Robert Nathan (intelligence officer)
Sir Robert Nathan CIE | |
|---|---|
 Nathan as the Police Commissioner of Dhaka (1907) | |
| Born | 1868 |
| Died | 1921 (aged 52–53) |
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
Sir Robert Nathan
Early career in India
Nathan was educated at
Police Commissioner of Dhaka, was responsible along with the district collector H.L. Salkeld for uncovering the revolutionary organisation of the Anushilan Samiti, and for instituting the measures to suppress the organisation.[1]
Return to Britain
Nathan was appointed Vice Chancellor of
Calcutta University in 1914, and the same year returned from India on account of ill-health.[3] He began his work for British intelligence against Indian revolutionaries in October 1914. After retiring from the ICS in 1915, Nathan joined the MI5's section dealing with the Indian seditionist movement in Europe, called MI5(g), that was formed at the time headed by Vernon Kell. Nathan's fellow officer at the time was another ex-Indian police official, H. L. Stephenson.[2] He headed at the time the political branch of the Secret Service,[9] and along with Basil Thomson who headed the Special Branch of the Scotland Yard, Nathan was closely involved in the interrogation of Indians who worked along with the Germans during the war.[10]
Nathan's efforts, along with those of
Ghadar Party and the Berlin Committee to assassinate Lord Kitchener in 1915 through an associate of Har Dayal, Gobind Behari Lal.[11] He was also responsible at this time, along with Basil Thomson, to turn Harish Chandra (who was associated with the Berlin Committee) into a double agent.[12] Nathan was also responsible for the plans made by British intelligence in late 1915 to assassinate Virendranath Chattopadhyaya through agent Donald Gullick.[13]
Work in North America
Later, on instructions from British secret service, Robert Nathan transferred to the Pacific coast of North America where the
US State Department the details of the case against the Indian conspirators. He strongly supported granting a guarantee to the United States not to be held responsible for violation of neutrality.[15]
Later life
Nathan returned to Britain at the end of World War I where he died in 1921.
Publications
Official History of Plague in India; Progress of Education in India, 1897-8, etc.[16]
Notes
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 108
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 218
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 219
- ^ Ghosh 1977, p. 359
- ^ "Nathan, Robert (NTN885R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "The Durbar Honours". The Times. No. 36966. London. 1 January 1903. p. 8.
- ^ "No. 27511". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1903. p. 3.
- ^ Skolnik & Berenbaum 1972, p. 847
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 232
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 220
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 224
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 227
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 229
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 236
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 250
- ^ "Nathan, Robert (NTN885R)"
References
- Dictionary of Indian Biography. Charles Edward Buckland. 1906. p313
- Ghosh, Suresh Chandra (1977). Development of university education, 1916-1920. Selections from educational records of the Government of India ;new series, v. 2. New Delhi: Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University : [Distributed by Sterling Publishers]. p. 359. OCLC 681130346.
- Sir Horace Rumbold; Portrait of a Diplomat: 1869-1941. Martin Gilbert, Michael Gilbert. 1973. p52
- Who's who: An Annual Biographical Dictionary. Henry Robert Addison, Charles Henry Oakes, et al. p1117
- The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. Isaac Landman, Simon Cohen. 1939. p111
- Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael (1972). Encyclopaedia Judaica.
- Popplewell, Richard J (1995), Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904–1924, London: Frank Cass, ISBN 0-7146-4580-X.
| Background |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ghadar | ||
| Berlin Committee |
| |
| Indian figures | ||
| German figures | ||
| Conspiracy | ||
| Counter-intelligence | ||
| Related topics | ||
