Robert Maclagan

General Sir Robert Maclagan FRSE FRGS KCMG LLD (1820-1893) was a 19th-century Scottish army officer and military engineer. He served most of his career in India.

Life

He was born on 14 December 1820 the son of the eminent Edinburgh physician David Maclagan and his wife Jane Whiteside.[1] His childhood home was 22 George Street in the centre of Edinburgh’s New Town.[2]

He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh and Edinburgh University (not graduating) and then sent to Addiscombe Military Seminary near London. He then joined the Honourable East India Company as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1839. He then went to the School of Military Engineering in Chatham, to specialise as an engineer. He arrived in Delhi in India in 1842. He was in charge of the engineering works for the defence of Lahore in March 1846. Following severe illness he was given more sedate duties, including running the Civil Engineering College at Rurki aged only 27. In the Mutiny of 1857 he successfully defended Rurki against the rebel forces. In his military career he rose to the rank of General, first in the Bengal Engineers then in the Royal Engineers.[3]

In 1853 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Sir Robert Christison.[4]

From 1861 he ran the Public Works Department for all of the Punjab. Queen Victoria created him a Knight of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his efforts.

He retired in 1879. He spent most of his final years between Edinburgh and London.

He died in 1893.

Family

His brothers included Andrew Douglas Maclagan and Rev William Maclagan, Archbishop of York.

His children included Robert Smeiton Maclagan CIE, Sir Edward Douglas Maclagan KCIE.

He was uncle to Robert Craig Maclagan.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.geni.com/people/General-Sir-Robert-Maclagan-KCMG/6000000002889135091
  2. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1820-21
  3. ↑ https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S037016460004904X
  4. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
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