Sir Douglas Forsyth has died at Eastbourne after a very short and sudden illness. Sir Douglas Forsyth became associated with one or two important passages in the modern history of British India. He was the younger son, the elder being Mr. William Forsyth, Q.C., of the late Mr. Thomas Forsyth, of Liverpool, and he was born in 1827.
He was first educated at Rugby, and then went through the usual course at Haileybury before entering the Bengal Civil Service in 1848. He entered the service at an exciting moment, when the final conquest of the Punjab was in progress, and on the eve of the formation of the junior division of the Civil Service, which has now appropriated so much of the fame and position that formerly belonged to the three Presidencies.
At a very early stage of his career he was sent to this new province, the organization of which Lord Dalhousie entrusted to the very ablest men at his disposal, and when the mutiny broke out nine years after his arrival he was acting as Deputy Commissioner in the Cis-Sutlej States - his superior, or the full Commissioner, being Mr. George Barnes. The principal duty that devolved upon these officials was to provide means of transport for the troops ordered from the Punjab to Delhi, but on their tact and firmness also depended to a great extent the attitude of the protected Sikh States. Mr. Forsyth took a bold initiative in calling upon the Maharajah of Puttiala for assistance, and the appeal, being promptly responded to by that loyal chieftain, awakened a responsive echo in the other Sikh chiefs of Jheend and Nabba. His measures for the defense of Umballa were prompt and sufficient. He raised a police force of Sikhs for the purpose, and under the direction of the Commissioner, Mr. George Barnes, it was he who provided for the security of the road from Umballa to Kurnaul up to the siege and capture of Delhi.
The reputation he gained during the mutiny (and for his services he received the C.B.) insured his rapid promotion, until he became in due course Commissioner of the very important district of Umballa. But in 1869 a still more important subject than the management of the Sikhs had come to the front, and that was our future relations with Russia. Lord Maye had just received the Ameer Shere Ali in darbar at Umballa, and as it was considered desirable to bring the views of the Indian Government on the Central Asia question in a clear and unmistakable form before that of St. Petersburg, Mr. Forsyth was considered the most competent person to be entrusted with the responsible duty of Indian envoy to the Russian Court.
There can be no doubt he fully justified the confidence thus reposed in him, as he established the very basis of the arrangement which, despite the rapid progress of Russian arms in the interval, was carried out in the agreement two years ago to delimit the Afghan frontier by a joint Commission. The main point of which he then established was that Russia consented to respect the territory then in the possession of Shere Ali, and it will be found during the coming negotiations with Russia that we have not advanced much beyond this stage at the present moment.
Immediately after his return to India Mr. Forsyth was entrusted with a second mission, more interesting in its surroundings if less important in its consequences than his visit to St. Petersburg. The travels of Mr. Shaw had introduced to us the little-known country of Chinese or Eastern Turkestan and its famous ruler the Atalik Ghazi, or Yakoob Beg. An envoy from this potentate visited India, and Mr. Forsyth was sent on a return mission to Yarkand. Unfortunately, Yakoob Beg was engaged in a distant campaign, and Mr. Forsyth, whose instructions required his return to India before the commencement of winter, had to return without accomplishing the main object of his journey. The only satisfactory result of the mission was that he learnt something definite about a State which at the time was neither Russian nor Chinese.
Three years later Mr. Forsyth was sent on a second mission to Kashgar, not merely that he might complete his observations of the earlier date, but also that he might acquire a precise knowledge of what the future relations of Russia with this State would be, for at that moment Kashgar, not less than Khiva, stood under the menace of Russian invasion. at all events, he was successful in seeing the Atilik Ghazi on this occasion, and he visited both Yarkand and Kashgar. His report on the mission forms a most useful guide to the politics, natural history, and physical condition of Eastern Turkestan. For this mission he was rewarded with the K.C.S.I.
His diplomatic work did not end here, for in 1875 he went to Burmah, chiefly to obtain an explanation of the Kings' reception of Lisitai and to effect a settlement of the Karennee question. Shortly after this he retired from the service, and since his return to England he has taken a prominent and active part as directory of several of the larger Indian railways. He married, in 1850, Alice, daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Plimer, of Canons, Middlesex, by whom he leaves three daughters, and the late Sir Harry Parkes married the younger daughter of the same gentleman. Sir Douglas Forsyth was a plain, straight-dealing, truth-telling English gentleman, who on critical occasions exhibited the qualities of a hero.
Adopted from News of the World, Dec 26, 1886.
Filipino culture -- Filipino resources
North polar exploration
Zulu victory over British troops
Introduction of the potato into New England
An American in Turkestan
Hunting in India
Foreign retirees in Manchuria
Prejevalsky's Exploration in Mongolia
Was Prejevalsky the father of Stalin?
The Third Asiatic Expedition in Mongolia
Waiting in Ulaan Baatar
My first trip to Tibet
The Expulsion of Count Tolstoi
