George Robert Elsmie

George Robert Elsmie CSI (31 October 1838 – 26 March 1909) was a Scottish civil servant and judge in India, known also as an author.

Born at Aberdeen on 31 October 1838, he was only child of George Elsmie, a ship-owner there and from 1843 on the Southampton staff of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company; his mother was Anne (1804-1879), daughter of Robert Shepherd, parish minister of Daviot, Aberdeenshire. Educated at private schools at Southampton and from 1852 to 1855 at Marischal College, Aberdeen, Elsmie was studying German at Canstatt in August 1855, when he was nominated to a writership in India by his maternal uncle John Shepherd. He was among the entrants, at the end of 1855, to the East India College at Haileybury, and passed out on the eve of its abolition in December 1857.

Arriving in India on 12 February 1858, Elsmie was appointed assistant commissioner in the Punjab, and served in various districts until 1863, when he acted as a judge of the small causes courts at Lahore, Delhi, and Simla. In March 1865 he became deputy commissioner (i.e. magistrate and collector) of Jullundur, and in October 1868 under-secretary to the government of India in the home department. Taking furlough in the spring of 1869, he entered Lincoln's Inn as a student, and was called to the bar on 27 January 1871.

Returning to India, Elsmie was appointed additional commissioner of the Amritsar and Jullundur divisions, his duties being almost entirely judicial. In October 1872 he was transferred to Peshawur, the lieutenant-governor wishing to improve the judicial administration and reduce crimes of violence in the district. He left there in January 1878 to officiate as judge of the Punjab chief court for a year.

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