Sir Charles Euan-Smith (21 September 1842 – 30 August 1910) was a British soldier and diplomat.

Career

Charles Bean Smith (he added Euan to his surname later) was the son of Dr Euan McLaurin Smith, of

Georgetown, British Guiana Georgetown is the capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administra ...

, and his wife Elisa Bean. After being educated privately in England and Belgium he joined the

Madras Army The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company until the Government ...

at the age of 17 as an ensign and was promoted to lieutenant in 1861. He took part in the

1868 Expedition to Abyssinia The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, t ...

, was present at the capture of

Maqdala Amba Mariam (Amharic: ዐምባ ማሪያም) is a village in central Ethiopia. Formerly known as Magdala or Makdala (መቅደላ ''Meḳdelā or Mäqdäla'') during the reign of Emperor Tewodros II (1855-1868). Located in the Debub Wollo Zone ...

and received the

campaign medal A campaign medal is a military decoration which is awarded to a member of an armed force who serves in a designated military operation or performs duty in a geographical theater. Campaign medals are very similar to service medals but carry a high ...

. He was promoted to captain in 1870 and was secretary to Sir Frederic Goldsmid's special commission in 1871 for the delimitation of the Baluch frontier with Persia. He was given the temporary rank of Major when he accompanied

Sir Bartle Frere Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, (29 March 1815 – 29 May 1884) was a Welsh British colonial administrator. He had a successful career in India, rising to become Governor of Bombay (1862–1867). However, as High Commissioner for ...

on his expedition to

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

in 1872 to negotiate a treaty with the

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

for the suppression of the

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

traffic. In August 1879 Euan-Smith was appointed consul at

Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is s ...

but he left shortly afterwards to join the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ps, د افغان-انګرېز دويمه جګړه) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the l ...

as chief political officer on the staff of Lieutenant-General Sir Donald Stewart. He took part in Lord Roberts' expedition to lift the

Siege of Kandahar The siege of Kandahar began when Nader Shah's Afsharid army invaded southern Afghanistan to topple the last Hotaki stronghold of Loy Kandahar, which was held by Hussain Hotaki. It took place in the Old Kandahar area of the modern city of Kanda ...

. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1881 and full colonel in 1885 (he formally retired from the army in 1889). In 1887 he was appointed Her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General for the Dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar. In February 1890 the Sultan died and Euan-Smith took advantage of the situation to persuade the new Sultan, Ali bin Said, that Zanzibar should be a British protectorate. This resulted in the so-called

Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty The Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty (german: Helgoland-Sansibar-Vertrag; also known as the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890) was an agreement signed on 1 July 1890 between the German Empire and the United Kingdom. The accord gave Germany control of ...

of July 1890 in which Germany and the United Kingdom agreed on territorial interests in East Africa. In 1891 he was appointed "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

", based in

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...

. In 1892 he travelled to

Fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

, the capital, in the hope of concluding a commercial treaty, and an agreement to end slavery. After disagreements with the

, the mission failed and no treaty or agreement was signed. Euan-Smith was relieved of his post in 1893. In 1898 he was appointed "Her Majesty's Minister Resident in the Republic of Colombia, and also to be Her Majesty's Consul-General in that Republic". However, he resigned without taking up the post.

Publications

*''Eastern Persia: An Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission, 1870-71-72'' (with Sir Frederic Goldsmid, Sir Oliver St John, Beresford Lovett, William Blanford), Macmillan and Company, 1876

Offices held

References

*T. H. Sanderson
Smith, Sir Charles Bean Euan- (1842–1910)
rev. H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, retrieved 10 Sept 2012 *Obituary – Sir Charles Euan-Smith, ''The Times'', London, 31 August 1910, page 9
About Sir Charles Euan Smith
''The Mercury'', Hobart, Tasmania, 10 September 1892 {{DEFAULTSORT:Euan-Smith, Charles Bean 1842 births 1910 deaths British Indian Army officers British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Morocco Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Colombia Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of the Star of India