J. Z. (John Zephaniah) Holwell

Born in Dublin in 1711, John Zephaniah Holwell trained in medicine and went to India in the service of the East India Company. He worked as a surgeon and later held senior civil posts in Bengal, eventually serving briefly as acting governor of Fort William at Calcutta in 1760.

Holwell became widely known for his account of the 1756 imprisonment of British captives in the event later called the Black Hole of Calcutta, which he said he survived. He also wrote extensively about Bengal, Company rule, and Indian religion, including Interesting Historical Events, Relative to the Provinces of Bengal, and the Empire of Indostan, a work that made him a notable if debated voice on India in Georgian Britain.

He spent his later years back in England and died in 1798. Today he is remembered both as a colonial administrator and as a writer whose dramatic version of events had a lasting effect on British views of India.