https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Eldred_PottingerEldred Pottinger - Revision history2026-07-31T03:37:41ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Eldred_Pottinger&diff=372693&oldid=prevBot at 05:25, 11 October 20222022-10-11T05:25:00Z<p></p>
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{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Eldred Pottinger<br />
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the Bath|CB]]<br />
| image = Prison Sketches. Comprising portraits of the Cabul prisoners, and other subjects (BM 1970,0527.2.10).jpg<br />
| caption = Sketch by [[Vincent Eyre]]<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1811|08|12|df=y}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Ireland]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1843|11|15|1811|08|12|df=y}}<br />
| death_place = [[Hong Kong]], [[British Empire]]<br />
| relatives = [[Henry Pottinger]] (uncle)<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Eldred Pottinger''' (12 August 1811{{snd}}15 November 1843) was an [[Anglo-Indian]] army officer and diplomat. In 1837 he happened to be in [[Herat]] in [[Afghanistan]] to gather intelligence on the area when the Persian army, supported by Russians, laid siege to the city. He helped the Afghan commander repulse the Persians, and was subsequently dubbed the "Hero of Herat" by British historians.<br />
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==Life==<br />
Pottinger was born on 12 August 1811 in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Ireland]]. He was the eldest son of Thomas Pottinger of Mount Pottinger, [[County Down]] (now in [[Northern Ireland]]), and Charlotte Moore.<ref name=":1" /> He was educated at [[Addiscombe Military Seminary]] (1826–1827) and entered the [[Bombay Artillery]] in 1827. After some years of regimental duty he was appointed to the political department under his uncle, Colonel (afterwards Sir) [[Henry Pottinger]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<br />
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[[File:Eldred_Pottinger.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait by [[Colesworthey Grant]]]]<br />
In 1837 he made a journey through [[Afghanistan]] in disguise. Arriving at [[Herat]], he found it threatened by a [[Persian Empire|Persia]]n army (with whom were some Russian officers) and immediately made himself known to the Afghan commander, offering his services. The attack which soon followed was conducted with vigour, but the defence, inspired by Pottinger, was ultimately successful, and after a year the siege was lifted.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Hopkirk |first=Peter |title=The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |orig-year=1990 |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-280232-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_41VGoCYU8C |at=Chapter 14}}</ref><br />
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For this service Pottinger was thanked by the governor-general, the [[George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland|Earl of Auckland]], made brevet-major, and also received the [[Order of the Bath|C.B.]] He was also appointed Political Officer at Herat. In 1841 he was political officer in [[Kohistan District, Kapisa|Kohistan]] when the revolt against [[Shuja Shah Durrani|Shah Shuja]] broke out there. Taking refuge with the [[Gurkha]] garrison of [[Charikar]], Major Pottinger withstood a siege of fourteen days, and then made an adventurous retreat to [[Kabul]]. Less than a fortnight after his arrival [[William Hay Macnaghten|Sir William Macnaghten]] was murdered, and Pottinger succeeded to his position as envoy to the Afghan court. The apathy of the military leaders made resistance hopeless, and it only remained to negotiate for the withdrawal of the [[British Empire|British]] army. Pottinger himself was one of the hostages handed over to [[Wazir Akbar Khan|Akbar Khan]], and thus escaped the near-total massacre of the retreating British and Sepoy troops in the evacuation from Kabul to [[Jelalabad]] in January 1842. Released, after some months in captivity, by Sir [[George Pollock]]'s army, he returned to India.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<br />
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[[file:Mumbai, cattedrale anglicana di st. thomas, interno, monumenti funebri, major eldred pottinger, m. 1843.jpg|thumb|The cenotaph in Mumbai]]<br />
Pottinger died on 15 November 1843 in [[Hong Kong]] while visiting his uncle [[Henry Pottinger]], the first [[Governor of Hong Kong]].<ref name=":1">{{cite odnb |first1=William |last1=Broadfoot |first2=James (revised) |last2=Lunt |title=Pottinger, Eldred (1811–1843) |id=22625 |origyear=2004 |year=2010 }}</ref> He is commemorated by a cenotaph in [[St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai]].<br />
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==Historiography==<br />
Pottinger's role in the siege of Harat was picked up by 19th-century British historiography, which described him as a genius of defensive sieges, and dubbed him the "Hero of Herat", as part of a [[propaganda]] campaign aiming to show the power of the British military, and to secure British domination in Middle East and Asia.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Fedirko|first=J.|year=2007|title=Tragiczny Bohater Wyprawy Herackiej: Generał Izydor Borowski|url=http://www2.almamater.uj.edu.pl/94/30.pdf|journal=Alma Mater|language=pl|volume=94|pages=121–125|access-date=16 March 2017|archive-date=15 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315174550/http://www2.almamater.uj.edu.pl/94/30.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Siege of Herat (1837–1838)]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Pottinger, Eldred|volume=22|page=212}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
* {{cite odnb |first1=William |last1=Broadfoot |first2=James (revised) |last2=Lunt |title=Pottinger, Eldred (1811–1843) |id=22625 |origyear=2004 |year=2010 }}<br />
* {{cite book |first=Maud |last=Diver |author-link=Maud Diver|title=The Hero of Herat |url=https://archive.org/details/heroofheratfront00diveuoft |place=London |publisher=Constable & Co. |year=1912 }}<br />
* {{cite book|first=Maud|last=Diver|author-link=Maud Diver|url=https://www.wdl.org/en/item/19382/|title=The Judgment of the Sword. The Tale of the Kabul Tragedy, and of the Part Played Therein by Major Eldred Pottinger, the Hero of Herat.|place=London|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|year=1914}}<br />
* {{cite book |first=Nigel |last=Hastilow|author-link=Nigel Hastilow|title=The Trials of Eldred Pottinger |place=Halesowen |publisher=Halesowen Press |year=2019}}<br />
* {{cite book|first=Henry Meredith|last=Vibart|title=Addiscombe: Its Heroes and Men of Note |place=Westminster |publisher=Archibald Constable and Co. |year=1894 |url=https://archive.org/details/addiscombeitsher00viba/page/n7/mode/2up |pages=[https://archive.org/details/addiscombeitsher00viba/page/426 426–431]|ol=23336661M}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pottinger, Eldred}}<br />
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]<br />
[[Category:British diplomats]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of Addiscombe Military Seminary]]<br />
[[Category:Bombay Artillery officers]]<br />
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]<br />
[[Category:British people of the First Anglo-Afghan War]]<br />
[[Category:People of the First Anglo-Afghan War]]<br />
[[Category:1811 births]]<br />
[[Category:1843 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]<br />
[[Category:19th-century Anglo-Irish people]]<br />
[[Category:Hong Kong people of Irish descent]]</div>Bot