Sub-series 1 - The Nawab's Lakh

20 items

The Lieutenant Governor of the NWP and Oudh confirmed the Nawab of Rampur, Mohamad Mushtaq Ali Khan, on the throne of the State of Rampur in April 1888, after being treated by Freyer for paralysis for over a year. In the previous February Freyer had written a confidential report on the health of the Nawab for the Lieutenant Governor of the NWP and Oudh. In June 1888 the Government of the NWP and Oudh placed Freyer's medical services at the disposal of the Nawab of Rampur, on a temporary basis so that he could accompany General Azim Uddin Khan while recuperating. A contemporary account in the Morning Post of 14 Aug 1888 [see P57/301] describes the return of Freyer and General Azim Uddin Khan from Naini Tal on 30 July and the public dunbar on 6 Aug at which Freyer was presented with a lakh of rupees in appreciation of the medical attention received by the Nawab and the General. By September the Government of the NWP and Oudh, through the office of the Inspector General of Civil Hospitals, were beginning to question the acceptance of such a large gift by a civil surgeon. This escalated into a row between Freyer and the Government, who thought that Freyer should give half his fee to charity and laid down new procedures to be followed in future. In a long letter to Dr Rice, Inspector General of Civil Hospitals, dated 21 Sept 1888, Freyer gives details of his attendance on the Nawab, the former Nawab and on General Azim Uddin Khan over a period of a year and a half. He writes that his services to the Nawab allowed the Nawab to be confirmed on the throne by the Lieutenant Governor in April 1888. It is apparent from this letter however that Freyer was attending General Azim Uddin Khan in June and July 1888 not the Nawab. When the first class civil surgeoncy at Agra became vacant in the spring of 1889, Sir Auckland Colvin, Lieutenant Governor of the NWP and Oudh, refused to promote Freyer, because of his acceptance of the full lakh of rupees against the Government's wishes. Freyer wrote a number of letters arguing his case but Colvin remained adamant so Freyer decided to appeal to a higher authority and eventually sent a memorial to the Secretary of State for India, enclosing copies of the relevant documents [including those nos 1-17, see P57/71-77]. The later correspondence records the Government of India's reply to his memorial. It was ironic that the Marquess of Lansdowne, the Governor General or Viceroy of India 1888-1894, was later to be a regular patient of Freyer's [see introduction to his medical diaries].

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13/11/2013
29/07/2025