Claude MacDonald

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox officeholder Colonel Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald, Template:Post-nominals (12 June 1852 – 10 September 1915) was a British soldier and diplomat, best known for his service in China, Korea, and Japan.<ref>Nish, Ian. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972, pp. 94–102.</ref>

Early life

MacDonald was born the son of Mary Ellen MacDonald (nee Dougan) and Major-General James (Hamish) Dawson MacDonald.<ref name= Kowner>Kowner, Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War, p. 214.</ref> He was educated at Uppingham School 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. He served in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, and served as military attaché to Sir Evelyn Baring from 1884 to 1887. From 1887 to 1889, he was Acting-Agent and Consul-general at Zanzibar, and then served some years as Commissioner and Consul-General at Brass in the West African Oil Rivers Protectorate,<ref name=dnb>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> where in 1895 he was an observer of the rebellion of King Koko of Nembe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He retired from the British Army in 1896.<ref name= Kowner/>

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 in 1896 through 1898.<ref>Korean Mission to the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, D.C., 1921–22. (1922). Template:Google books</ref>

File:Claude Maxwell MacDonald Vanity Fair 10 October 1901.jpg
MacDonald caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1901

In China, MacDonald obtained a lease at Weihaiwei, 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 of Hong Kong.<ref name=dnb/> MacDonald secured a 99-year lease only because he thought it was "as good as forever".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This and the contrasting lease-in-perpetuity of Kowloon created some problems in the negotiations for the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

In 1899 MacDonald was the author of a diplomatic note which he proposed, on behalf of British India, a boundary line between Jammu and Kashmir and the Chinese Turkestan, ceding roughly half of the Aksai Chin plateau, in return for China relinquishing its shadowy suzerainty over Hunza. The proposed boundary came to be known as the Macartney–MacDonald Line. 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.

In the same year he also participated in the Sanmen Bay Affair on the side of the Kingdom of Italy on the United Kingdom's behalf.<ref name=":6">Template:Cite book</ref>

As a military man, MacDonald led the defence of the foreign legations in 1900 which were under siege during the Boxer Rebellion, and he worked well with the Anglophile Japanese colonel Shiba Gorō.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Japan

MacDonald was appointed Consul-General to the Empire of Japan in October 1900.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He headed the British Legation in Tokyo during a period of harmonious relations between Britain and Japan (1900 to 1912), swapping appointments with Sir Ernest Satow who replaced him as Minister in Peking. On 30 January 1902, the first Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed in London between the Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne and Hayashi Tadasu, the Japanese Minister.

File:Dame Ethel MacDonald Grave.jpg
MacDonald's grave in Brookwood Cemetery

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 in 1905. Before 1905 the senior British diplomat in Japan had simultaneously held the joint positions of (a) Consul-General and (b) Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary; the latter being a rank just below that of ambassador. MacDonald was made a Privy Councillor in 1906.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

He died of heart failure at his residence in London on 10 September 1915.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He is buried with his wife in Brookwood Cemetery.

Ethel, Lady MacDonald, DBE

File:Ethel Armstrong MacDonald (1857–1941).png
Ethel Armstrong MacDonald in The Sketch, 11 July 1900

In 1892, MacDonald wed Ethel (1857–1941), daughter of Major W. Cairns Armstrong; they remained married until his death in 1915.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They had two daughters. Awarded the Royal Red Cross (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 (DBE) in her own right in 1935.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Selected works

MacDonald's writings include:

  • 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<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • 1900 — The Japanese detachment during the defence of the Peking legations, 1900
  • 1900 — Reports from Her Majesty's minister in China [Sir C. M. Macdonald] respecting events at Peking. Presented to parliament, Dec. 1900

Honours

See also

Notes

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References

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