#memory
Sir Maurice Gwyer.
Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer ( 1878-1952) is one of the Britishers who left an indelible mark in the history of India.
Gwyer took his BA from Christ Church Oxford in 1892 and was appointed a Fellow of the All Saints College Oxford from 1902 to 1916.
He was called to the bar in 1902. He received the BCL from Oxford in 1908 and taught international law from 1912 at Oxford.
From 1930, he served the British government in various capacities and drafted the India Bill which became the Government of India Act, 1935 and served as the basic document for the Constitution of India, 1950. He was deputed to the Hague as the representative of the British Government to draft the bylaws of the International Court of Justice.
Sir Gwyer was appointed the first Chief Justice of the Federal Court of India in 1934 ( Supreme Court of India from 1950) and served till 1943.
The great educationist and jurist was appointed Vice Chancellor of the Delhi University in 1938 and continued in the distinguished post till 1950. His vision was to transform the University like Oxford and Cambridge and invited several distinguished personalities like Dr VKRV Rao ( later Union Minister) to serve as faculty. He started the practice of inviting eminent personalities from various walks of life like EM Forster and Homi Bhabha to be visiting lecturers.
Sir Gwyer established the first men’s hostel in the country in the Delhi University which is known as the Gwyer Hall. The old Delhi University campus was named Maurice Nagar in honour of the great educationist.
Sir Gwyer established the first women’s college in India, the Miranda House in Delhi. The name Miranda was chosen by him being a character in the Shakespear play Tempest which also happened to be the name of his daughter.
Miranda House,started with 33 girl students have today more than 4000 students in its roles and remains the best women’s college in India consecutively for seven years from 2017.
Sir Gwyer also served as the President of the Delhi YMCA.
– Joy Kallivayalil.
( photo: Gurudev Raveendranath Tagore with Sir Gwyer and Dr S Radhakrishnan at Oxford University).
p.s. Kerala has fond memories of Sir Gwyer. He was honoured with a LLD by the University of Travancore in 1943.
Miranda House had two distinguished Malayalees who served as Principals, Mary Chandy ( 1964-71) and AC Janaki Amma ( 1971-81).
