1. Sir Sidney Arthur Taylor Rowlatt, KCSI, PC was a British barrister and judge, remembered in part for his presidency of the sedition committee that bore his name, created in 1918 by the imperial government to subjugate and control the independence movement in British India, especially Bengal and the Punjab.
The committee gave rise to the Rowlatt Act, an extension of the Defence of India Act 1915.
Sidney Rowlatt was born in 1862 in Cairo and brought up in Alexandria, one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean.
Sidney Rowlatt's father was Arthur Rowlatt, sent out by the Bank of England to take a post at the Bank of Egypt, and his second wife Amelia, the Alexandria-born daughter of Sidney Terry, merchant.
Sidney Rowlatt's parents married on 9 May 1860 at the Anglican church in Alexandria.
Sidney Rowlatt was the eldest son and had several siblings, two of whom stayed in Egypt.
Sir Frederick Sidney Rowlatt became Governor of the National Bank and Charles Sidney Rowlatt became Director of Customs Administration.
The Sidney Rowlatt children grew up in Alexandria, living above the Bank building most of the year, and decamping to the nearby beach of Ramleh during the hottest months, as his mother's family had done for generations.
Sidney Rowlatt attended Fettes College in Edinburgh and then King's College, Cambridge, where he was a distinguished classics scholar.
Sidney Rowlatt decided to take up the law and was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1886.
Sidney Rowlatt joined the Oxford circuit but made slow progress, devilling for Robert Finlay.
Sidney Rowlatt became a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1906 and later its Treasurer.
Sidney Rowlatt was appointed Recorder of Windsor and, in 1912, a judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court, where among other matters he heard cases in the Revenue List.
Sidney Rowlatt was a courteous and scholarly judge, quick to see a point and unafraid to make up his mind.
Sidney Rowlatt was known for the many tax cases he heard, particularly between 1923 and 1932, giving clear, concise and authoritative judgements, many of which are still cited today.
Sidney Rowlatt retired in 1932 and was sworn of the Privy Council, under an arrangement brokered with Sir Claud Schuster whereby Sidney Rowlatt delayed his retirement for a year in exchange for a privy councillorship.
Sidney Rowlatt chaired the Royal Commission on Betting and during World War II sat as chairman of the General Claims Tribunal.
Sidney Rowlatt married Elizabeth Hemmingway in 1890 and the couple had four sons and two daughters.
Sidney Rowlatt's son John Rowlatt was a lawyer, who specialised in drafting tax legislation.
Media correspondent Justin Rowlatt is Sidney's great-grandson; in February 2015, Justin became the BBC's South Asia correspondent, posted in New Delhi, and in an article in August 2017 analysed his great-grandfather's drafting of the Rowlatt Act and the events it generated in the context of post-1947 India-UK relations.