Phayre, Sir Arthur Purves

▪ British colonial official

born May 7, 1812, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng.

died Dec. 14, 1885, Bray, County Wicklow, Ire.

      British commissioner in Burma (Myanmar), who made a novel attempt to spread European education through traditional Burmese institutions.

      Educated at the Shrewsbury School in England, Phayre joined the army in India in 1828. He was an army officer in Moulmein in the province of Tenasserim, Burma; in 1846 he was appointed assistant to the commissioner of the province. In 1849 he was made commissioner of Arakan, where he learned to speak fluent Burmese.

      After the Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852), Phayre became commissioner of Pegu and played a major role in the relations between the government of India and the new king Mindon. He served as interpreter for the Burmese mission to Calcutta, India, in 1854 and the following year headed a return mission to the Burmese capital, Amarapura. Although no treaty was signed, Phayre and the Burmese king came to an understanding that prevented the outbreak of further war. In 1862, when Phayre was made commissioner for the entire province of British Burma (including Arakan, Tenasserim, and Pegu), he concluded a commercial treaty with Mindon to facilitate trade between Lower and Upper Burma and to establish a British representative at the capital. Five years later Phayre left Burma; after serving for a few years (1874–78) as governor of Mauritius, he retired to Bray and was knighted (1878).

      Phayre was a renowned scholar of Burmese culture and history; he wrote the first standard History of Burma (1883). His effort to introduce modern education into Burma using Buddhist monastic schools as a foundation was ultimately unsuccessful.

* * *