James Wallace Quinton

Who was James Wallace Quinton?

James Wallace Quinton was the chief commissioner of Assam from 1889 until his death.

He was born the son of a wine merchant in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated BA in 1853. He subsequently served as secretary and president of the University Philosophical Society.

Having been appointed to the Bengal civil service in 1856, he served in the North-West Provinces and Oudh until 1875, when he officiated for two years as judicial commissioner in Burma. Returning to the North-West Provinces in 1877, he was appointed magistrate and collector of the Allahabad district in April 1877, and officiating civil and sessions judge in April 1878. He was on special duty in July 1878 at Naini Tál as a member of the North-West Provinces famine commission. He afterwards served as commissioner in the Jhánsi and Lucknow divisions, and in February 1883 was appointed an additional member of the governor-general's council, an office which he held in 1884, and again in 1886 and 1889. In the earlier of those years he was an ardent supporter of Lord Ripon's policy, which the majority of Anglo-Indians strongly disapproved.