In 1927, Dring joined the
Indian Political Service and soon became Assistant Private Secretary to the
Viceroy of India. The Channel 4 historical drama
Indian Summers revolves around a fictional character called Ralph Whelan who was the Private Secretary to the
Viceroy of India in
Shimla in 1932–1935. The character of Ralph Whelan has several similarities with the real-life John Dring, who was in the same political position in the same place at the same time, with the same family history. The National Portrait Gallery of the UK holds a portrait of Dring. Dring was the Deputy Commissioner of
Dera Ismail Khan from 1935 to 1936. From 1937 to 1940, Dring served as Secretary to
Sir George Cunningham, the Governor of the
Northwest Frontier Province. He then served as
Political Agent of
South Waziristan from 1939 to 1942. He was part of the Razmak column which attempted to display a show of force to anti-British tribal forces in the
Waziristan campaign (1936-1939) but instead was bogged down in fighting and suffered large casualties. The failure of the Razmak column emboldened the resistance fighters resulted in a surge in their numbers. Dring was awarded the Companion of the
Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire in the
1943 New Year Honours. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1944. Dring was the Deputy Commissioner of
Peshawar from 1945 to 1947, and hosted
Jawaharlal Nehru on his visit to the
North West Frontier Province in 1946. Following the
Partition of India in 1947, Dring served as the Prime Minister of
Bahawalpur, a Muslim-majority princely state. He was Bahawalpur's second Prime Minister, and last Prime Minister of British origin, and served from 1948 to 1952. Dring oversaw a transformation in the way of life of the people of Bahwalpur from a desert to a pastoral way of life. He supported and encouraged the Nawab in the developing over a dozen treaties with the British, in the mutual interests of both parties. The
Princely State of Bahawalpur was abolished in 1955 and its people and land became part of Pakistan.
Dring Stadium in Bahawalpur is named after Dring. It was a stadium ahead of its time and was the only complete stadium in Pakistan at the time. The stadium hosted a test match in the first India-Pakistan test cricket series in 1955 and was the training ground for the first Pakistan cricket team tour of England in 1954 Like many former British residents of India, he went to Africa after Partition. In 1955, he was appointed as advisor to the
Governor of the Gold Coast on possible plebiscite arrangements in
Togoland, drawing on his experiences in the transition of Bahawalpur from princely state to part of Pakistan. The plebiscite resulted in the
British Togoland being integrated into
Ghana. In 1959 he fulfilled a similar role as advisor to the
Governor-General of Nigeria in the lead-up to the
British Cameroons plebiscite. The result was the Muslim-majority Northern Cameroons voting to join
Nigeria and the Christian-majority
Southern Cameroons voting to join the newly independent country of
Cameroon. ==Return to the UK==