| Product
Code |
: |
PUD NO_888-5-1 AR |
| Subject | : | Alexandra Native Girls English Institution Bombay - Bhownaggree Memorial Medal |
| Size | : | 39 mm |
| Metal | : | Silver |
| Year | : | 1888 |
| Description | : | obv. Bust of Bhownaggree, right, around border : * AVI BHOWNAGGREE * 1869 * MEMORIAL MEDAL * 1888, rev. Within a laurel wreath : ALEXANDRA / N.G.E. / INSTITUTION / BOMBAY.
The Alexandra Native Girls’ English Institution in Bombay was founded by Manockjee Cursetjee in 1863. Cursetjee, a friend of the Duke of Wellington, was one of the first Indians to be lionized in Europe about the middle of the nineteenth century. A genial, warm-hearted, humorous, loquacious Parsi, who with his Parsi hat and handlebar moustaches must have been quite a sight in European capitals. He was known as the foremost pioneer of English education for native girls.
Ave Bhownaggree was the younger sister of Sir Mancherjee Bhownaggree, son of a distinguished Parsi merchant, educated at Elphinstone College and the University of Bombay. After a successful career in Bombay and his enthusiastic promotion of the princely state of Bhavnagar in Britain he was appointed Commissioner of the Indian & Colonial Exhibition in 1886, followed by his election to the British Parliament. Ave died at the age of nineteen, a devastating blow to Sir Mancherjee, who made several endowments thereafter to keep her name alive. |
