Colonel John Biddulph was a British military officer, administrator, and naturalist who spent much of his career serving the British Raj in India. Born in 1840 and educated at Westminster School, Biddulph entered military service at the age of eighteen with the 19th Lancers. He was quickly deployed to India, where he participated in the suppression of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 in the Awadh region. Following his military service, he transitioned into the political department of the government of British India, embarking on a long career of administrative and diplomatic service.\n\nBeyond his military and administrative duties, Biddulph was an avid naturalist and explorer. Between 1873 and 1874, he participated in the Second Yarkand Mission, a significant diplomatic and scientific expedition across the Himalayas to Chinese Turkestan. During this journey, Biddulph collected a vast array of avian and mammalian specimens. His contributions to zoology were recognized when the ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume named a newly discovered ground jay species, Podoces biddulphi, in his honor.\n\nFrom 1877 to 1881, Biddulph was stationed in Gilgit, a remote region in the northwestern corner of Kashmir. There, he continued his ornithological research, corresponding regularly with Hume and publishing his findings in the prominent scientific journal Ibis. Before his retirement in 1896, Biddulph served as a British Resident to several princely states and spent four years on the staff of the Viceroy of India, Lord Northbrook. He spent his remaining years in England, passing away in London in 1921.
