Colonel The Right Honourable Sir
Claude Maxwell MacDonald
GCMG, GCVO, KCB
Sir Claude MacDonald, c. 1900
British Ambassador to Japan
(British Minister to Japan, 1900–1905)
In office
1900–1912
MonarchsVictoria
Edward VII
George V
Prime MinisterThe Marquess of Salisbury
Arthur Balfour
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
H. H. Asquith
Preceded bySir Ernest Mason Satow
Succeeded byConyngham Greene
Personal details
Born(1852-06-12)12 June 1852
Morar, Gwalior, India
Died10 September 1915(1915-09-10) (aged 63)
London, England
Resting placeBrookwood Cemetery
51°17′51″N 0°37′34″W / 51.297562°N 0.626209°W / 51.297562; -0.626209
Spouse
Ethel Armstrong MacDonald
​
​
(m. 1892)​
Parent(s)James Dawson and Mary Ellen Macdonald
EducationRoyal Military College, Sandhurst
OccupationSoldier, diplomat
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service British Army
Years of service1872–1896
RankColonel
Unit74th Regiment of Foot
Battles/warsAnglo-Egyptian War
Mahdist War
Boxer Rebellion

Colonel Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, PC (12 June 1852 – 10 September 1915) was a British soldier and diplomat, best known for his service in China and Japan.[1]

Early life

MacDonald was born the son of Mary Ellen MacDonald (nee Dougan) and Major-General James (Hamish) Dawson MacDonald.[2] 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,[3] where in 1895 he was an observer of the rebellion of King Koko of Nembe.[4] He retired from the British Army in 1896.[2]

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.[5]

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.[3] MacDonald secured a 99-year lease only because he thought it was "as good as forever".[6] 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.

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.[7]

Japan

MacDonald was appointed Consul-General to the Empire of Japan in October 1900.[8] 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.

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.[9]

He died of heart failure at his residence in London on 10 September 1915.[10][11] He is buried with his wife in Brookwood Cemetery.

Dame Ethel, Lady MacDonald

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.[12] They had two daughters. Named to the 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 in her own right in 1935.[13]

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about MacDonald, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 10+ works in 20+ publications in 2 languages and 300+ library holdings.[14]

  • 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
  • 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[15]

Honours

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Nish, Ian. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972, pp. 94–102.
  2. 1 2 Kowner, Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War, p. 214.
  3. 1 2 Edwards, E. W. "MacDonald, Sir Claude Maxwell". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34699. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. ↑ Geary, William Nevill Montgomerie (1965). Nigeria under British Rule. Barnes & Noble. pp. 194–196. Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Korean Mission to the Conference on the Limitation of Armament, Washington, D.C., 1921–22. (1922). Korea's Appeal p. 32., p. 32, at Google Books
  6. ↑ Preston, Diana (2000). The Boxer Rebellion. New York City: Berkley Books. p. 370. ISBN 0802713610. Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ Nish, Ian (2004). Cortazzi, Hugh (ed.). British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972. Global Oriental. p. 95. ISBN 1901903516. Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via Internet Archive. Shiba Gorō, an artillery major in the Japanese legation, was the chief staff officer and most effective collaborator of Claude MacDonald.
  8. ↑ "No. 27263". The London Gazette. 4 January 1901. p. 81.
  9. ↑ "No. 27978". The London Gazette. 21 December 1906. p. 8967.
  10. ↑ Preston, Diana (2002). A Brief History of the Boxer Rebellion. Robinson. p. 334. ISBN 1-84119-490-5. Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ↑ "Death of Sir Claude MacDonald". The Observer. London. 12 September 1915. p. 13. Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Gossip". The Colonies and India. 24 December 1892. p. 34. Retrieved 10 November 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "No. 34166". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 December 1906. p. 3613.
  14. ↑ WorldCat Identities Archived 30 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine: Profile: Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald (1852–1915)
  15. ↑ MacDonald, Claude M. (1900). Reports from Her Majesty's minister in China respecting events at Peking: Presented to both houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, December 1900. Vol. 364 of Cd. (Great Britain. Parliament). H.M. Stationery Office. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  16. ↑ "No. 27337". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 July 1901. p. 4915.

References

  • Nish, Ian. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 9781901903515; OCLC 249167170
  • Kowner, Rotem (2006). Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War. Scarecrow. ISBN 0-8108-4927-5.
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