author
C. T. (Charles Thomas) Buckland
1824–1894
Best known for vivid recollections of British life in colonial India, this former Bengal civil servant wrote with the eye of both an insider and a storyteller. His work offers a firsthand glimpse of the social world surrounding the British Raj in the 19th century.
1 Audiobook
Sketches of social life in India
by C. T. (Charles Thomas) Buckland
About the author
Born on February 27, 1824, Charles Thomas Buckland was educated at Eton and Haileybury before joining the Bengal Civil Service in 1844. He spent his career in British India, where he earned a reputation as a capable and independent administrator.
Buckland is remembered today chiefly for Sketches of Social Life in India, a lively account drawn from personal experience. Rather than writing a dry official record, he focused on the habits, manners, and everyday atmosphere of Anglo-Indian society, which gives his work much of its lasting interest.
He died in 1894. For modern readers, his writing remains valuable not only as memoir and observation, but also as a window into how a British civil servant saw the world of India in the late 19th century.