WD540(106)

‘R.S. Edwards, Esq. attaché to Mission.’

A mission to Ava would hardly be perfect without the customary aid of Mr. Edwards as an attaché. He has become historically connected with Burmah, and the rise of the British power in Pegue, where his services, fidelity and intelligence are as well appreciated by the Government, as his character, conduct and disposition are respected in the circle of private life.

Mr. Edwards has served the Government for upwards of forty years. In 1818 he was an Assistant in the Stationery Department at Fort St. George, Madras. During the following seven years an assistant in the Treasury Department, Prince of Wales’ Island, and Head Assistant to the Superintendent of Province Wellesley, whom he accompanied on a Mission to Quedah, to the Siamese chieftain of Junk Ceylon; and subsequently, for four years, he was confidential clerk to the Commissioner of the Tenasserim Provinces.

In 1830 he accompanied Major Burney’s Mission to Ava, where, both under that officer and subsequent Residents, Colonel Benson, and Major W. C. M’Leod, he remained during a period of ten years.

On the abolition of the Residency in Ava, Mr. Edwards was appointed Burmese translator to the Government of India, and senior Examiner in the Foreign Department; in which appointment he appears to have continued over a space of twelve years. On the breaking out of hostilities in November 1851, he was appointed Interpreter to the Naval Expedition to Burmah, under Commodore Lambert, who records of him that ‘no man belonging to the Expedition had rendered more useful service to the Government;’ and in 1853, at the recommendation of the present Commissioner, Major Phayre, he was permanently appointed Collector of Customs at Rangoon; a post which he only temporarily quitted on being appointed to accompany the Burmese Embassy to the Governor General, Lord Dalhousie, in 1854, and the late Mission to the Court of Umeerapoora.

Testimonials from the various officers under whom he has served — Mr. Maingy, Colonel Burney, (who pronounced him ‘the best Interpreter and translator he had ever seen in that part of the world,’) Colonel Benson, Major W. C. M’Leod, and Major Phayre, evidence the very marked esteem in which Mr. Edwards appears to have consistently been regarded throughout his long service; — and he was familiarly and kindly recalled to mind, on the occasion of the late Mission, by the King and Heir apparent. Mr. Edwards’ thorough acquaintance with the Burman people, and language, (in common with several other of the Eastern tongues) rendered his assistance most valuable to the gentlemen of the Mission, by all of whom, no less than by the Commissioner, he is held in much respect.