William Nott

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Sir William Nott, by J. Deffett Francis
Statue of General William Nott in Nott Square, Carmarthen

Sir William Nott GCB (born January 20, 1782 in Neath , Glamorganshire , † January 1, 1845 in Carmarthen ) was general of the British East India Company .

Life

The son of an innkeeper joined a volunteer unit in his hometown of Carmarthen in 1798. In 1800 he embarked for India and became an officer in the Bengal European Regiment . In 1826 he resigned with the rank of major, returned to Wales and bought an estate there, which he had to sell again due to financial difficulties. In 1837 he returned to India, where he was given command of the 38th Native Regiment. Promoted to brigadier in 1838, he took command of a brigade of the Indus Army.

After the British army invaded Afghanistan in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) he was in command of the entire area of Sindh and southern Afghanistan. He had his headquarters in Kandahar since January 1841 . In the critical winter of 1841/42, Nott held the Kandahar garrison, which was besieged by the Afghans, and put the besiegers to flight with two sabotages, in January and March. When he received the order in July 1842 to withdraw from Kandahar and to withdraw from Afghanistan with his 5,000-strong troops, he marched in a free interpretation of the unclearly formulated order via Khelat-i-Gilzie in the direction of Ghazni , where he proceeded on August 30th 1842 which defeated Afghans under the command of Shamsedin Khan, who were more than twice superior in number. After conquering and destroying the city and the citadel of Ghazni in early September, he continued his march to Kabul , where his troops united with those of General George Pollock on September 17th .

Major-General William Nott was one of the most successful commanders of the entire campaign. While the withdrawal of Elphinstone's division from Kabul became one of the greatest disasters in British Army history, Nott's forces achieved an unbroken chain of victories. In gratitude for his services, Nott received the lucrative post of British resident in Lucknow (November 30, 1842), thanks from both Houses of Parliament and in January 1843 was ennobled as Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB).

In 1843 Nott had to return to Great Britain because of his poor health. With an annual pension of £ 1,000 from the East India Company , he was able to buy back his Job's Well , but died a few months later. His statue, erected in 1851, stands in what is now Nott Square in Carmarthen. His Grand Cross and the Afghanistan Medal are on display in the Carmarthenshire County Museum in Carmarthen.

family

He married on October 5, 1805 in Calcutta Letitia Swinhoe (1788-1838). The couple had 14 children, 5 of whom survived the father. After his wife's death, he married Lucknow Rosa Wilson Dore , daughter of Major PL Dore, in June 1843 .

literature

  • J [oachim] H [ayward] Stocqueler: Memoirs and correspondence of Major-General Sir William Nott GCB , London: Hurst and Blackett, 1854 (2 volumes)

Web links

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