Arnold Burrowes Kemball
Sir Arnold Burrowes Kemball | |
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Political officer |
Early life
Kemball was born in Bombay, the son of Vero Shaw Kemball, Bombay Surgeon-General, and was one of five brothers. He was educated at Addiscombe Military Seminary in Surrey, England.[1][2][3] In December 1837 he returned to Bombay and joined the Bombay Presidency's Artillery as a second lieutenant.[4]
First Afghan War and Persian War
During the First Afghan War (1839–1842) Kemball served with the Bombay
He took up military duties in the 1856–1857 Persian War, for which he gained honours and was mentioned in the dispatches of
Diplomatic service
Kemball became
He was the British
In 1859 Kemball became acting Consul General at Baghdad. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1860, and to full colonel in 1863.[1][2][5] In 1873 he was appointed official attendant to the Shah of Persia on his visit to England.[2]
Kemball was the British delegate at the 1875–76 British–Turkish–Persian–Russian boundary commission to determine the Turkish–Persian frontier. He later became the commission's president. In 1876 he served as British military commissioner accompanying Abdul-Kerim and his Turkish army in the 1876–77 Serbian–Ottoman War.[1][2][3] During the 1876–1877 Constantinople Conference to provide political reform in Ottoman territories, Kemball acted as interpreter between Britain's Secretary of State for India and Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the conference, the Marquess of Salisbury and the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II.[9]
Russo-Turkish War
In the 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War Kemball resumed his role as a British military commissioner with the Turkish Army, advising on, and inspecting, aspects of Turkish battle-readiness.
Of Kemble's role in the Russo-Turkish War, The Times correspondent with Abdul-Kerim's army wrote:
The position occupied by Sir Arnold Kemball is one of great importance, requiring much tact and discretion, a thorough knowledge of Oriental character, coupled with a keen appreciation of military difficulties. I doubt if there is another officer in Her Majesty's Army qualified to hold the post. A soldier by training and profession, yet a diplomatist from a thirteen years' experience as Consul-General at Bagdad, Sir Arnold possesses all the qualifications for his present responsible appointment. He possesses a thorough knowledge of Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, and can converse or correspond with equal fluency in either of these languages, while from his intimate knowledge of the customs of the people, he is able to gain their confidence. Sir Arnold is well content to sleep on the hill side, wrapped in a Turkish officer's coat, to share the greasy and innutritious food found in Turkish camps, to stand by the side of Turkish troops under a fire that our younger soldiers of Abyssinia and Ashantee do not dream of. It needs the constitution of a strong man to stand a ride of 259 miles in five consecutive days, with changes of temperature from snow-clad hills 9,000 feet above sea level to the dry and dusty plains of the Passin River. It needs a man with manly vigour to ride all day and write all night ; it needs a General with something more than his country's reputation at heart to travel about, occupying the position Sir Arnold Kemball does occupy here, unattended by an Aide-de-Camp, often accompanied only by a single Mahomedan horse-keeper, trusting to luck for his food and to the cold hill-side for his bed. By all this, by his simple unaffected manner, his unostentatious style of living, his warm sympathy for the Turkish soldiers, his severe condemnation of the conduct of many of their own officials, his indomitable energy and perseverance, his cheery spirits, and his gallant bearing on the field of battle, Sir Arnold has knitted to himself all with whom he has been thrown into contact, and while upholding in a pre-eminent degree the character of the British soldier, has never in the slightest degree given the Turkish officers reason to believe that his mission was to help them, or in any way to compromise the neutral position of our Government.[2]
At the end of the War Kemble was awarded the KCB, promoted to general, and accompanied
Civilian life
In 1868 Kemball married Anna Fanny Shaw, daughter of A. N. Shaw (died 25 February 1916).[5][16] Their only child was Wynford Rose Kemball (died 16 May 1926), who married Bentley Tollemache, 3rd Baron Tollemache in 1902.[17]
Between 1879 and 1886 Kemball became the Commissioner of the Sutherland Estates of the 3rd Duke of Sutherland; the estate was the largest in Britain and included most of the county of Sutherland.[18][19] During his tenure as commissioner he was involved with a dispute concerning gold digging. In 1869 gold had been found in the Strath of Kildonan resulting in an influx of outside prospectors and the establishment of a company for exploitation; the financial returns were not favourable and digging was abandoned. However, in 1886, following a downturn in the local economy, villagers and crofters petitioned the Duke though Commissioner Kemball for permission to continue searching for gold; permission was not given, and the estate threatened government action if it carried-on. Following further unauthorised digging the estate took steps to stop it.[18][20] Before the problem was resolved the turmoil surrounding unconstrained and persistent gold digging by locals had caused Kemball to resign as estate commissioner, and Lord Stafford, the local Sutherland parliamentary representative, to resign.[21]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Kemball, Sir Arnold Burrowes"; Geni.com. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ ISBN 111391999X
- ^ a b c d e f The India list and India Office list 1905; pp.140, 162, 537, Great Britain. India Office.
- ISBN 1143651316
- ^ ISBN 1247198863
- ISBN 1150821124. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ Hertslet, Lewis (1856); A Complete Collection of the Treaties and Conventions and Reciprocal Regulations between Great Britain and Foreign Powers, volume 9, pp.1005, 1006
- ^ Thomas, Robert Hughes (1856); Historical and other information connected with place in the Persian Gulf; pp.88, 89. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ "The Marquis of Salisbury"; The Sydney Mail 27 June 1885. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ "The Russians Nearing the Balkans – Fighting in Bulgaria"; Dubuque Herald, 14 July 1877. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ "Sir Arnold and Captain Norman chased by Cossacks"; The Sydney Mail, p.6, 5 January 1878. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ "The Battle of Zeidikan"; Grey River Argus, p.2, volume 21, issue 2821, 28 August 1877, National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- Timaru Herald, volume 27, issue 1843, 26 September 1877, p.4. National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ISBN 0838302777
- ^ "The Eastern Question"; Montreal Daily Witness, 22 March 1878. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ISBN 0850333857
- ^ "Bentley Lyonel John [Tollemache], 3rd Baron Tollemache, JP DL"; Cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ a b "Golspie, Sutherland, 8 October 1883 - Arnold Kemball and Joseph Peacock"; Napier Commission in Sutherland. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ Tindley, Annie "Sutherland in Context" Archived 3 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine; The Sutherland Collection. Retrieved 24 June 2012
- ^ "The Sutherland Gold Fields"; The Glasgow Herald, 6 March 1888. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- ^ "General News"; North Otago Times, p. 4, volume 21, issue 6110, 24 July 1886, National Library of New Zealand Retrieved 25 June 2012
Further reading
- Vibart, H.M. (1894). Addiscombe: its heroes and men of note. Westminster: Archibald Constable. pp. 470–72. OL 23336661M.
External links
- "Operations in Asia Minor"; Wanganui Herald, p. 2, volume 12, issue 30821, 30 November 1877, National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- "Midnight Despatches - London March 20"; The Montreal Gazette, 21 March 1878, National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- "The Daily Witness"; Montreal Daily Witness, 4 September 1877, National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- "English News"; Colonist, p. 3, volume 19, issue 2152, 11 November 1876, National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- "Raising the Siege of Kars"; The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1877. Retrieved 25 June 2012
- "Alleged Cruelties by Turks in Asia"; Wanganui Chronicle, p. 2, volume 20, issue 3548, 18 December 1877, National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 25 June 2012