Peter Lumsden: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}

Peter Stark Lumsden was born at Belhelvie Lodge, Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, on 9 November 1829. He was trained at [[Addiscombe Military Seminary]] from the age of 20,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Sir Peter Lumsden |author=Jehu Junior |author-link=Thomas_Gibson_Bowles |url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=ODT18851005.2.36 |newspaper=[[Otago Daily Times|Otago Times]] |location=[[Dunedin]] |date=5 October 1885 |issue=7375 |access-date=23 December 2010 |at=p. 4, col. 9 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006070116/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=ODT18851005.2.36 |archive-date=6 October 2022}}</ref> and entered the [[East India Company]]'s [[Bengal Army]] in 1847 as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] in the 60th [[Bengal Native Infantry]].<ref name="Timaru Herald"/> Between 1852 and 1857 he served on the [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Frontier]] in five expeditions against native tribes: the [[Mohmand|Mohmunds]], the [[Utmankhel|Ootman Khel]], the [[Afridi (Pashtun)|Bori Afridis]] and the [[Miranzai Valley|Miranzais]]. He was [[mentioned in despatches]] five times and awarded the special thanks of the Local and supreme Governments. From 1857 to 1858 he accompanied a special peace-finding mission to [[Kandahar]] with his brother Harry Lumsden.{{Sfn|Wilkinson|Wilkinson|1896|p=394}} He received thanks from the Government for his work,{{Sfn|Edwardes|Edwardes|1886}} but returned to [[India]] to take part in the suppression of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Indian Mutiny]]. Lumsden next joined the Central India Field Force at Gwalior under [[Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala|General Sir Robert Napier]],<ref>{{Cite news|title=West Coast Times|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WCT18850509.2.7|newspaper=West Coast Times|date=9 May 1885|issue=4903|at=p. 2, col. 3|publisher=[[Allied Press]]|location=[[Hokitika, New Zealand]]|access-date=23 December 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006070920/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=WCT18850509.2.7|archive-date=6 October 2022}}</ref> and, as assistant [[quartermaster general]] under [[Hugh Rose, 1st Baron Strathnairn|Major-General Hugh Rose]], shared in the pursuit and capture of [[Tantya Tope]] in 1859, when he was again mentioned in despatches.{{Sfn|Jeffery|1911}}

Lumsden served as Chief of Staff to the commander-in-chief, [[Frederick Haines|General Sir F. P. Haines]], during the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]], for which he received the [[Order of the Bath]]. In 1884, Lumsden returned to the North-West frontier, when he was selected as British representative on the [[Afghan Boundary Commission|Anglo-Russian Commission]] for the demarcation of the north-west boundary of [[Afghanistan]].<ref name="Who Was Who"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.billbuxton.com/dramatis.html#lumsdenPeter|title=Dramatis Personae of the History and Exploration of the Greater Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamirs, Hindu-Kush, Tibet, Afghanistan, High Tartary and Surrounding Territories, up to 1921.|first=Bill|last=Buxton|author-link=Bill_Buxton|date=3 May 2009|access-date=2 November 2022}}</ref> While leading the Commission, he felt he had been given insufficiently clear instructions by the British government, which proved very dangerous as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated to the brink of war with Russia.<ref>[[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury|Salisbury, Robert]] (2020). ''William Simpson and the Crisis in Central Asia, 1884-5''. {{ISBN|978-1-5272-7047-3}}</ref> He resigned and returned to England in 1885 after the [[Panjdeh Incident]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Resignation of Sir Peter Lumden|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TS18850508.2.27.1|newspaper=[[Daily Star (United Kingdom)|Daily Star]]|location=[[London]]|date=8 May 1885|issue=5305|at=p. 4, col. 3|access-date=1 November 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004192341/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TS18850508.2.27.1|archive-date=4 October 2022}}</ref> He left London to represent the British at negotiations with Russia in selecting the Afghan Frontier Commission to determine the Afghan boundary.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ray|first=William Henry|date=April 1887|title=Russia in Asia|journal=[[The Atlantic Monthly]]|volume=0059|issue=354|page=476|url=http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=atla;cc=atla;rgn=full%20text;idno=atla0059-4;didno=atla0059-4;view=image;seq=00479;node=atla0059-4%3A1|issn=1072-7825|oclc=29046351|access-date=1 November 2022}}</ref>

Lumsden was appointed a [[Knight Grand Cross]] of the [[Order of the Bath]]<ref>{{Cite news|title=The Afghan Frontier|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NOT18860521.2.20|newspaper=North Otago Times|date=21 May 1886|volume=XXXI|issue=6058|at=p. 4, col. 1|access-date=1 November 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004192401/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NOT18860521.2.20|archive-date=4 October 2022}}</ref> and given a commissioner's seat on the [[Council of India]], which he occupied for a 10-year tenure from 1883. In 1885 he wrote "Countries and Tribes Bordering on the Koh-i-Baba Range", an article for the seventh volume of the journal ''[[Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London|Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lumsden|first=Major-General Sir Peter|year=1885|title=Countries and Tribes Bordering on the Koh-i-Baba Range|journal=[[Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London|Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography]]|oclc=150373612|volume=7|issue=9|pages=561–583|doi=10.2307/1800815|jstor=1800815|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2376906}}</ref>