James Andrew

Who is James Andrew?

James Andrew, LL.D., was the principal of the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe, Surrey from 1809 to 1822.

Andrew was from Scotland, and received his education at Aberdeen. He established a successful private military academy at Woolwich Common which prepared pupils for the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1809 the East India Company purchased Addiscombe Place, near Croydon, to be its military seminary, training cadets for its private army in India. Andrew was appointed headmaster and Professor of Mathematics. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in March, 1821.

The terms of his contract allowed him to accrue large profits from the cadets' fees: following criticism, the system was changed at his request in 1821. He retired in August 1822 and died at Edinburgh on 13 June 1833.

Andrew was the author of Astronomical and Nautical Tables; Institutes of Grammar and Chronological Tables; Key to Scriptural Chronology; and Hebrew Grammar and Dictionary without Points. The copy of this book in the British Library belonged to the Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, and contains an autograph letter of Andrew.