47. Alfred and Jane Beale of British Burma

Alfred Lionel Beale was born in 1831 in Cawnpore (Kanpur). His parents were John and Mary Beale.

Jane Cotton was born in 1830 in Moulmein, Burma. Her parents were Frederick and Hannah Cotton.

Alfred and Jane were married in 1855 in Moulmein (now Mawlamyine).

I'm not certain how Alfred came to be in Burma. I think I've seen records showing that he was a clerk, and may have been appointed to the local civil service, like Jane's father. Most of the civil service jobs were reserved for Anglo-Indians. Update: he was an accountant in the office of the prison in Rangoon at the time of his marriage. Rangoon is about 2000 miles from where Alfred was brought up.

They had nine children, all born in Moulmein, bar the youngest two, who were born in Rangoon:

• 56.1.1 - Jeanette Violette Beale (1853)
• 56.1.2 - Amy Beale (1854)
• 56.1.3 - Alfred Curley Beale (1855)
• 56.1.4 - Edmund Julius Beale (1857)
• 56.1.5 - Ronald William Beale (1859)
• 56.1.6 - Amelia Matilda Beale (1861)
• 56.1.7 - Mabel Constance Beale (1864). Mabel died in 1865.
• 56.1.8 - Arthur Lionel Beale (1866)
• 56.1.9 - Ethelwin Muriel Beale (1869). Ethelwin died in 1881.

More on these individuals in Chapter 56.

Rangoon, now officially Yangon (or ရန်ကုန်) was the hub of British Burma after the Second Anglo-Burmese war in 1852, and the capital after the Third Anglo-Burmese war in 1885. (It remained so until 2006). Alfred and his family arrived right in the middle of this period, in about 1866, again possibly as a result of a government re-posting.

Victorian image of the Great Dagon (Shwedagon) Pagoda, Rangoon (credit)

Rangoon still boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in Southeast Asia, and the Victorian urban core is still in evidence. The colonial cantonment was laid out as a grid or 'chess board' by British military engineers Fraser and Montgomerie after the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852. Fortifications were improved and problems of flooding and coastal erosion were tackled. The street plan, and the surrounding parks and gardens, imposed on the city and on the surrounding villages and jungle, made possible the modern Yangon Central Business District. At the time it was called the ''garden city of the East'.

Ministers' Building, Rangoon (credit)

Despite having kept pace with London a hundred years ago, the infrastructure in the C21 is now ageing; social inequality is endemic. But the city is well worth exploring from satellite and street perspectives. The use of car horns is banned, so it would make an interesting comparison with India!


Next (Alfred's siblings)