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About Michael Lloyd Ferrar
- Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Lloyd Ferrar (16 April 1876 – 25 February 1971) was a British army officer and civil servant who worked as a chief commissioner of the Penal Settlement at Port Blair on Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands. Born 1876, son of Michael Lloyd Ferrar, Ferrar was educated at St.
- Columba's College, Rugby and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst where he was a contemporary of Winston Churchill.
- He joined the Indian Civil Service in 1861 and arrived in India in 1863.
- He joined the Indian Army at the age of 20 in 1896.
- Ferrar opted to move to the Civil Service and was inducted into the Punjab Commission.
- During the five years that he was in the army (where he served on the Tirah Campaign 1897-98), he studied Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Punjabi and Pashto.
- He worked as a settlement officer in Oudh around 1875.
- Before becoming Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands he served at various positions in northern and northwestern parts of British India.
- From 1902-1906 he commanded the Baloch Levy, was a postal censor at Bombay, 1915-18, and deputy commissioner Lahore, 1919-23, during which time he was involved in the arrest of Lala Lajpat Rai and Satyanand Stokes on charges of sedition.
- Ferrar was responsible for increasing agriculture on the Andamans.
- Under his management, tea, coffee and rubber were tried on the island and land was allotted to settlers between 1923 and 1926.
- On the advice of Colonel Christopher Covell, swamps were drained.
- Ferrargunj was named after him and was originally a settlement for Bhantus who were then designated as a criminal tribe.
- The settlement was attacked by Jarawas and Ferrar launched punitive measures against the Jarawas.
- He initiated measures to protect fishing grounds in the Andamans from being poached by Singapore fishermen for Trochus shells.
- Ferrar retired in 1931 and returned to England serving as a Major in the Home Guard around 1940-41.
- In 1932 he wrote a chapter on the history of Islam in India.
- His proficience in Indian languages led to him being appointed an examiner in Urdu at Cambridge University from 1934-62.A keen naturalist and student of the butterfly fauna, he collected over 4000 specimens which are now in the Natural History Museum at London.
- He was in close contact with other lepidopterists such as Brigadier W.
- H.
- Evans who visited the Andamans towards the end of Ferrar's tenure there.
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