The Project
George Uglow Pope, popularly known as G.U. Pope, was born on the 24th of April 1820 in Bedeque, Prince Edward Island in Canada. G.U. Pope started studying Tamil as a teenager in England, and in 1839, he went to South India. He later turned into a scholar of Tamil. His most famous work is the English translation of the Thirukkural, completed in 1886. In 1881, Pope left India and settled in Oxford, England, where he made a mark as a lecturer in Tamil. G.U. Pope’s contributions to the Tamil language is extraordinary. He also translated Thiruvasagam and Naladiyar in English among many others.
With the support of Pope family members, Bedeque Area Historical Society, Bedeque & the Area Rural Municipality, PEI provincial government and the global Tamil community, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) is committed to building a 10 feet monument for G.U. Pope at his birthplace – Bedeque, Prince Edward Island as part of the bicentenary birth celebration. CTC has leased the piece of land where the Pope family’s house was originally located and where G.U. Pope was born.