Ardaseer Cursetjee

Biography

Ardaseer Cursetjee was the son of Cursetjee Rustomjee, scion of the Wadia family of shipbuilders and naval architects, and master builder at the Bombay Dockyard (today, Mumbai's Naval Dockyard).

In 1822, aged 14, Ardaseer joined his father at the dockyards. He is described to have been particularly interested in steam engines.

In 1833, aged 25, he launched a small 60 ton ocean-going ship of his design. This ship, the Indus, would subsequently warrant a mention in his nomination for the Royal Society.

On 10 March 1834, in the presence of the Governor of Bombay, he had his house and gardens at Mazgaon lit using gas lighting.

In 1837, he was elected a non-resident member of the Royal Asiatic Society.

In 1839, at the age of 31, he travelled overland to England to further his studies of marine steam power on behalf of the East India Company. He recounted his journey in The Diary of an Overland Journey from Bombay to England, which was published in London in 1840. While in England, he constructed a steam engine, which he then had shipped to India for installation on the Indus.

On 27 May 1841, Cursetjee was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. The nomination, made by Spencer Compton, Marquess of Northampton, the then President of the Society, describes him as a "gentleman well versed in the theory and practice of naval architecture and devoted to scientific pursuits." It credits him with both the introduction of gas lighting to Bombay, as well as having "built a [sea-going] vessel of 60 tons to which he adapted a Steam Engine."

In 1855 he was elected a Justice of the Peace.

Ardaseer Cursetjee remained Chief Engineer until 1 August 1857, when he retired. He returned to England, where he settled.

In 1858, on his last trip to London, England, Ardaseer set up home with an English woman named Marian Barber. While the couple did not marry, they had children and their lineage continues to live in the United Kingdom to date. One of his descendants Blair Southerden has written books, including A gentle lion and other ancestors (2013) tracing back his lineage, profiling the Parsi community and their interests in ship building.

He died, aged 69, on 16 November 1877 in Richmond.

On 27 May 1969, the Indian Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of his contributions as "pioneer and innovator."

His children continued for some time to carry his name. St. Mathias church in Surrey records that in 1879, one of children Gustasp Ardaseer married Florence Neal.

Family and Children

Though they never married, Ardaseer set up home with Marian Barber (1817–1899) in England, and together the couple had a number of children. Marian was a British woman, from Tower Hamlets whose brother worked as a clerk in the docks of London. Ardaseer and Marian had a long drawn relationship, and though they never married, they had their first child Lowjee Annie in Bombay in December 1853. Her second child Gustasp Ardaseer was born in Bombay in 1856. The couple subsequently returned to UK as the Parsi community in India did not accept their marriage.

Ardaseer also had a wife in India, Awahbai, who he left back in India when he migrated to UK. His children from Awahbai and his children from Marian continued to maintain relations, sometimes intermarrying amongst themselves.

For example, Cursetjee Rustomjee (1855–1941), the grandson of Awahbai and Ardaseer was sent to England to study for the Indian civil service examination and stayed with his grandfather in Richmond. There, he met Ardaseer and Marian's daughter Lowjee Annie. In 1880, he married his aunt Lowjee Annie (1853–1894). While their three children were all born in India, their father returned to England soon after retirement in 1911. He died in Matlock, Derbyshire in 1941.