This Anglo-Indian settlement was football’s birthplace in Bengaluru
Austin Town has changed. As in many erstwhile British Cantonment and Anglo-Indian localities, the early settlers have sold off property to migrate elsewhere. Colonial homes with monkey-tops and tiled roofs have made way for more ‘practical’ buildings.
For 50-year-old engineer, Kevin Vieyra, the biggest drawback of these changes is the fragmentation of the community. Vieyra’s grandmother Enid Wilson, an Irish woman was the sergeant of the locality in the 1900s, was one of the earliest residents of the Anglo-Indian quarters. She was the go-to person for anyone with a problem that needed solving. “Even when I was growing up, Austin Town was a close-knit community where it did not really make a difference which home you belonged to,” Vieyra recalled.
Austin Town was built in the early 1920s when the British authorities decided to re-settle workers and lower-income residents in the aftermath of the bubonic plague of 1898. The locality was made up of small cottages. Original settlers included the Anglo-Indian community and a large Tamil population that traced its ancestry to the soldiers and workers brought to the Cantonment by the British after the fall of Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.
According to Mansoor Ali, founder of Bengaluru By Foot, “The locality is named after Sir James Austin Bourdillon who was born in Madras in 1848 and was educated at Marlborough, England. He held multiple official posts in Bengal and Patna before becoming the Resident of Mysore between 1903 and 1905.”
The sanitary works in Austin Town were designed by WH Murphy, an engineer in the British cantonment, after whom Murphy Town is named. While James Austin himself enjoyed cricket and rifle shooting, the locality named after him is known to be the birthplace of football in Bengaluru.
It is said that the Italian prisoners of war, held here during World War II, passed the game on to the locals. Among the first Olympians from India (in the Games of 1948 and 1952) were footballers Anthony, Kanniah, Raman and T Shanmugam — all of who were from Austin Town. So were other football greats Ulaganathan and former India football captain Carlton Chapman.
Even today, the children of the locality practise football with as much fervour as they play cricket. Twenty years ago, the locality was renamed as F Kittel Nagar, after 18th century German missionary Rev Ferdinand Kittel.
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This Anglo-Indian settlement was football’s birthplace in Bengaluru
For 50-year-old engineer, Kevin Vieyra, the biggest drawback of these changes is the fragmentation of the community. Vieyra’s grandmother Enid Wilson, an Irish woman was the sergeant of the locality in the 1900s, was one of the earliest residents of the Anglo-Indian quarters. She was the go-to person for anyone with a problem that needed solving. “Even when I was growing up, Austin Town was a close-knit community where it did not really make a difference which home you belonged to,” Vieyra recalled.
Austin Town was built in the early 1920s when the British authorities decided to re-settle workers and lower-income residents in the aftermath of the bubonic plague of 1898. The locality was made up of small cottages. Original settlers included the Anglo-Indian community and a large Tamil population that traced its ancestry to the soldiers and workers brought to the Cantonment by the British after the fall of Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799.
According to Mansoor Ali, founder of Bengaluru By Foot, “The locality is named after Sir James Austin Bourdillon who was born in Madras in 1848 and was educated at Marlborough, England. He held multiple official posts in Bengal and Patna before becoming the Resident of Mysore between 1903 and 1905.”
The sanitary works in Austin Town were designed by WH Murphy, an engineer in the British cantonment, after whom Murphy Town is named. While James Austin himself enjoyed cricket and rifle shooting, the locality named after him is known to be the birthplace of football in Bengaluru.
It is said that the Italian prisoners of war, held here during World War II, passed the game on to the locals. Among the first Olympians from India (in the Games of 1948 and 1952) were footballers Anthony, Kanniah, Raman and T Shanmugam — all of who were from Austin Town. So were other football greats Ulaganathan and former India football captain Carlton Chapman.
Even today, the children of the locality practise football with as much fervour as they play cricket. Twenty years ago, the locality was renamed as F Kittel Nagar, after 18th century German missionary Rev Ferdinand Kittel.