Sir Alexander Robert Loftus Tottenham CIE (31 July 1873 – 1946) was a British Indian Civil Service officer and administrator whose career extended from the Madras Presidency to the central revenue administration of British India and, in his later years, to the princely state of Pudukkottai. He was among the original members of the Central Board of Revenue when it was constituted in 1924, was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1925 and was knighted in 1931.

After retiring from the Indian Civil Service, Tottenham became Administrator of Pudukkottai on 3 January 1934 during the minority of Rajagopala Tondaiman. When the ruler assumed full powers on 17 January 1944, Tottenham was invested as Dewan and continued in the state's administration until 1946.

Early life and education Tottenham was born at Torquay on 31 July 1873, the son of the naval officer John Francis Tottenham and Laura Ellen Dodd Janverin. An Oxford register describes him as the seventh son of John Francis Tottenham, a captain in the Royal Navy. He was educated at Clifton College, before matriculating at Queen's College, Oxford, on 9 February 1892, aged eighteen. He held a scholarship there and obtained first-class honours in Classical Moderations in 1893. Burke's Peerage records that he later took the degree of Master of Arts.

Indian Civil Service Tottenham passed the 1896 Indian Civil Service examination and arrived in India on 5 December 1897. His early career was spent in the Madras Presidency, where he served in district revenue and magisterial administration.

By the 1920s his career had moved into the central financial administration of British India. A Council of State record of 24 March 1924 identifies him as a member of the Central Board of Revenue, and a government notification dated 29 March formally constituted the Board with Tottenham and Alan Hubert Lloyd as its two members. He subsequently became its senior member; this was the office recorded when he was appointed CIE in the 1925 New Year Honours and again when his knighthood was announced in 1931. Tottenham retired from the Indian Civil Service in 1933, at about the age of sixty.

Pudukkottai Tottenham returned to public administration almost immediately. He succeeded B. G. Holdsworth as Administrator of Pudukkottai on 3 January 1934. The official state manual records two interruptions to his tenure: H. R. Bardswell acted as Administrator from 24 April until 24 October 1938, while R. Krishnamachariar was Administrator-in-charge from 29 January to 28 February 1940 during Tottenham's leave.

His years as Administrator coincided with a substantial programme of governmental change. The state manual devotes a continuous account to measures undertaken after January 1934 in revenue and irrigation, village improvement, agriculture, co-operation and famine relief, as well as changes concerning justice, local government, public health, education and archaeology. The period also left smaller traces in the state's public institutions. Tottenham formally opened the sports pavilion of Raja's College in November 1934, after its foundation stone had been laid the previous December during Holdsworth's administration.

Tottenham also took a personal interest in the archaeology of the state. In 1940, while near Kuruvikkondanpatti, he found a flake of cherty flint identified as an early Palaeolithic artefact made by the Clactonian technique. He presented the find to the State Museum at Pudukkottai. An archaeological survey of Pudukkottai undertaken in October 1945 likewise recorded that its work had been facilitated by Tottenham's hospitality and by the collaboration of K. R. Srinivasan, then curator of the State Museum.

The minority administration came to an end on 17 January 1944, when Rajagopala Tondaiman was formally invested with the ruling powers of the state. At the same durbar, the Raja invested Tottenham with the insignia of the office of Dewan, while Khan Bahadur P. Khalifulla Sahib and M. Paramasivam Pillai became First and Second Councillors respectively. Tottenham remained Dewan into 1946. An India Office file from that year records the appointment of P. Khalifulla to officiate as Dewan in his place.

Reputation and legacy Writing after Indian independence, V. P. Menon described Pudukkottai as having been fortunate in the quality of its administration and singled out Tottenham, alongside A. Seshayya Sastri, as one of the state's outstanding administrators.

Tottenham's name also became associated with administrative office procedure in southern India. The 1991 District Census Handbook for Pudukkottai credited him with the compilation of the District Office Manual, describing it as a work subsequently followed throughout Tamil Nadu. His connection with Pudukkottai's cultural institutions is also preserved in the Government Museum at Thirukokarnam, where a portrait of him was recorded among the exhibits.

Tottenham died in 1946, aged seventy-three.

See also Pudukkottai State Indian Civil Service

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