Robert Christopher Tytler

His father, Robert Tytler (18 Nov 1787 – 17 March 1838, Gwalior), served as a surgeon in the Bengal Native Infantry and his mother, Elizabeth Schneeburg (1782–1852) was the daughter of a German count.

[3] In May 1857, at the beginning of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Tytler was present when the sepoys of his own unit mutinied against their British officers at Delhi, where he later played a conspicuous part in the ensuing siege.

He and his wife were among the important photographers present in the aftermath of Indian Mutiny of 1857, which included Felice Beato and Charles Shepard, during the time he took the notable last image of last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar II.

[4] He was eventually promoted to Colonel and appointed officiating Superintendent of the Convict Settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands from April 1862 to February 1864.

Tytler's predecessor Colonel J.C. Haughton who replaced J.P. Walker had restored peace after the violent clashes with the Andamanese (including the so-called Battle of Aberdeen).

The Government of India was unhappy with Tytler's actions and noted that "if when the unfortunate seaman was shot, two or three of the Natives had been instantly seized as hostages instead of indiscriminate fire being begun upon a party of savages among whom women were present, the interest of humanity and civilisation would have been better consulted."

The two were eventually released and Jumbo's wife (nicknamed Topsy) visited the prisoners and helped convince the other Andamanese that the men had been kept unharmed.

In the following year on Tytler married Harriet Christina Earle (3 October 1828 – 24 November 1907), daughter of an officer in the 3rd Bengal Native Infantry.

In one communication to Hume he wrote to claim priority on the discovery of the rufous-rumped grassbird:[8] I shot these birds at Dacca in 1852, and sent a description and a drawing of them to Mr. Blyth.

If it is the same bird as Dr. Jerdon's, then my name, which I communicated in 1851-52 not only to Mr. Blyth but also to Prince Bonaparte and M. Jules Verreaux, and which was published in my Fauna of Dacca, has, it seems to me, the priority.Tytler lived for a while in Shimla at Bonnie Moon on Jakko Hill.