Henry Marion Durand
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| Lieutenant Governor of Punjab | |
| In office 1 June 1870 – 20 January 1871 | |
| Governor General | The Earl of Mayo |
| Preceded by | Sir Donald Friell McLeod |
| Succeeded by | Sir Henry Davies |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 November 1812 Second Anglo-Sikh War Indian Rebellion |
Early life
Durand was one of two illegitimate sons of Major Henry Percy, a cavalry officer who served in the Peninsular War and later at the Battle of Waterloo, and Marion Durand, a French woman he met while prisoner-of-war in the Napoleonic Wars. Born in Coulandon, France, both his parents died whilst he was young, and he was placed in the care of a family friend Mr. Deans.[1][2]
He was educated at the East India Company Military Seminary at Addiscombe where he was a contemporary of the future Lord Napier of Magdala who passed out two years before him.[3]
Career
Durand sailed for India in 1829. On-board he developed a friendship with fellow passenger Alexander Duff, however the ship was wrecked on Dassen Island and the friends separated.[3]
On his arrival in India in May 1830, he served initially as Second Lieutenant in the
In 1838, then Lieutenant Durand gave up his well-paid civil appointment to serve in the engineering department of the expeditionary force to Afghanistan. He served with distinction during the First Anglo-Afghan War however resigned in his post in protest of giving up the entire Bala Hissar to the Afghans, and returned to India.[3]
On his return, Durand was furloughed to England where he became acquainted with Lord Ellenborough. He was offered the post of aide-de-camp to Ellenborough, and on Ellenborough's arrival in India was give the lucrative post of his private secretary.[3]
In June 1843 Durand was promoted to Captain, and the same year married Mary, daughter of Major General Sir John McCaskill. In December 1843 he assisted Ellenborough during the Gwalior campaign, and at its conclusion was awarded the bronze star for Maharajpore.[3] When Ellenborough was dismissed by the East India Company in 1844 Durand lost his role as private secretary, and was later appointed Commissioner of Tenasserim until he was removed from the post in 1846. Durand then sailed to London to protest his removal to the directors of the East India Company, and returned to India with an order that he be reinstated to an equivalent post.[3] The order was however ignored by The Earl of Dalhousie and Durand returned to military service.[3]
During the
For his war service he promoted to Brevit-Major and appointed Political Agent, a civil role, at Gwalior. From Gwalior he was transferred to Bhopal and in 1853 made Resident of Nagpur. During these years he became a regular contributor to the Calcutta Review on the history and society of India. In 1853 Durand went to England and after three years leave, returned to India in 1856 as a lieutenant colonel.
Indian mutiny of 1857
On his return he was appointed acting Political Agent at
Having re-grouped Durand accompanied a column led by Sir Charles Stuart for the relief of
Council of India
In 1858, under the terms of the Queen's Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Indian possessions of the East India Company came under the direct rule of the British crown.[4] Durand was sent to England to assist in plans to re-organise the Company armies. Whilst in England he was appointed to Council of the Secretary of State for India, remaining in the role for the next three years until he resigned in 1861.[3]
The Hindoo Patriot later remarked of his time with the council, "He touched upon questions of all descriptions which came before the Council with all the skill and masterliness of an expert...all his utterances were marked by an intelligent appreciation of the want and wishes of the people, by broad sympathies, and by fearless independence." He was a vocal opponent of the Punjaub Tenancy Act, pronounced the North West Municipal Act as an unmitigated sham practically used for the convenience of a few European residents rather than the for the good of the mass of the population, and raised opposition to the Income Tax policy which he described as "odious". Such was the esteem he was held in by locals, the article remarked that he and William Mansfield constituted "the only independent element in the Council and when they left the right hand of the government was lopped off."[3]
Punjab and death
In May 1870,
On the evening of 31 December 1870, Durand was thrown from an elephant as it attempted to pass under a low gateway in the city of
The inscription of his tomb reads:
Sacred to the memory of Henry Marion Durand Major General Royal Engineers C.B. K.C.S.I. Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. born Novr 15th 1812 – died Jany 1st 1871. He entered the army in 1828 and after serving his country for forty years in the field and in the cabinet, was killed in the discharge of his duty, by a fall from an elephant at Tank – N.W. Frontier.
Personal life
Durand's son, Mortimer Durand, served in the Indian Civil Service and later in the British diplomatic service. He is remembered for drawing the Durand Line, a historically controversial border between Afghanistan and British India (now Pakistan). For a time he lived at Furness Lodge, East Sheen, Richmond.
One of Durand's daughters, Frances Mary Durand, married Major General Charles MacGregor. Another daughter, Ethel Durand, married the naturalist and African explorer James Sligo Jameson.[9]
References
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8307. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Henry Mortimer Durand (1883). The Life of Major-General Sir Henry Marion Durand Volume 1. W.H. Allen.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Low, Charles Rathbone (1880). Soldiers of the Victorian Age: Sir Herbert Edwardes. Sir Henry Marion Durand. Lord Chelmsford. Sir James Outram. Lord Strathnairn. Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain. Sir James Hope Grant. Lord Napier of Magdala. Lord Clyde. Vol. 2. London: Chapman and Hall. pp. 44–79.
- ^ Hibbert 2000, p. 221
- ^ "No. 23250". The London Gazette. 14 May 1867. p. 2759.
- ^ Durand 1883, pp. 446–7.
- ^ Vibart 1894, pp. 436–7.
- ISBN 9781473870536.
- ^ ODNB: J S Jameson
Bibliography
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Durand, Henry Marion". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Campbell, George (1879). The Afghan Frontier.
- Durand, Henry Marion (1879). The First Afghan War and its Causes. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
- Durand, Henry Mortimer (1883). The Life of Major-General Sir Henry Marion Durand, KCSI, CB, of the Royal Engineers. London: W. H. Allen.
- Fraser-Tytler, W. K. (1950). Afghanistan: A Study of Political Developments in Central Asia.
- Stearn, Roger T. (2008) [2004]. "Durand, Sir Henry Marion (1812–1871)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8307. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Vibart, H. M. (1894). Addiscombe: Its Heroes and Men of Note. Westminster: Archibald Constable. pp. 431–438. OL 23336661M.
External links
- The papers of Henry Marion Durand, including diaries, correspondence, memoranda, literary papers, photographs and presscuttings are held by SOAS Special Collections. Digitised items from the collections may be viewed online here.
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