Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Samuel Halliday McCartney (1833–1906), also spelled Halliday Macartney, was a Scottish

military surgeon ''Military Medicine'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of medicine in military settings. It is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. It was est ...

and diplomat serving the Chinese government during the late

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

. McCartney was a member of the same family as George Macartney, the 18th century British ambassador to China. He studied medicine at the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinar ...

, graduating MD in 1858 with a thesis on phthisis. He served as a surgeon in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

, then went with his regiment to China and resigned his commission to join the Chinese army of General Charles Gordon which was subduing the Taiping rebels. He decided to make his home in China and married the niece of Chinese politician

Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...

in December 1864. He became a civil servant of the Chinese imperial government, first in China and then in England. His first wife was a near relative of Lar Wang (納王郜雲官), one of the leaders of the Taiping rebellion. They had three sons and a daughter; the eldest son,

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

, served as the British representative in Kashgar for 28 years. The family lived in Nanjing until 1876 when Macartney left for London to serve as secretary to successive Chinese ministers at the Court of St James. His wife stayed behind and died two years later. McCartney served as Counsellor to the Chinese Legation in London for the remaining 30 years of his life. Notably, he oversaw the capture and detainment of Chinese nationalist leader Sun Yat-Sen at the Chinese Legation in 1896. Macartney intended to deport Sun Yat-Sen back to the Qing Empire for execution, but the intervention of Sun's ally and former teacher Sir James Cantlie turned the imprisonment into a press sensation, and brought public support to Sun. Macartney released Sun Yat-Sen after 12 days of detainment, under pressure from the foreign office. The incident greatly raised Sun Yat-Sen's public profile as a reformer and revolutionary, and gave his movement more clout; Sun would go on to lead the revolution that overthrew the Qing and found the Republic of China. McCartney re-married in 1884 Jeanne Léon du Satoy, daughter of the French portrait painter Jacques Léon du Sautoy, of Fontainebleau (1817-1895). Lady Macartney died at

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th c ...

, near Brighton, on 9 September 1902, and was interred at

Dundrennan Abbey Dundrennan Abbey, in Dundrennan, Scotland, near to Kirkcudbright, was a Cistercian monastery in the Romanesque architectural style, established in 1142 by Fergus of Galloway, King David I of Scotland (1124–53), and monks from Rievaulx Abbey. T ...

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative count ...

, Scotland seven days later. Sir Halliday died in 1906 at his home, Kenbank,

St John's Town of Dalry St John's Town of Dalry ( gd, Clachan Eòin), usually referred to simply as Dalry ( / 'dal-RYE'), is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire. Location St Johns Town is located close to the ...

and was also buried at Dundrennan Abbey. McCartney received the first grade of the second class of the Imperial Chinese

Order of the Double Dragon The Imperial Order of the Double Dragon () was an order awarded in the late Qing dynasty. The Order was founded by the Guangxu Emperor on 7 February 1882 as an award for outstanding services to the throne and the Qing court. Originally it was aw ...

in May 1902.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, Haliday 1833 births 1906 deaths 19th-century Scottish medical doctors Alumni of the University of Edinburgh People from Castle Douglas Qing dynasty diplomats