John Macdonald Kinneir

Sir John Macdonald Kinneir (* 3. February 1782 in Carnden, Linlithgow ; † 11. June 1830 in Tabriz ) was a Scottish officer of the East India Company ( East India Company EIC) and British diplomat .

biography

youth

John Macdonald Kinneir was the illegitimate son of John Macdonald of Sanda Island , Scotland, and Cecilia Maria Douglas Kinneir of Kinneir, in Fife near Wormit . The death of his father left him in possession of several lands, which were so over-indebted that they had to be sold after long legal disputes; only Sanda Island, the ancestral home of his family, he was able to buy back. In his youth, John Macdonald Kinneir - who in his earlier years and in official documents called himself "Macdonald", but later often called "Kinneir" - fought with other members of his clan in a unit of Fencibles (a militia of detainees ) Ireland down.

Difficulties with his father's inheritance led him to accept an appointment as a cadet in Madras (modern Chennai ), where he arrived in 1803. In September 1804 he was promoted to ensign in the Madras Native Infantry , which at that time was still subordinate to the English East India Company, but he did not begin his service there until 1807. In later years he served as a captain in this unit and later reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Travels in Iran and the Middle East (1808–1811)

1808-1809 he took part as a "political assistant" in the mission of Sir John Malcolm in Persia, after he had been taken seriously in a post as secretary of an officer during a mission in Malabar . The British mission had become necessary because at that time (as a result of the peace treaty between France and Russia in July 1807) there were fears that a Franco-Russian alliance army could be sent to occupy northern India, especially since Persia had been under treaty with France since 1807 was connected ( Treaty of Finckenstein ). On the other hand, Persia had been at war with Russia since 1804 , and British strategy now relied on the understanding between France and Russia to drive the Shah back into the arms of Great Britain. The mission Malcolm reached by Bombay from Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, then Shiraz , but the efforts Fath Ali Shah to draw from the French to the British side were from in Tehran thwarted present French and did not have the desired effect, and Malcolm moved back to India. It was only thanks to a new mission under Sir Harford Jones that a treaty between Persia and Great Britain was concluded in March 1809. Meanwhile, Kinneir himself worked as an agent in Bushehr and traveled to several regions of Persia. Then, in 1810, he traveled to Baghdad and from there to Syria, but was attacked, robbed and wounded by Arab Bedouins on the way. He went back to Baghdad, but then set out for Constantinople via Mosul and Diyarbakır . He finally returned to England from Turkey by sea (via Portugal). Kinneir's first travelogue emerged from his first stay in Persia, which he wrote after his return to England and which was published in 1813.

Trip to India (1813-1814)

In 1813 it was ordered that he must return to his regiment in India. Together with Colonel Neil Campbell (1776-1827) he therefore went to Stockholm , from there through Russia and Persia to India. In the meantime (after Napoleon's failed Russian campaign ) the situation in southern Russia was pacified again, and so the route through Poland and Hungary and across the Balkans to Constantinople was taken instead. Kinneir then visited Asia Minor and Cyprus, before going to Armenia and from there to Baghdad. His efforts focused on exploring the routes a possible Russian (or other European) army might take by land to India; For this reason he was also very interested in the history of Alexander the Great's campaigns in Asia , which he discussed in detail in his second travel report (1818). From Iraq, Kinneir finally traveled to India by sea. From 1814 he was city commander in Fort St. George , Madras (modern Chennai ) and an agent with the Nawabs of Karnatik (or Arcot ) for a few years .

As envoy to Iran (1826-1830)

When it was decided in 1823 to withdraw the British envoy in Persia and replace it with a member of the East India Company, the choice fell on Kinneir. He was officially appointed in 1824 and arrived in Persia in September 1826, just at the time when Persia was again in another war with Russia . Fath Ali Shah asked for British support, but Kinneir refused because British support had only been assured in case Persia was attacked, but in 1826 Persian troops had occupied Russian territory and renewed conflict had begun. Kinneir was present in 1827 when the Persian troops were driven from Yerevan in October and continued to advance on Tabriz ; he tried by all means to end the conflict and was eventually accepted by the Russians as an unofficial mediator. The negotiations resulted in the Peace of Turkmanchai in February 1828 , which had very unfavorable conditions for Persia (including loss of territories and reparations payments) and resulted in Great Britain's influence in Persia dwindling to a minimum. However, Kinneir was not held responsible for this and was in good standing with Russians and Persians. He subsequently received the Persian Order of the Sun and Lion and was ennobled by the British government as a Knight Bachelor in November 1829 ; until his death in Tabriz on June 11, 1830 as a result of a long illness, he remained British envoy to the Shah of Persia. On the occasion of his death, a three-month state mourning was ordered in Persia.

Kinneir was married to Amelia Harriet, daughter of Sir Alexander Campbell (1760-1824), lieutenant general in Madras. Lady Harriet accompanied her husband during his delegation to Persia. She outlived him by three decades; she died in Boulogne in 1860 .

