NAM.2015-07-13-1

Lieutenant (later Major-General Sir) John Malcolm (1769-1833), Madras Army, 1795 (c). Miniature portrait on ivory, attributed to the Indian artist Lallji (fl 1785-1820), Patna, India, 1795 (c). Rectangular, half-length portrait in profile to right, wearing the uniform of an aide-de-camp. In a gilt metal frame. Malcolm was the 16th child of an impoverished Scottish sheep farming family, who left home at the age of twelve to join the East India Company's forces as an ensign. Acting as a Persian translator, he was present at the surrender of the sons of Tipu Sultan to Lord Cornwallis in 1792. He was a friend of James Skinner, Sir John Kennaway and William Fitzpatrick. In 1801 he became private secretary to the Governor-General Richard, Lord Mornington (later Marquess of Wellesley) and accompanied Sir Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) as the Governor-General’s representative in the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803 to 1805. Over a period of 47 years he rose to become a diplomat, statesman, administrator, renowned Persian scholar as well as a talented soldier. He was the author of many works including the influential 'Political History of India' in 1811 and ‘History of Iran’ in 1815. After he returned to Britain in 1831 he became a Member of Parliament for Launceston in Cornwall. Sir John Malcolm presented this miniature to his aide-de-camp, Sir John Low.