Major-General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
Sir William Nott (20 January 1782 – 1 January 1845) was a British military officer of the
Bengal Army,
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
in
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 ...
.
Early life
Nott was born in 1782, near
Neath in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
,
[Lloyd (1958), pg 686.] the second son of Charles Nott, a
Herefordshire
Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...
farmer of
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
background, who in 1794 became an innkeeper of the Ivy Bush Inn at
Carmarthen
Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...
in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
. Nott was educated in Neath, and then at
Cowbridge Grammar School
Cowbridge Grammar School was one of the best-known schools in Wales until its closure in 1974. It was replaced by Cowbridge Comprehensive School.
Founded in the 17th century by Sir John Stradling and refounded by Sir Leoline Jenkins, it had ...
but left education after his father became an innkeeper.
Nott joined the volunteer corps in 1798 and obtained a
cadetship in the
Indian army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
and went to
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 ...
in 1800 when under
Company rule in India
Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...
it was a key component of the growing
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
.
Military history
In 1825, Nott was promoted to the command of his regiment of native infantry; and in 1838, on the outbreak of the
First Afghan war
The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Afghanistan, Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking si ...
, he was appointed to the command of a brigade. From April to October 1839 he was in command of the troops left at
Quetta
Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of ...
, where he rendered valuable service. In November 1840 he captured
Khelat, and in the following year compelled
Akbar Khan and other tribal chiefs to submit to the British.
On receiving the news of the rising of the Afghans at
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
in November 1841, Nott took energetic measures. On 23 December the British
envoy
Envoy or Envoys may refer to:
Diplomacy
* Diplomacy, in general
* Envoy (title)
* Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank
Brands
*Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft
*Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...
, Sir
William Hay Macnaghten
Sir William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet (24 August 179323 December 1841), was a British civil servant in India, who played a major part in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
Life
William was the second son of Sir Francis Macnaghten, Bart., judge of the ...
, was murdered at Kabul; and, in February 1842, the commander-in-chief,
General Elphinstone, sent orders that
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...
was to be evacuated. Nott at once decided to disobey, on the supposition that Elphinstone was not a free agent at Kabul; and as soon as he heard the news of the ''
Massacre of Elphinstone's army
The 1842 retreat from Kabul, also called the Massacre of Elphinstone's army, during the First Anglo-Afghan War, was the retreat of the British and East India Company forces from Kabul. An uprising in Kabul forced the then commander, Major-Genera ...
'', he urged the government at
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
to maintain the garrison of
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...
with a view to avenging the massacre and the murder of Macnaghten. In March he inflicted a severe defeat on the enemy near Kandahar, and in May drove them with heavy loss out of the
Baba Wali Pass.
In July, he received orders from
Lord Ellenborough
Baron Ellenborough, of Ellenborough in the County of Cumberland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 19 April 1802 for the lawyer, judge and politician Sir Edward Law, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from ...
, the
Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...
, to evacuate
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, with permission to retire by Kabul. Nott arranged with Sir
George Pollock
Field Marshal Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet (4 June 1786 – 6 October 1872) was a British Indian Army officer. He first saw action at the Battle of Deeg and at the Siege of Bhurtpore during the Second Anglo-Maratha War before taking part i ...
, now commander-in-chief, to join him at Kabul. On 30 August he
rout
A rout is a panicked, disorderly and undisciplined retreat of troops from a battlefield, following a collapse in a given unit's command authority, unit cohesion and combat morale (''esprit de corps'').
History
Historically, lightly-equi ...
ed the Afghans at
Ghazni
Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...
, and on 6 September occupied the fortress, from which he carried away, by the governor-general's express instructions, the gates of the temple of
Somnath ; on the 17th he joined Pollock at Kabul. The combined army recrossed the
Sutlej in December.
Honours and pension
Nott's services were highly commended; he was immediately appointed
Resident
Resident may refer to:
People and functions
* Resident minister, a representative of a government in a foreign country
* Resident (medicine), a stage of postgraduate medical training
* Resident (pharmacy), a stage of postgraduate pharmaceuti ...
at
Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...
, was presented with a Sword of Honour, and was invested as a Knights Grand Cross of the
GCB. In 1843 he returned to Britain, where the directors of the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
voted him a pension of £1,000 per annum (equivalent to £83,000 pa in 2008).
He died at Carmarthen on 1 January 1845, aged 62.
Family
Nott was married twice. Firstly he wed Letitia Swinhoe with whom he had five children, including Charlotte, who married John Bower and was the father of
Sir William Nott-Bower.
He married his second, much younger, wife in 1843. She was née Rosa Wilson Dore (died 1901), daughter of Major P. L. Dore. After her husband’s death in 1845, she remarried
Thomas Twisden Hodges, MP. When her second husband died in 1865 she resumed the name Lady Nott.
Statue of General Nott in Carmarthen
A statue of General Nott was erected in his home town of
Carmarthen
Carmarthen (, RP: ; cy, Caerfyrddin , "Merlin's fort" or "Sea-town fort") is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy. north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, ...
in 1851. Sculpted by Edward Davis, it now has
Grade II Listed status.
[ It was based on a portrait of Nott by the painter Thomas Brigstocke, who was also born in the town.] According to the PMSA, "the bronze statue was cast from cannon captured at the Battle of Maharajpur. Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
gave 200 guineas to the memorial fund. The statue occupies the site of the market cross which was dismantled when the market was resited and Nott Square created in 1846."
Further reading
* ''Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir William Nott'', edited by JH Stocqueler (2 vols, London, 1854)
* Charles R Low, ''The Afghan War'' 1838-1842 (London, 1879), and ''Life and Correspondence of Sir George Pollock'' (London, 1873)
* Sir JW Kaye, ''History of the War in Afghanistan'' (2 vols., London, 1851).
References
Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nott, William
1782 births
1845 deaths
British military personnel of the First Anglo-Afghan War
British East India Company Army generals
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
People from Neath
Welsh army officers