In the judgment of contemporaries

"Sir John Macdonald, though not old in years, had the appearance of being worn out, as he in fact was, with a life of toil and vicissitude. His manners were good, but reserved to strangers. With friends he was frank and communicative. His mind was singularly stored with knowledge; well educated, he was an insatiable reader of every book that contained information. He had visited almost every court of Europe, and was well acquainted with many foreigners of rank and distinction. He was of a warm temper, but his passion was short-lived. (...) His love of truth and contempt for art and falsehood were the predominant qualities of his mind. They pervaded every act of his private and public life; and to them he owed his extraordinary success as a diplomatist, for they inspired a confidence in his character in all classes, which enabled him to perform the recent great services he has done to his country. "

“Sir John Macdonald, though not old in years, appeared to be drained, which it was indeed, by the circumstances of a difficult and changeable life. His manners were good, but reserved with strangers. He was open and talkative with friends. His mind was uniquely filled with knowledge; well educated himself, he devoured any book that offered any information. He had visited almost every court in Europe and was well acquainted with many foreigners of rank and reputation. He had a somewhat hot temper, but his temperament never lasted long. (...) His love of truth and his contempt for dissimulation and falsehood were the outstanding qualities of his mind. They shaped every one of his actions in private and public life; and it was to them that he owed his extraordinary success as a diplomat, for they aroused confidence in his character among people of all classes, which enabled him to perform the great recent services he has rendered to his country. "

Fonts

• 1813: A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire, Accompanied by a Map . London: John Murray ( Google )
  • French-language edition 1827: Mémoires géographiques sur l'empire de Perse. Traduit de l'anglais par le colonel [Gaspard] Drouville . 2 volumes. St. Petersburg
• 1818: Journey through Asia Minor, Armenia, and Koordistan, in the Years 1813 and 1814; with Remarks on the Marches of Alexander, and Retreat of the Ten Thousand . London: John Murray ( Google )
  • French edition 1818: Voyage dans l'Asie Mineure, l'Arménie et le Kourdistân, dans les années 1813 et 1814; Suivi de remarques sur les Marches d'Alexandre, et la Retraite des Dix-Mille. Traduit de l'anglais, par N. Perrin. Avec une grande carte . 2 volumes. Paris: Gide Fils (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
  • Dutch edition 1819: Reizen door Klein Azie, Armenie, en Koerdistan; (then in het jaar 1813 en 1814,) benevens Aanmerkingen wegens de Krijgstogten van Alexander, en den Terugtogt van de Tien Duizend. Uit het Engelsch . 2 volumes. Rotterdam: Arbon en Krap (Google: Volume I - Volume II )
  • German edition 1821: Journey through Asia Minor, Armenia and Kurdistan, in the years 1813 and 1814. Translated from the English by FA Ukert . Weimar: Landes-Industrie-Comptoir ( Google )
• New edition 2004: Martin Ewans (ed.): The Great Game. Britain and Russia in Central Asia . Volume III (London - New York: RoutledgeCurzon), Part 1: A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire / Part 2: A Dissertation on the Invasion of India

The library of the University of Edinburgh has in its archive (under GB 237 Coll-798) manuscripts and printed matter from papers left by Kinneir.

literature

• Memoir of Sir John Macdonald Kinneir . In: The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australasia , Volume NS VI (January – April 1831), pp. 144–146.
• CE Buckland: Kinneir, Sir John Macdonald . In: Dictionary of Indian Biography . Haskell House Publ, New York 1968 ( ¹ 1906), pp. 237 f.
• Vanessa Martin (Ed.): Anglo-Iranian Relations since 1800 . Routledge, Abingdon - New York 2005.
• Phiroze Vasunia: The Classics and Colonial India . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, pp. 64-67.
• Henry Manners Chichester: Kinneir, John Macdonald . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 31, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1892, pp. 192 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In some contemporary sources, June 12 is also given as the date of death; B. in “Memoir of Sir John Macdonald Kinneir” (1831), p. 144.
2. ↑ Alexander Mackenzie: History of the Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles. With Genealogies of the Principal Families of the Name . A. & W. Mackenzie, Edinburgh 1881, p. 476 .
3. ^ Vernon Charles Paget Hodson: List of the Officers of the Bengal Army, 1758-1834 . IV: L ‒ R. Constable, London 1946, pp. 117 .
4. ↑ So the self-description on the title page of his Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire (1813).
5. ^ "Memoir" (1831), p. 144.
6. ^ "Memoir" (1831), p. 145.
7. ^ "Memoir" (1831), p. 146.
8. ^ Papers of Sir John MacDonald Kinneir of Sanda (1782-1830). Retrieved November 12, 2019 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Henry Willock	British ambassador to Tehran 1826–1830	John Campbell