Charles Augustus Murray
Encyclopedia
.jpg)
Background
Murray was the second son of George Murray, 5th Earl of DunmoreGeorge Murray, 5th Earl of Dunmore
George Murray, 5th Earl of Dunmore , known as Viscount of Fincastle until 1809, was a Scottish peer....
, and his mother was the daughter of Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton
Archibald Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton
Archibald Douglas-Hamilton, 9th Duke of Hamilton and 6th Duke of Brandon was a Scottish peer and politician.Hamilton was the eldest son of the 5th Duke of Hamilton and his third wife, Anne, and was educated at Eton...
. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
.
Murray spent several years travelling across Europe and America from 1835 and 1838, including several months with a Pawnee tribe in 1835. He described his experiences in his popular book Travels in North America (1839). He attempted to remain in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as Secretary of the British Legation
Legation
A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an Ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary....
, but failed to obtain the position. He returned to England, and wrote of the affair in a thinly-disguised novel, The Prairie-Bird (1844). On three occasions he stood as a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, but was unsuccessful each time, and finally obtained a position in the Court of the young Queen Victoria.
Career
After seven years, he became a diplomat in NaplesNaples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. He was then consul-general in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
from 1846 to 1853, where he became befriended with the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
, Mehmet Ali Pasha. While stationed in Egypt, he arranged the transport of Obaysch
Obaysch
Obaysch was the first hippopotamus seen in England since prehistoric times, and the first in Europe since Ancient Rome. He was captured on an island on the White Nile when he was less than one year old...
the hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
to England in 1850. Obaysch was the first hippopotamus in England since prehistoric times, and the first in Europe since Roman times. For this later feat, and his clear affection for the beast at London Zoo
London Zoo
London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. It was eventually opened to the public in 1847...
, he was nicknamed "Hippopotamus Murray". He also pushed forward the construction of the railway to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
.
From 1853, he was for one year Minister Plenipotentiary to the Swiss Confederation and was then appointed British ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to the Court of the Shah of Persia
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty was an Iranian royal family of Turkic descent who ruled Persia from 1785 to 1925....
in 1854. The Shah, Nasser al-Din Shah
Nasser al-Din Shah
Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar was the King of Iran from September 17, 1848 to May 1, 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek Jahan Khanom, Mahd-e Olia and the third longest reigning monarch king in Iranian history after Shapur II of the Sassanid Dynasty and...
, and Murray took against each other immediately. Murray's heavy-handed attitude inflamed an existing dispute over Hashim Khan
Hashim Khan
Hashim Khan is a former squash player from Pakistan. He won the British Open seven times between 1951 and 1958.Hashim Khan was born in Nawakille , a small village near Peshawar, in British India to an ethnic Pashtun family. The year of his birth is usually reported as 1916, though this has been...
, one of the Shah's bodyguards and an officer in the Persian army, who took up a position as secretary in the British embassy against the wishes of the Shah and his prime minister. Hashim Khan's wife was the subject of widespread gossip relating to Murray and his predecessor as ambassador; she was also a sister of the Shah's principal wife, so the scandal was political dynamite. Hashim Khan's wife was taken into custody by her brother on 14 November 1855, to defend her honour. Murray took this as an insult to the British legation; after demanding her release, Murray broke off diplomatic relations on 20 November. This, and British ambitions to control the city of Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
, led to the Anglo-Persian War
Anglo-Persian War
The Anglo-Persian War lasted between November 1, 1856 and April 4, 1857, and was fought between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Persia . In the war, the British opposed an attempt by Persia to reacquire the city of Herat...
of 1856/7. After the war, Murray remained ambassador until 1859. He became a member of the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
in 1875.
Family
On the return of his Grand TourGrand Tour
The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...
, he had a romantic liaison with Elise Wadsworth of Geneseo, New York
Geneseo, New York
Geneseo is the name of a town and its village in Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York, USA, outside of Rochester, New York. The town's population is approximately 9,600, of which about 7,600 live in the village...
, but her father disapproved of the match. Elise's father James Wadsworth
James Wadsworth (of Geneseo)
James Wadsworth was an influential and prominent 18th and 19th century pioneer, educator, land speculator, agriculturalist, businessman, and community leader of the early Genesee Valley settlements in Western New York State...
died in 1844, and he married her on 12 December 1850 during a visit to Scotland. She died in childbirth in Cairo, Egypt on 8 December 1851, but their son survived. Murray married a second time, on 1 November 1862, to the Honourable Edith Susan Esther FitzPatrick, daughter of John FitzPatrick, 1st Baron Castletown
John FitzPatrick, 1st Baron Castletown
John Wilson FitzPatrick, 1st Baron Castletown PC , known as John Wilson until 1842, was an Irish Liberal politician....
.
External links
- http://www.iranian.com/History/June97/Lady/index.shtml The causes of the Anglo-Persian WarAnglo-Persian WarThe Anglo-Persian War lasted between November 1, 1856 and April 4, 1857, and was fought between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Persia . In the war, the British opposed an attempt by Persia to reacquire the city of Herat...
of 1856 - http://www.polybiblio.com/ximenes/B4385.html, http://www.polybiblio.com/brickrow/12818.html, details of The Prairie-Bird