Theodore Hope

Hope was privately educated for the most part, with spells at Rugby School, and afterwards at Haileybury, then the East India Company's college.

From frequent yachting practice abroad he was able to secure a master's certificate before he was 20; and when he joined the Bombay Civil Service in 1853 he spoke five European languages.

Returning to India, he spent eight years as Collector of Surat, and in 1871 he was called to Bombay, to preside over a committee appointed to deal with the unsatisfactory state of municipal finance.

In 1880 he was appointed provisional member of the Bombay Government, but did not take up the post, as he was required at headquarters as Secretary of the Finance Department.

In 1882 he became Public works Member of the Governor-General's Council and his 5½ years in that position were marked by a railway development which raised the open mileage from 8,000 to 14,000, and also by an advance of 20 per cent in the area of land brought under irrigation.

Grave of Theodore Hope in Highgate Cemetery
Hope Bridge of Surat was built on Tapi river when he was district collector and magistrate. The bridge's foundation was laid in 1874 and it was completed in 1877. The bridge was dismantled in 2015 and replaced by new bridge keeping the old design of Hope Bridge. [ 4 ] [ 5 ]