Evan Cotton
Harry Evan Auguste Cotton , better known as Sir Evan Cotton or H. E. A. Cotton, was a Liberal politician, barrister, administrator, journalist, historian and writer.
Formative years
Cotton was born in Midnapore, the son of Sir Henry Cotton, who presided over the 1904 session of the Indian National Congress, and the Irish-born Mary Ryan. The family had worked in Indai from the 1760s. He received his early schooling at Mount Liban School, Pau and then at Sherborne School.He held an open scholarship at Jesus College, Oxford, where he obtained a second class in Classics Honour Mods, followed by British [undergraduate degree classification|second class degrees] in history and jurisprudence. He was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn.
Life and work
Cotton practised at Calcutta High Court from 1893 to 1908. He served as a member of Calcutta Municipal Corporation. He covered the Delhi Durbar of 1903 as a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. He subsequently served as the Kolkata correspondent of the Daily News. He undertook the editorship of India, the weekly organ of the British Committee of the Indian National Congress. He served as President of the Bengal Legislative Council from 1922 to 1925.He was an active member of the Indian Historical Records Commission and was chairman from 1923 to 1925.
In all his activities, his primary concern was for India, a country served by four generations in the family. He provided strong support to the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms and served on an advisory committee at the India Office in connection with the 1919 Act. He was pivot of a small group that supported reforms. However, the changing political environment dampened his spirits. He later became a severe critic of the constitutional changes that led to the Round Table Conference.
In 1896, he married Nora, daughter of William H. Grimley of Bengal ICS. They had a daughter.
In the 1920s his savings were depleted by the economic depression and he wrote to Allahabad lawyer Tej Bahadur Sapru that he had "given up my house and with my wife and daughter am living in a cheap Bayswater boarding house. My books are all stored, I have resigned my club, and beyond tobacco deny myself every luxury. Even so I am obliged to borrow to pay my income tax.... I am in the best of health and feel that I am being wasted. All my interest lies in India and I am anxious to put at her disposal the fruits of my fourteen years here of public life.... Men are being brought out to India who are wholly ignorant of the country and its people and its problems.... I want so much to be of use to her just now: but no one seems to think of me." In 1922 Victor Bulwer-Lytton, 2nd Earl of Lytton, invited Cotton to work as a President of the Legislative Council in Bengal. The Bengal Swaraj movement under Chitta Ranjan Das however walked out of meetings and the nationalist press called him "the unworthy son of Sir Henry Cotton". The Swaraj Party forced him out in 1925 in favour of a Bengali and Cotton returned to England embittered. He was subsequently an opponent of all constitutional advance for India until his death.
Politics
Evan returned to England in 1906 and joined the Liberal Party. His father was himself a Liberal MP who sat for Nottingham East from 1906 to 1910. In January 1910, Evan contested the General Election at the Conservative seat of Dulwich;Image:Dulwich1885.png|right|thumb|200px|Dulwich in the London area, showing boundaries used in 1910
In March 1910 he was elected as a Progressive Councillor to the London County Council representing Finsbury East;
Image:FinsburyEast1885.png|right|thumb|200px|Finsbury East in the London area, showing boundaries used 1885–1918
The Progressives were the local government arm of the Liberal Party. In March 1913 he was re-elected to the LCC;
In July 1918, when a vacancy occurred due to the death of a Liberal MP, for the parliamentary seat of Finsbury East. Cotton was an obvious candidate to defend the seat for the Liberal Party. Due to the wartime electoral truce, he did not face an official Unionist Party opponent and was comfortably elected;
Following boundary changes, Evan's Finsbury East seat was merged with the Unionist seat of Finsbury Central to form a new Finsbury constituency. The Coalition Government chose to publicly endorse the Unionist candidate who was the sitting MP for the old Central seat. This endorsement made Evan's prospects difficult and after only 5 months as an MP he was defeated;
Image:Finsbury1918.png|right|thumb|200px|Finsbury in the County of London, showing boundaries used in 1918
In 1919 he did not defend his Finsbury East seat on the London County Council as after the election he was appointed as an Alderman.