Oliver St John (civil servant)

Sir Oliver Beauchamp Coventry St John KCSI (21 March 1837 – 3 June 1891) was an administrator in British India, who took a close interest in the zoology of the region.

His father was Captain Oliver St John of the Madras Army and his mother was Helen née Young (widow of Henry Anson Nutt).

He studied at the East India Company's Military College at Addiscombe (1855–57),[1] and joined the Bengal Engineers on 12 December 1856.

Towards the end of 1868 he returned to Persia and he remained here till 1871 with a break in September 1869 when he married Janette, daughter of James Ormond, of Abingdon, Berkshire.

These maps were based on longitudes of the Persian telegraph stations fixed in co-operation with General James Walker of the Indian Trigonometric Survey, Captain William Pierson, RE, and Lt Stiffe, IN.

[2][4] During all his time in Abyssinia, Persia and Baluchistan St John took a keen interest in natural history and hunting.