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William Nethersole

Deal, Walmer and Sandwich Mercury 17 November 1888

We copy the following from the Pioneer Mail of October 24th, 1888: -

The accident which caused the death of Mr. Nethersole,¹ of the Central Provinces Commission, on the 9th inst., was, it appears, unwitnessed of anyone. A correspondent writing from Sambalpur sends us the particulars as far as they are known.

Mr. Nethersole had just returned in the best of health and spirits from privilege leave in England. He left Raipur on the 8th, and reached Jhalap, a place fifty miles off, on the same evening. Early the next morning he left for Saukra, and after changing horses halfway, galloped off, hoping to arrive at Sankra, on the border of the Sambalpur district, in time to escape the heat of the day. His syce followed on foot, but had scarcely gone a mile when he found his master's senseless body lying on the roadside. There was a severe incised wound on the forehead, and bad abrasions on the hands and face. Every care was taken, and medical aid procured as soon as possible. All efforts proved, however, unavailing, and after lingering on in an unconscious state for a day and a half, Mr. Nethersole died on the night of the 11th October. His funeral took place in Sambalpur on the evening of the following day. The coffin was carried to the grave by the European residents of the station, and the officers of the native regiment at Sambalpur, and all the leading members of the native community, accompanied the body to the cemetery.

How the accident occurred is not precisely known. Apparently the horse stumbled and fell when at full gallop, and brought down its master with it. Mr. Nethersole was apparently thrown violently on his head, causing fracture to the skull, from which death resulted.

The writer continues: -

Mr. Nethersole was appointed Settlement Officer of Sambalpur early in 1885, and since that time had been carrying out his difficult task with indefatigable zeal and great ability. His kind and sympathetic nature, accompanied as it was by absolute singleness of mind, had won for him the friendship and esteem not only of the officials who worked with and under him, but of all the natives of the district with whom he had come in contact, and the sorrow felt at his sudden untimely death is deep and widespread. To those who were his personal friends - and everyone who had the privilege of knowing him with any intimacy was his friend - the death of so genial and sympathetic a companion, and so kind and thoughtful a friend, is a heavy loss. His career was one of the fairest promise. His untiring industry, his clearness of view, and the thoroughness and precision shown in every detail of his work had won for him the entire confidence and esteem of his superiors, while his tact and sympathy had endeared him to all the members of the European and native community among whom he worked.

His early loss will be deeply felt not only by his numerous personal friends, but also by the Government, which he so faithfully served.

The Central Provinces Gazette this week contains the following order by the Chief Commissioner: -

The Chief Commissioner has received with deep regret information of the sad and untimely death of Mr. W. Nethersole, C.S. Settlement Officer of Sambalpur. Mr. Nethersole, though of only ten years' standing, was an officer whom the Local Administration could ill afford to lose. He had already cut his name deep in the Provincial record. Early distinguished for accuracy and application, he was perhaps the best Under Secretary that any Chief Commissioner of these Provinces has ever had. Appointed to the Settlement Department in 1885, he brought to bear on his work all the powers of a clear and sound judgement, supplemented by a bodily activity that nothing seemed to tire. The system of settlement survey now followed in these provinces was then in the experimental stage, and it was held to be matter for regret that the first district taken up should be Sambalpur, which from its remoteness, the character of its people, the difficulty of its language, the smallness of its fields, and the entire absence of reliable records, presented unusual obstacles to the success of the new system. During the three and a half years that Mr. Nethersole was Settlement Officer of Sambalpur, he formed and trained a complete staff of Patwaris, till then practically non-existent, cadastrally surveyed by their agency, the whole khalsa of the district (more than 1,900 square miles), elaborated the system which has been sanctioned for its assessment, and himself completed the assessment of 1,500 square miles of country. His maps and records are of singular accuracy and completeness of detail. At the same time the economy with which he worked was beyond all praise, and the cost of his operation (excluding the preliminary traverse survey) will probably fall short of Rs. 80 per square mile). Had he been spared for four months longer he would have been able to say that he had carried through, from a doubtful beginning to a most successful end, the best and cheapest cadastral survey and settlement ever made in India.

The Chief Commissioner fearing lest Mr. Nethersole's unparalleled labours in the field, regardless of season and a treacherous climate, should disable him altogether, on more than one occasion forced on him a brief interval of rest, and only eight days before his death Mr. Nethersole returned from a short visit home, which it was hoped would enable him to complete his work in Sambalpur, and take up next year, during Mr. Fuller's absence, the officiating appointment of Commissioner of Settlements and Agriculture, for which no other officer in the province had the same qualifications. His death leaves a blank in the Commission which it will indeed be difficult to fill.