James Inglis
View Stories by this Author
The Hon. James Inglis (1845-1908), author, merchant and politician, was born on 24 November 1845 at Edzell, Forfarshire, Scotland, the fourth son of Rev. Robert Inglis, Free Church minister, and his wife Helen, née Brand. Educated in Edinburgh at the Normal School, Watt Institution and the University, he went to New Zealand at 19, worked at Timaru and joined the west coast gold rushes. In 1866 he went to India at the instigation of his brother Alexander, a Calcutta tea merchant, and became an indigo planter in Bihar and the North-West Provinces. He revelled in tiger shooting and pigsticking, and published sporting verses, Tirhoot Rhymes (Calcutta, 1873), under the pseudonym 'Maori', andSport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier (London, 1878). In 1885-94 Inglis represented New England in the Legislative Assembly. In 1886 he was vice-president of the Freetrade Association. Known as 'Tiger' or 'Rajah', he was described by Sir Charles Dilke as 'an out-and-out free trader, a fluent witty speaker, a popular lecturer, and … author of some … of the stiffest Indian “tiger stories”.'
In 1888 he published Tent Life in Tigerland. He died childless at Craigo on 15 December 1908 from kidney disease. Buried in the Presbyterian section of Rookwood cemetery, he was survived by his second wife Ethel Kate Mason, née Macpherson, whom he had married on 13 December 1905. His estate was valued at £9181 but his debts exceeded his assets by £1443.








