author
Sir James McCrone Douie
1854–1935
Best known for his writing on Punjab and the northwestern regions of British India, he brought an administrator’s eye for landscape, history, and local detail to his books. His work still offers a revealing window into how the region was described in the late colonial period.
1 Audiobook
The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir
by Sir James McCrone Douie
About the author
Born in Largs, Ayrshire, on March 8, 1854, Sir James McCrone Douie was educated at the High School and University of Edinburgh and later at Balliol College, Oxford. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1876 and spent most of his career in Punjab, where he served in a series of senior administrative posts and briefly acted as Lieutenant Governor.
Alongside his government career, Douie wrote about the lands he knew through service, including The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province, and Kashmir. His books combine geography, history, and administration, giving modern readers a clear sense of how these regions were viewed and explained by a British official of his time.
He died on March 18, 1935. Today, he is remembered less as a literary stylist than as a careful recorder of place whose work remains useful to readers interested in colonial history, Punjab, and the North-West Frontier.