A civil engineer par excellence, Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia (1808 - 1877) was the first South Asian to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society, London.
Ardaseer belonged to the illustrious Wadia family of ship builders. Born in Bombay, he was the sole surviving child of Cursetjee Rustomjee, Assistant Builder in the East India Company’s Bombay dockyard, and Jerbai Cawasjee Bomanjee Kabrajee. Interestingly, Ardaseer had no formal education in science, not even a diploma. He has something more special – loads of inborn talent and a wealth of experiential learning, and he made the most of both! One of his sterling feats at the age of 26 was the illumination of his bungalow and garden using as many as 28 gas lights. The then governor of Bombay was one among the many VIPs to watch the spectacle.
He joined the East India Company service in 1822 and underwent training as a naval architect in the government shipyard. In good time, he was given the charge of Mazagaon shipyard. His keen interest in steam engines culminated in several firsts to his credit. He created a small steam engine, the first to be built in Bombay, to demonstrate the workings of steam to his curious fellowmen. He also built India's first ocean boat called 'Indus' which was launched on August 16, 1833.
In 1839, he travelled to England to study steam machinery. Thanks to his talent, he was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineering in 1840. Back home, he was made chief engineer and inspector of machinery at the East India Company’s Bombay Steam Factory. May 1841 proved a landmark month for him. He was made head of the steam branch of the Indian Navy (the first native to lead European men) and soon after, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1851, he again went to England to monitor machinery enhancements. This time, he travelled via the United States, arguably the first Parsi to visit the US.
Post retirement, he had a stint as the chief engineer of Karachi’s Indus Flotilla Company. In 1868, he moved to London and stayed there until his sudden demise on November 16, 1877. During his autumn years, he was a senior trustee of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe. In 1873, he led a delegation of Bombay Parsis to meet the Shah of Persia during the latter’s visit to the Buckingham Palace for protesting against religious persecution of Zoroastrians in Persia.
Today, a blue plaque honours the towering significance of Ardaseer’s English villa in Richmond upon Thames. In 1969, the Indian Postal Service issued a stamp in his honour, bearing his inspiring portrait against the grand backdrop of his beloved Bombay docks.