1 August 1857, when he retired. He returned to England, where he settled. In 1858, Ardaseer made his last trip to London and decided to permanently live in the UK with his mistress, an English woman named Marian Barber. While the couple did not marry, they had children and their lineage continues to live in the United Kingdom to date. One of his descendants Blair Southerden has written books, including A Gentle Lion and other ancestors (2013) tracing back his lineage, profiling the Parsi community and their interests in ship building. Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia died, aged 69, on 16 November 1877 in Richmond, London. Family Cursetjee set up home with Marian Barber (1817–1899) in England, living together although they never formally married. Marian was a British woman, from Tower Hamlets whose brother worked as a clerk in the docks of London. Together the couple had a number of children, the first of which, Lowjee Annie, was born in Bombay in December 1853. Her second child, Gustasp Ardaseer, was born in Bombay in 1856. The couple subsequently returned to UK as the Parsi community in India did not accept their marriage. Ardaseer had a wife in India, Avabai, whom he left along with his children in India when he migrated to the UK. For example, Cursetjee Rustomjee (1855–1941), the grandson of Avabai and Ardaseer was sent to England to study for the Indian Civil Service examination and stayed with his grandfather in Richmond. There, he met Lowjee Annie, his aunt and the daughter of Ardaseer and Marian. He married her in 1880. While their three children were all born in India, their father returned to England soon after retirement in 1911. He died in Matlock, Derbyshire in 1941. Commemoration On 27 May 1969, the Indian Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of his contributions as "pioneer and innovator." His children in the UK continued to carry his name for some time. St. Mathias church in Surrey records that in 1879, one of his children, Gustasp Ardaseer, married Florence Neal. On 19 May 2021, a blue plaque was unveiled in Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia's honour by English Heritage at 55 Sheen Road, Richmond, London, where he settled with Marian Barber and their family for the last decade of his life, naming the property Lowgee House after his ancestral name. References Further reading 1808 births 1877 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society