Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald, (12 June 1852 – 10 September 1915) was a British soldier and

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

, best known for his service in

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 ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Early life

MacDonald was born the son of Mary Ellen MacDonald (''nee'' Dougan) and Major-General James (Hamish) Dawson MacDonald.Kowner, '' Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War'', p. 214. He was educated at

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils 13–18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham 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 Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

Africa

MacDonald’s early career was in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. He served in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War, and served as

military attaché A military attaché or defence attaché (DA),Defence Attachés
''Geneva C ...

to Sir Evelyn Baring from 1884 to 1887. From 1887 to 1889, he was Acting-Agent and Consul-general at

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

, and then served some years as Commissioner and Consul-General at

Brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

in the West African Oil Rivers Protectorate, where in 1895 he was an observer of the rebellion of

King Koko King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by fi ...

of Nembe. He retired from the British Army in 1896.

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 The Korean Empire, officially the Empire of Korea or Imperial Korea, was a Korean monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by Gojong of Korea, King Gojong of the Joseon, Joseon dynasty. The empire lasted until the Japanese annexation of Kor ...

in 1896 through 1898. Claude Maxwell MacDonald Vanity Fair 10 October 1901

In China, MacDonald obtained a lease at

Weihai Weihai ( zh, t=, p=Wēihǎi), formerly Weihaiwei ( zh, s=, p=Wēihǎiwèi, l=Mighty Sea Fort, first=t), is a prefecture-level city and major seaport city in the easternmost Shandong province of China. It borders Yantai to the west and the Yellow ...

wei, 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 The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. MacDonald secured a 99-year lease only because he thought it was "as good as forever". 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 The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, a boundary line between Jammu and Kashmir and the

Chinese Turkestan Chinese Turkestan or Chinese Turkistan, is a geographical term or historical region corresponding to the region of the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang (south of the Tian Shan mountain range) or Xinjiang as a whole which was under the rule of ...

, ceding roughly half of the

Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China partly in Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, and partly in Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet, and constituting the easternmost portion of the larger Kashmir regio ...

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 ''Under Siege'' is a 1992 action thriller film directed by Andrew Davis and written by J. F. Lawton. It stars Steven Seagal (who also produced the film), Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, and Erika Eleniak. Seagal plays Casey Ryback, a former ...

during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

, and he worked well with the Anglophile Japanese colonel Shiba Gorō.

Japan

MacDonald was appointed Consul-General to the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

in October 1900. He headed the British Legation in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

during a period of harmonious relations between Britain and Japan (1900 to 1912), swapping appointments with Sir

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British diplomat, scholar and Japanologist. He is better known in Japan, where he was known as , than in Britain or the other countries in which he served as a diplomat. He was ...

who replaced him as Minister in

Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...

. On 30 January 1902, the first

Anglo-Japanese Alliance The was an alliance between the United Kingdom and the Empire of Japan which was effective from 1902 to 1923. The treaty creating the alliance was signed at Lansdowne House in London on 30 January 1902 by British foreign secretary Lord Lans ...

was signed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

between the Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne and Hayashi Tadasu, the Japanese Minister. Dame Ethel MacDonald Grave

MacDonald was still in Tokyo when the alliance was renewed in 1905 and 1911. He became Britain's first

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to Japan when the status of the legation was raised to that of

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

in 1905. Before 1905 the senior British diplomat in Japan had simultaneously held the joint positions of (a)

Consul-General A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

and (b)

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

; the latter being a rank just below that of ambassador. MacDonald was made a Privy Councillor in 1906. He died of heart failure at his residence in London on 10 September 1915. He is buried with his wife in

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

Ethel, Lady MacDonald, DBE

In 1892, MacDonald wed Ethel (1857–1941), daughter of Major W. Cairns Armstrong; they remained married until his death in 1915. They had two daughters. Awarded the

Royal Red Cross The Royal Red Cross (RRC) is a military decoration awarded in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth for exceptional services in military nursing. It was created in 1883, and the first two awards were to Florence Nightingale and Jane Cecilia Deeb ...

(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 The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) in her own right in 1935.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about MacDonald,

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

encompasses roughly 10+ works in 20+ publications in 2 languages and 300+ library holdings. * 1900 — ''The Japanese detachment during the defence of the Peking legations, 1900'' * 1900 — ''Reports from Her Majesty's minister in China'' ir 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''

Honours

Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...

(GCMG). *

Knight Grand Cross of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order () is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the monarch, members of the royal family, or to any viceroy or senior representative of the m ...

(GCVO). * Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(KCB; Civil division). * Knight Commander of the

(KCB; Military division) – awarded on 29 November 1900 "in recognition of services during the recent Operations in China". * Egypt Medal BAR

Egypt Medal (1882–1889) with clasps "Suakin 1884", "El-Teb" and "Tamaai". * Order of the Osmanie lenta

Order of Osmanieh The Order of Osmanieh (, Modern ) was a civil and military decoration of the Ottoman Empire. History The order was created in January 1862 by Sultan Abdülaziz. With the obsolescence of the Nişan-i Iftikhar, this became the second highest order ...

, Fourth Class (

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

). *

Khedive's Star (

Khedivate of Egypt The Khedivate of Egypt ( or , ; ') was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire, established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty following the defeat and expulsion of Napoleon Bonaparte's forces which brought an end to the short- ...

)

Notes

References

* Nish, Ian. (2004). ''British Envoys in Japan 1859–1972.'' Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental.
OCLC 249167170
*

External links

* UK in Japan
Chronology of Heads of Mission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Claude 1852 births 1915 deaths Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Japan Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China Anglo-Scots British Army colonels People educated at Uppingham School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst 42nd Regiment of Foot officers British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War British Army personnel of the Mahdist War British Army personnel of the Boxer Rebellion 74th Highlanders officers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Korea People from colonial Nigeria British expatriates in Nigeria Burials at Brookwood Cemetery Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom 20th-century British diplomats 19th-century British diplomats