Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald, (12 June 1852 – 10 September 1915) was a British soldier and diplomat, best known for his service in China and Japan.

Early life

MacDonald was born the son of Mary Ellen MacDonald (''nee'' Dougan) and Major-General James (Hamish) Dawson MacDonald.Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 214. He was educated at

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headma ...

and Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the 74th Foot in 1872. He thought of himself as a 'soldier-outsider', as regards his subsequent career in the Foreign Office.

Africa

MacDonald’s early career was in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. He served in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, and served as military attaché to Sir Evelyn Baring from 1884–87. From 1887–89 he was Acting-Agent and Consul-general at

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 islan ...

, and then served some years as Commissioner and Consul-General at

Brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

in the West African

Oil Rivers Protectorate The Niger Coast Protectorate was a British protectorate in the Oil Rivers area of present-day Nigeria, originally established as the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1884 and confirmed at the Berlin Conference the following year. It was renamed on 12 M ...

, Dictionary of National Biography where in 1895 he was an observer of the rebellion of King Koko of

Nembe Nembe is a Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Nembe in the east of the area at The people of Brass, Nembe and Southern Ijaw Councils of Bayelsa State have bemoaned their neglect by oil companies ...

. He retired from the British Army in 1896.

China and Korea

In 1896, MacDonald was appointed Her Majesty's Minister in China. He was simultaneously the British Minister to the

Empire of Korea The Korean Empire () was a Korean monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by Emperor Gojong of the Joseon dynasty. The empire stood until Japan's annexation of Korea in August 1910. During the Korean Empire, Emperor Gojong oversaw the Gwan ...

in 1896 through 1898. Claude Maxwell MacDonald Vanity Fair 10 October 1901

In China, MacDonald obtained a lease at

Weihai Weihai (), formerly called Weihaiwei (), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport in easternmost Shandong province. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow Sea to the east, and is the closest Chinese city to South Korea. Weihai's popul ...

wei, and obtained railway contracts for British syndicates. He was instrumental in securing the Second Peking Convention, by which China leased to Britain the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. MacDonald secured a 99-year lease only because he thought 'it was good as forever'. This and the contrasting lease-in-perpetuity of Kowloon created some problems in the negotiations for the

1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration The Sino-British Joint Declaration is a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after ...

. In 1899 MacDonald was the author of a diplomatic note which he proposed, on behalf of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, a boundary line between Jammu and Kashmir and the

Chinese Turkestan Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

, ceding roughly half of the

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. It is claimed by India to be a part of its Leh District, Ladakh Union Territory. It is a part of t ...

plateau, in return for China relinquishing its shadowy suzerainty over

Hunza Hunza may refer to: * Hunza, Iran * Hunza Valley, an area in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan ** Hunza (princely state), a former principality ** Hunza District, a recently established district ** Hunza River, a waterway ** Hunza Peak, a mou ...

. The proposed boundary came to be known as the

Macartney–MacDonald Line The Macartney–MacDonald Line is a proposed boundary in the disputed area of Aksai Chin. It was proposed by British Indian Government to China in 1899 via its envoy to China, Sir Claude MacDonald. The Chinese Government never gave any respon ...

. The Qing China never made any response to the proposal. But the proposed boundary is still seen by scholars and commentators to have some relevance to the present day boundary disputes between China and India. As a military man, MacDonald led the defence of the foreign legations in 1900 which were

under siege ''Under Siege'' is a 1992 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis, written by J. F. Lawton, and starring Steven Seagal as a former Navy SEAL who must stop a group of mercenaries, led by Tommy Lee Jones, after they commandeer the ...

during the Boxer Rebellion, and he worked well with the Anglophile Japanese Colonel Shiba Goro.

Japan

MacDonald was appointed Consul-General to the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of Japan, 1947 constitu ...

in October 1900. He headed the British Legation in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

during a period of harmonious relations between Britain and Japan (1900 to 1912), swapping appointments with Sir

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow, (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist. Satow is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served, where he was known as . He was a key fig ...

who replaced him as Minister in

Peking } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. On 30 January 1902, the first Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

between the Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne and

Hayashi Tadasu was a Japanese career diplomat and cabinet minister of Meiji-era Japan. Early life He was born Satō Shingoro in Sakura city, Shimōsa Province (present-day Chiba prefecture),Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. ...

, the Japanese Minister. Dame Ethel MacDonald Grave

MacDonald was still in Tokyo when the alliance was renewed in 1905 and 1911. He became Britain's first ambassador to Japan when the status of the legation was raised to that of

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

in 1905. Before 1905 the senior British diplomat in Japan had simultaneously held the joint positions of (a)

Consul-General A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

and (b)

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

; the latter being a rank just below that of ambassador. MacDonald was made a Privy Councillor in 1906. He died in London of heart failure in 1915. He is buried with his wife in

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regi ...

Dame Ethel, Lady MacDonald

In 1892, Claude Maxwell MacDonald wed Ethel (1857–1941), daughter of Major W. Cairns Armstrong; they remained married until his death in 1915. They had two daughters. Named to the RRC and a Member of the Executive Committee of the Overseas Nursing Association, Lady MacDonald was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in her own right in 1935.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about MacDonald, OCLC/

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

encompasses roughly 10+ works in 20+ publications in 2 languages and 300+ library holdings. * 1900 — ''The Japanese detachment during the defence of the Peking legations, 1900'' * 1900 — ''Reports from Her Majesty's minister in China ir C.M. Macdonaldrespecting events at Peking. Presented to parliament, Dec. 1900'' * 1898 — ''Despatch from Her Majesty's minister at Peking forwarding copies of the notes exchanged with the Chinese government respecting the non-alienation of the Yang-tsze region''

Honours

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG). * UK Royal Victorian Order ribbon

Knight Grand Cross of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, or ...

(GCVO). *

Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(KCB; Civil division). * Order of the Bath (ribbon)

Knight Commander of the

(KCB; Military division) – awarded on 29 November 1900 "in recognition of services during the recent Operations in China". * Egypt Medal BAR

Egypt Medal The Egypt Medal (1882–1889) was awarded for the military actions involving the British Army and Royal Navy during the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War and in the Sudan between 1884 and 1889. Resentment at increasing British and other European involve ...

(1882–1889) with clasps "Suakin 1884", "El-Teb" and "Tamaai". * Order of the Osmanie lenta

Order of Osmanieh The Order of Osmanieh or Order of Osmaniye ( ota, نشانِ عثمانیہ) was a civil and military decoration of the Ottoman Empire. History The order was created in January 1862 by Sultan Abdülaziz. With the obsolescence of the Nişan-i ...

, Fourth Class (

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

). *

Khedive's Star The Khedive's Star was a campaign medal established by Khedive Tewfik Pasha to reward those who had participated in the military campaigns in Egypt and the Sudan between 1882 and 1891. This included British forces who served during the 1882 Anglo- ...

(

Khedivate of Egypt The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ota, خدیویت مصر ') was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which br ...

)

Notes

References

* Nish, Ian. (2004). ''British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972.'' Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental.
OCLC 249167170
*

External links

* UK in Japan
Chronology of Heads of Mission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Claude Maxwell 1852 births 1915 deaths Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Japan Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China Anglo-Scots People educated at Uppingham School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst 42nd Regiment of Foot officers British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British Army personnel of the Boxer Rebellion 74th Highlanders officers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Korea People of colonial Nigeria British expatriates in Nigeria Burials at Brookwood Cemetery Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom 20th-century British diplomats 19th-century British diplomats