Andrew Dalgleish (1853 – 1888, on

Karakoram Pass The Karakoram Pass () is a mountain pass between India and China in the Karakoram Range. It is the highest pass on the ancient caravan route between Leh in Ladakh and Yarkant County, Yarkand in the Tarim Basin. The name 'Karakoram' comes from ...

, between

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

) was a Scottish trader, traveller and government agent during the

Great Game The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British Empire, British and Russian Empire, Russian empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Emirate of Afghanistan, Afghanistan, Qajar Iran, Persia, and Tibet. The two colonia ...

Life and murder

He took part in the first trading venture of the Central Asian Trading Company, the company having been set up in 1873 with the encouragement of Robert Barkely Shaw. Dalgleish was one of the first British traders in

, engaged in trans-Karakoram trade in the 1870s and 1880s. He married a Yarkandi wife. He had for some years traded between Yarkand and Leh and he was fluent in

Uyghur Uyghur may refer to: * Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia (West China) ** Uyghur language, a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Uyghurs *** Old Uyghur language, a different Turkic language spoken in the Uyghur K ...

Hamilton Bower Major-General Sir Hamilton St Clair Bower (1 September 1858 – 5 March 1940) was a British Indian Army officer who wrote about his travels through Xinjiang and Tibet. Private life Bower was born on Portsea Island, Hampshire, the son of a S ...

A trip to Turkistan

Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter C ...

. 1895. pp. 241-257 Dalgleish was murdered by an Afghan named Dad Mahomed, a Kakar

Pathan Pashtuns (, , ; ;), also known as Pakhtuns, or Pathans, are an Iranic ethnic group primarily residing in southern and eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They were historically also referred to as Afghans until 1964 after the ...

from

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

who was once a merchant but had gone bankrupt. According to

, in May 1888 Dalgleish, accompanied by some pilgrims and servants, left Leh for Yarkand. Several days into their journey they were joined by Mahomed. On 8 April 1888 the party crossed the Karakoram Pass and set up some tents to rest. While drinking tea in a tent Dalgleish and Mahomed had a conversation regarding Mahomed's debts. Mahomed excused himself and then returned with a gun and fired into the tent, striking Dalgleish in the shoulder. Dalgleish escaped from the tent but Mahomed pursued him with a sword and killed him. Mahomed did not immediately flee but instead forced Dalgleish's servants to make him a meal, then he slept in his victim's tent. The next day Mahomed departed and Dalgleish's servants and pilgrims made their way to Yarkand. The British community in Yarkand expressed their outrage over the murder and pleaded with the local

yamen A ''yamen'' (''ya-men''; ; Manchu: ''yamun'') was the administrative office or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in imperial China, Korea, and Vietnam. In some places, such as Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, it was named as ''al ...

to have the murderer arrested. Mahomed later arrived in Kashgar and despite pleas from the Russian Consul

Nikolai Petrovsky Nikolay Fyodorovich Petrovsky (; 1837–1908) was the Imperial Russia, Russian Diplomatic consulate, consul-general in Kashgar from 1882 until 1902. Petrovsky's main adversary during his time in Central Asia was George Macartney (British consul), ...

local officials refused to arrest Mahomed. During his travels through

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty ...

's Xinjiang Province from 1889–90, British military officer Hamilton Bower attempted without success to pursue Dalgleish's killer. Mahomed was arrested in 1890 in

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

(then

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) and committed suicide in prison. A small memorial made of marble slab was erected by Bower on the desolate site of his death. It read in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, "Here fell Andrew Dalgleish, murdered by an Afghan, April 6th, 1888." The Earl of Dunmore
Journey in the Pamirs and Central Asia.
Geographical Journal. V. II. No. 5. November. 1893. His resting place is in a Christian cemetery in Leh, Ladakh.

References

External links

A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys, by John Buchan
pp. 286–291. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalgleish, Andrew 1853 births 1888 deaths Scottish spies British people in colonial India People murdered in China Scottish murder victims British spies against the Russian Empire 19th-century Scottish merchants

Life and murder

Further reading

References

External links