adras was established in 1639, the first important settlement of the East India Company, the centre of government and the seat of the Council for the Madras Presidency. Bombay (1668) and Calcutta (1686) were later established as the headquarters of the Bombay and Bengal Presidencies.

The Fort itself, Fort St George, built in 1644, was the nucleus from which the city grew. At the heart of the Fort, the enormously thick walls (1.2m)of. St Mary's Church (1678-80) are a reminder of the threats of bombing, siege and cyclone. The Church contains a collection of superb monuments, including works by Flaxman and John Bacon the younger, shipped from England to commemorate the servants of British India. Those associated with the Mysore campaigns include:

Sir Barry Close (d.18.4.1813) Adjutant to Lord Harris, Commander in Chief in 1799, and later Resident at Mysore and then at Poona Sir John Doveton (d.1853), who was responsible for Tipu's hostage sons while they were at Madras in 1792. Lt. Col. Joseph Moorhouse (d.7.3.91), killed during the attack on Bangalore in 1791, an event commemorated in a fine oil painting by Robert Home (National Army Museum, London) George Pigot (d.11.5.1777), twice Governor of Madras, and arrested by his own quarrelsome and corrupt Council, during the arguments over the enormous debts of the British ally, Mohammed Ali. By the time truth prevailed, Pigot was dead. Frederick Schwartz (d.13.2.1798), the only European whom Haidar Ali would trust, and who several times acted as intermediary between the Governments of Mysore and Madras Josiah Webbe (d.9.11.1804), 'Sree' Webbe. Chief Secretary to the Government, whose name is familiar from his signature on numerous official pape'r