Ardaseer Wadia’s Contributions Recognized By English Heritage
On 19th May, 2021, English Heritage unveiled a blue plaque in a West London house, in honour of a man respected to be ‘The First Modern Engineer Of India’ – Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia, who was the first South Asian Fellow of the Royal Society, Britain’s oldest national scientific institution.
The plaque is part of a series in which English Heritage endeavours to promote the under-recognised historical contributions to Britain, of people from diverse communities – by marking the houses where they have lived, as hundreds of white historical figures have already been.
‘English Heritage’ is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places in England, as also the UK Government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment. Its role is to help people understand and cherish England’s rich historic environment.
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia was awarded a blue plaque by English Heritage for also being the first Indian to be placed in charge of British workers in the East India Company, where he was Chief Engineer. Others in the series who also now have blue plaques include Reggae legend – Bob Marley; wartime special operations agent – Noor Inayat Khan; author and anti-slavery campaigner – Ottabah Cugoano; and physicist – Abdus Salam.
