joined the Royal Engineers and rose unusually high for an Army officer, eventually becoming Secretary of the Public Works Department. The brothers were so prominent during Lord Mayo's Viceroyalty (1869 - 1872) that his administration became known as the ' Strachey Raj'. John and Richard Strachey's older brother, William had also joined the ICS but returned to England after only five years - suffering, perhaps, from a little bit too much exposure to the sun - for during that brief period he had become convinced that the time in Calcutta was the only 'trustworthy' time anywhere on Earth and he continued to set his watch by it when in England. For the remaining fifty-six years of his life he ate breakfast in the late afternoon and lived most of his 'days' by candlelight.

Sir John Strachey & Sir Richard Strachey, photgraphed together in 1876 : http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw127333/Sir-John-Strachey-Sir-Richard-Strachey?LinkID=mp88071&search=sas&sText=sir+john+strachey&role=sit&rNo=4

Interesting. Thx for sharing.

your description of the Strachey family reminds me of the fictional Savage family in John Masters' novels. Were there more like the Stracheys in India?