William Macnaghten

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William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet
Sir William MacNaghten Bt.,
Watercolor by James Atkinson, 1841, National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet (born August 24, 1793 in Fort William, Calcutta , † December 23, 1841 in Kabul ) was a British colonial official and diplomat who was killed during the First Anglo-Afghan War .

Life

He was the second son of Sir Francis Macnaghtens and attended the prestigious Charterhouse School . In September 1809 he went to Madras as a cadet in the British East India Company , but in 1814 he switched to the Bengal Civil Service . In 1830 he became secretary to Lord William Cavendish-Bentinck and in 1837 adviser to Governor General George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland . He was an advocate of the policy of supporting the former Shah of Afghanistan Shodja Durrani against Dost Mohammed . Macnaghten was gifted with languages ​​and learned Hindustani , Persian , Tamil , Telugu , Kannada and Marathic . On January 18, 1840, he was promoted to baronet .

As a political agent in Kabul, Macnaghten came into conflict with the military and his subordinate Alexander Burnes . His policy of pacifying the Afghan tribal leaders with high subsidies put a strain on Indian finances, which ultimately had to be cut. An uprising broke out and Burnes was murdered on November 2, 1841, while the British army in Kabul under General William Elphinstone was poorly managed. Macnaghten's requests to do something about the riots were ignored by Elphinstone. Macnaghten tried to save the situation by negotiating with the tribal leaders and Akbar Khan , Dost Mohammed's son, but was shot dead by him on December 23, 1841 in Kabul.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Macnaghten, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Macnaghten, William Hay
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British colonial official and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort William, Calcutta
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1841
Place of death Kabul