Andrew Dalgleish (1853 – 1888, on

Karakoram Pass The Karakoram Pass () is a mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range. It is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkand in the Tarim Basin. 'Karakoram' literally means 'Black Gravel' in ...

, between

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) was a Scottish trader, traveller and government agent during the

Great Game The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...

Life and murder

He took part in the first trading venture of the Central Asian Trading Company, the company having been set up in 1873 with the encouragement of Robert Barkely Shaw. Dalgleish was one of the first British traders in

, engaged in trans-Karakoram trade in the 1870s and 1880s. He married a Yarkandi wife. He had for some years traded between Yarkand and Leh and he was fluent in Uyghur.

Hamilton Bower Major-General Sir Hamilton St Clair Bower (1 September 1858 – 5 March 1940) was a British Indian Army officer who wrote about his travels through Xinjiang and Tibet. Private life Bower was born on Portsea Island, Hampshire, the son of a Sc ...

A trip to Turkistan

Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter ...

. 1895. pp. 241-257 Dalgleish was murdered by an Afghan named Dad Mahomed, a Kakar

Pathan Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

from

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...

who was once a merchant but had gone bankrupt. According to

, in May 1888 Dalgleish, accompanied by some pilgrims and servants, left Leh for Yarkand. Several days into their journey they were joined by Mahomed. On 8 April 1888 the party crossed the Karakoram Pass and set up some tents to rest. While drinking tea in a tent Dalgleish and Mahomed had a conversation regarding Mahomed's debts. Mahomed excused himself and then returned with a gun and fired into the tent, striking Dalgleish in the shoulder. Dalgleish escaped from the tent but Mahomed pursued him with a sword and killed him. Mahomed did not immediately flee but instead forced Dalgleish's servants to make him a meal, then he slept in his victim's tent. The next day Mahomed departed and Dalgleish's servants and pilgrims made their way to Yarkand. The British community in Yarkand expressed their outrage over the murder and pleaded with the local

yamen A ''yamen'' (''ya-men''; ; Manchu: ''yamun'') was the administrative office or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in imperial China. A ''yamen'' can also be any governmental office or body headed by a mandarin, at any level of govern ...

to have the murderer arrested. Mahomed later arrived in Kashgar and despite pleas from the Russian Consul

Nikolai Petrovsky Nikolay Fyodorovich Petrovsky (russian: Николай Фёдорович Петровский; 1837–1908) was the Russian consul-general in Kashgar from 1882 until 1902. Petrovsky's main adversary during his time in Central Asia was George Ma ...

local officials refused to arrest Mahomed. During his travels through

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...

Xinjiang Province Xinjiang Province is a historical administrative area of Northwest China, between 1884 and 1955. Periods during which various boundaries of Xinjiang Province have been defined include: * Xinjiang Province (Qing) (1884–1912). * Xinjiang Provin ...

from 1889–90, British military officer Hamilton Bower attempted without success to pursue Dalgleish's killer. Mahomed was arrested in 1890 in

Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...

(then

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

) and committed suicide in prison. A small memorial made of marble slab was erected by Bower on the desolate site of his death. It read in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, "Here fell Andrew Dalgleish, murdered by an Afghan, April 6th, 1888." The Earl of Dunmore
Journey in the Pamirs and Central Asia.
Geographical Journal. V. II. No. 5. November. 1893. His resting place is in a Christian cemetery in Leh, Ladakh.

References

External links

A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys, by John Buchan
pp. 286–291. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalgleish, Andrew 1888 deaths British people in colonial India People murdered in China Scottish murder victims 1853 births British spies against the Russian Empire

Life and murder

Further reading

References

External links