Malcolm Hamilton Beattie (1862–1941) served with the Hooghly Pilot Service in Bengal from 1878 to 1913. In 1935 he published a book titled 'On the Hooghly', a retrospective account of his time in India, illustrated with drawings which he states were from 'my old sketch books'. Beattie was born and schooled in the UK, before joining the training ship, Worcester, lying off Greenhithe in 1876, aged fourteen. In 1877 the Indian Government decided to recruit the Bengal Pilot Service from the training ships Worcester and Conway; the following year Beattie sailed for the East on board the P&O Peshawur. In 1887 he married Maria Isabel Lindquist and had four sons born at Calcutta. As was common, the boys were sent to England for their schooling, at Eastbourne College, and by 1935 Malcolm Beattie had also returned to the UK, living at Burntwood, Eastbourne.
