1760
The first Englishman to serve Burmese government
This photograph was taken in 1927 and shows Josephine Rodgers, a descendent of George Rodgers, who was probably the first Englishman to serve the Burmese government.
Born in England arouond 1760, by the early 1780s George Rodgers was a naval officer with the British East India Company. By his own record, he was involved in a fight with a more senior officer near Calcutta and believing he had killed the other man, Rodgers fled, first to Chittagong, then to Arakan and eventually to Amarapura.
Rodgers ended up staying in Burma for the rest of his life and served kings Bodawpaya and Bagyidaw in different capacities. Rodgers wrote that he had led military operations along the Irrawaddy against dacoits. In the early 1800s, he was also the Shahbandar (customs chief) of Rangoon and served as an interpreter for Burmese kings and ministers. He also taught English to the Prince of Mekkhaya. The Prince, who was almost certainly the first member of the Burmese royal family to read English, went on to translate numerous works of science, as well as extracts from an English encyclopaedia.
Known to British envoys who visited Burma during that time, Rodgers was described as a large man with blue eyes who had become entirely Burmese in dress and manners and who spoke Burmese fluently.
As a foreigner, Rodgers was always on shaky ground and it seems his status in the Burmese court rose and fell on several occasions. He married a woman of mixed Portuguese-Burmese ancestry and together they had a son. His many descendants lived in Burma until most or all left in 1948.
Interestingly, it seems the senior naval officer Rodgers thought he had killed actually survived. But he did not know this and throughout his life believed that he risked death if he returned to British territory.
* With thanks to Will Rome (a descendent of George Rodgers) for the photograph.
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