Origins & Early Life

Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-general of Bengal in 1772–1785. He and Robert Clive are credited with laying the foundation of the British Empire in India. He was an energetic organizer and reformer. In 1779–1784, he led forces of the East India Company against a coalition of native states and the French.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

In the end, the well-organised British side held its own, while France lost influence in India. In 1787, he was accused of corruption and impeached, but he was eventually acquitted in 1795 after a long trial. He was made a privy councillor in 1814. Warren Hastings was born in Churchill, Oxfordshire in 1732 to Reverend Penyston Hastings and his wife Hester (née Warren), who died soon after he was born. Within nine months of Warren's birth, his father remarried and moved to Barbados, leaving behind Warren and his elder sister Anne.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Young Warren was raised by his grandfather (also called Penyston) and attended a charity school in Daylesford, Gloucestershire...

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