Sir Barry Close, 1st Baronet (3 December 1756 – 12 April 1813) was an army general in the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

and a political officer.

Life

Barry Close was born at Elm Park in

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , " Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the P ...

, the third son of Maxwell Close and his wife Mary. The family had moved from Yorkshire to Ireland during the reign of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. Barry joined the Madras army as a fifteen-year-old cadet in 1771 after his early schooling in Ireland. He was commissioned an ensign with the Madras infantry in 1773 and rose to become an adjutant of the 20th battalion in 1777. He saw action in the defence of

Tellicherry Thalassery (), formerly Tellicherry, is a municipality, Commercial City on the Malabar Coast in Kannur district, in the state of Kerala, India, bordered by the districts of Mahé (Pondicherry), Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kasaragod and Kodagu (Karn ...

against

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the atten ...

and his General Sirdar Khan in 1780. Close's treatment of the sepoys and his leadership prevented his battalion from mutinying unlike several others. He gained a reputation as a linguist and chose to conduct all business with the sepoys in their own language. Close demonstrated his diplomatic talent when he served under James Stuart, commander-in-chief of the Madras army who was dismissed by Lord Macartney for not attacking the French. By handling this situation he rose in reputation and after becoming a captain on 18 December 1783, he was appointed to negotiate with

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...

. He served as deputy adjutant-general of the Madras army during the Siege of Seringapatam. Following this he was appointed adjutant-general and gazetted a lieutenant-colonel on 29 November 1797. Close founded the Madras military fund and promoted the formation of a permanent police committee to improve the law and order of Madras. He was then posted to deal with the Mysore rulers drafting treaties with them. Close was made he first resident in the court of Mysore. He was also to negotiate with the nawab of Arcot and was later posted resident at the Peshwa court in Poona. His knowledge of Persian and several Indian languages helped him in these assignments. While in Poona in August 1805 he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the 20th Madras native infantry. He intervened to solve a mutiny in Madras by British officers by talking to the sepoys in their language exhorting them not to follow the dissenting officers. Close was promoted to major-general in 1810 while he was on leave in Britain. Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was then the President of the Board of Control, exerted his influence to have Close created a baronet by the

prince regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...

on 12 December 1812. The title became extinct on Close's death in London on 12 April 1813, and he was buried at

St Marylebone Parish Church St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near O ...

, Middlesex. The town of Closepet near Mysore was named after him although it was later renamed Ramanagaram.

References

External links

Plaster copy of a memorial marble panel
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Close, Barry 1756 births 1813 deaths British East India Company Army generals Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom People from County Armagh British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Mysore War