Walter Charles Metcalf Chichele Plowden (3 August 1820 – 13 March 1860) was a British diplomat, consul at

Massawa Massawa or Mitsiwa ( ) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea Region, Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak Archipelago. It has been a historically important port for ...

on the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

coast from 1848 to his death. He played a role in

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

politics in the mid 19th-century: during his tenure he cultivated the friendship of first '' Ras''

Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib an ...

, and later the Ethiopian emperor

Tewodros II Tewodros II (, once referred to by the English cognate Theodore; baptized as Kassa, – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death in 1868. His rule is often placed as the beginning of modern Ethiopia and brought an end to ...

. J. R. Hooker remarks that "as a political agent, Plowden was valuable; as a writer of travel literature he was engaging and intelligent; but as a consul he was useless, his commercial reports being limited to three in 1852. He was never at his post after 1855."Hooker
"The Foreign Office and the 'Abyssinian Captives'"
''

Journal of African History ''The Journal of African History'' (JAH) is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal. It was established in 1960 and is published by Cambridge University Press. It was among the first specialist journals to be devoted to African history and arc ...

'', 2 (1961), p. 245 In 1860, Plowden was murdered aged 39 during a journey between

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on ...

and the

by a follower of Agew Niguse, a warlord hostile to Tewodros. Plowden was interred in the Royal Enclosure, next to the Gemjabet Mariyam church. His writings were published as ''Travels in Abyssinia and the Galla Country, with an account of a mission to Ras Ali in 1848'' by his brother in London in 1868.

References

External links

*
" Walter Chichele Plowden" profile
Anglo-Ethiopian Society website; accessed 6 August 2014. * 1820 births 1860 deaths Assassinated British diplomats British diplomats British people murdered abroad Ethiopia–United Kingdom relations People murdered in Ethiopia 19th-century British diplomats 1860 crimes in Africa People murdered in 1860 19th-century murders in Ethiopia People assassinated in the 19th century Ethiopian courtiers {{UK-diplomat-stub