Charles Umpherston Aitchison

Sir Charles Aitchison Umpherston KCSI, CIE ( born May 20, 1832 in Edinburgh, † February 18, 1896 in Oxford ) was a British colonial administrator in India, whose career was promoted by the consequences of the uprising of 1857. ultimately he was promoted to Foreign Secretary of the Government of India ( GoI ) and Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab.

Youth and Education

Charles Umpherston Aitchiston was the son of Hugh Aitchison. His mother came from the family of Umpherston who were prominent in the Protestant Scottish Convenanters. He attended high school and the University of Edinburgh ( MA). He was particularly interested in logic and metaphysics, Fichte The determination of the people influenced him greatly. The summer semester 1854 he spent at the University of Halle in Friedrich August Tholuck, the following winter semester, he studied in Berlin. Without special preparation, he took in the spring of 1855 participated in the selection examination for the service of the East India Company, in which 131 candidates sought by 21 points. He insisted, despite poor results in mathematics, as the fifth- best.

India

The following year, he was instructed in London in law and Hindi. He belonged to the first group of the so-called competition wallahs, so that higher colonial officials who were not trained in Haileybury. On September 25, 1856, he landed in Calcutta. After three months, he passed the exams in Persian and Hindi. He was then sent in the remote district of Hissar in Punjab.

However, the Governor John Lawrence wanted to have four of the new system trained on his staff, so he was already, ordered after a month on May 4 to Lahore. Thus he escaped the place in Hissar on May 29, 1857 massacre of 19 whites. Nevertheless, he got into the Sepoy Mutiny. He spent four months among other things, the defense of a bridge in Amritsar. He took part in the recapture of Delhi.

As private secretary to the Judicial Commissioner, he worked on the Draft Code for the Punjab. After the promotion of his superiors, he soon became Under Foreign Secretary. He took part in the 1859-60 tour of the Viceroy Lord Canning, while the large land redistributions took place at the loyal princely states. Many of the award certificates and epistles, which were traditionally held in classical Persian, the court language of the Mughals, he has written and read in the presence of the respective princes and the Viceroy. Together with Henry Mortimer Durand in 1861, he designed the new policy of adoption for childless Rajas, the Doctrine of Lapse discarding. Lawrence, since 1864 Viceroy, entrusted him with further tasks.

In order to give him experience in general management service, he was sent back to the Punjab 1865-68. He then returned, now as Secretary of State (Foreign Secretary) in the central administration back. With the assassination of the Viceroy Lord Mayo in the Andaman he was close with. In office he was particularly concerned with the relations with Afghanistan. The conservative politics of the Viceroy Robert Bulwer- Lytton, which ultimately led to the Second Anglo-Afghan War, he faced hostile.

In March 1878 he accepted the position of Chief Commissioner of British Burma, which he retained until July 1880. From April 1882 to 1887 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, the most important of the then 12 provinces of British India. His eldest daughter Beatrice Clementina († 1902), married in 1887 his private secretary, James Robert Dunlop Smith Aitchison was a lifelong believer in the Free Church of Scotland. As a colonial administrator, he supported the expansion of Christian missions. During his tenure, the foundation of the Panjab University, even statements of classical Muslim scholarship awarded, but at the same time should also Western knowledge and methods close to bring the locals fall. From 1864 founded Wards ' School ( for sons of princes ) in Ambala in 1886 was named after him College in Lahore.

Actually, he wanted to sit down after his home leave at the end of time as governor to rest, but he was followed in April 1887 to the entreaties of Lord Dufferin and accepted an appointment to the Supreme Council ( until Nov. 1888). At the same time he was President of the Public Service Commission, decided the far-reaching reforms of the Indian Civil Service. At this time he became infected. Finally retired he went November, 1888. Initially, the patient was living in London, but soon moved to the vicinity of Oxford, where he was buried in the cemetery of Wolvercote.

Honors

• KCSI (1881 )
• CIE (1882 )
• Honorary doctorate ( LLD ), University of Edinburgh ( 1877)
• M. A. ( Honorary ), University of Oxford ( 1895)
• The Aitchison Chiefs College, Lahore is named after him.

Works

• His most important work is accompanied by detailed introductory historical notes Collection: A collection of treaties engagements, and Sanad Relating to India and Neighbouring countries ... ( the translation got into Urdu Jwala Sahai ). All contracts, which closed the colonial power with the princes are listed in English translation. This source book of 1862 was later repeatedly extended by others, reprint, partly under slightly modified title as 1922: Manual of collections of treaties and of collections Relating to treaties ... but it is always quoted to this day under his name.
• As Eds.: Passages in the Lives of Helen Alexander, and James Currie of Pentland and other papers; Belfast 1869 (Family papers of Francis Umpherston, Esq., Elmswood, Loanhead )
• The Native States of India; 1875
• The biography of J. Lawrence: Hunter, W. W.; Rulers of India; Oxford 1892