Sir John McNeillGCB PC FRSE FRAS DCL (1795 – 17 May 1883) was a Scottish surgeon and diplomat.
McNeill was born on 12 August 1795 at Oronsay House on the island of Oronsay in theInner Hebrides. He was the third of the six sons of John McNeill,laird ofColonsay andOronsay (1767–1846) and his wife, Hester McNeill (died 1843). He was the younger brother of the law lordDuncan McNeill, 1st Baron Colonsay and Oronsay.[1]
He studied medicine at theUniversity of Edinburgh, where he graduated as aDoctor of Medicine in 1814, at the age of nineteen.[2]
On 6 September 1816 he was appointed assistant surgeon on theHonourable East India Company's Bombay establishment. He was moved toPersia in 1819. He received his licence as a surgeon on 1 May 1824 and retired from the medical service on 4 June 1836, thereafter concentrating on the diplomatic aspects of the East India Company.[2][3]
He was attached to the field force under Colonel East inKutch andOkamundel in 1818–19 and was afterwards deputy medical storekeeper at the presidency.[2]
From 1824 to 1835, he was attached to the East India Company's legation inPersia, at first in medical charge, and latterly as political assistant to the Minister,John Macdonald Kinneir, in which post he displayed great ability. For instance, in 1829 he was probably one of the instigators of the murder ofAlexander Griboyedov by Persian mob inTeheran.
On 30 June 1835, he was appointed secretary of the special embassy sent toTehran underHenry Ellis to congratulateMohammad Shah Qajar on his accession to the Persian throne. McNeill received permission to wear the PersianOrder of the Lion and the Sun of the first class, and on his return home in the spring of 1836, he anonymously published a startling anti-Russian pamphlet,Progress and Present Position of Russia in the East.
From 1836 to 1844, McNeill was an envoy to Persia. SeeSiege of Herat.
In 1845, McNeill was appointed chairman of theBoard of Supervision, entrusted with the working of the newPoor Law (Scotland) Act 1845, a post he occupied for twenty-three years. In 1851, during theHighland Potato Famine – nearly as disastrous as theGreat Famine of Ireland – he conducted a special inquiry into the condition of the westernScottish Highlands andWestern Isles, during which he personally inspected twenty-seven of the most distressed parishes.[4]
During his stay in Scotland he lived atGranton House inEdinburgh.[5]
He was cofounder in 1851, withSir Charles Trevelyan, of theHighland and Island Emigration Society which during theHighland Clearances supported an exodus of nearly 5,000 people to Australia between 1851 and 1856.[6]
At the outbreak theCrimean War in 1854, McNeill published revised editions in French and English of his pamphletProgress and Present Position of Russia in the East, with supplementary chapters dealing with the progress of events since 1836, and insisting on the importance to Britain and toChristendom of the autonomy ofTurkey and Persia.
At the beginning of 1855, when the Crimean disasters had roused public indignation, McNeill and ColonelAlexander Tulloch, an officer of great administrative experience at theWar Office, were sent to the Crimea with instructions to report on the whole arrangements and management of thecommissariat and the method of keeping accounts, and to the causes of the delays in unloading and distributing clothing and other stores sent toBalaklava.
The commissioners started at once for the seat of war. They took noshorthand writer with them, as the remuneration sanctioned by theTreasury was insufficient to secure a qualified person.
The McNeill–Tulloch inquiry was the most effective of the various inquisitions into the Crimean débâcle. It sharply criticisedLord Raglan's personal staff in the Crimea and Commissary-General Filder, and it led to many recriminations as officers sought to clear their names when the report was published in 1856. A board of general officers was convened to clear the army, but despite its protestations, the McNeill–Tulloch report led to professional reform of the commissariat by theRoyal Warrant of October 1858.
Very unusually, theCommons, irritated by executive obfuscation, passed a resolution in 1857 calling for special honours and McNeill soon became aPrivy Councillor and Tulloch was appointed aKCB. TheUniversity of Oxford made McNeill aDoctor of Civil Law and the University of Edinburgh chose him as chairman of its amalgamated societies; his inaugural address on competitive examinations was published in 1861.
McNeill married, firstly, in 1814, Innes Robinson, fourth daughter of George Robinson ofClermiston, Midlothian – she died in 1816; secondly, in 1823, Eliza Wilson, third daughter of John Wilson – she died in 1868; thirdly, in 1871, Lady Emma Augusta Campbell, daughter ofJohn Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll.[2]
McNeill was the brother-in law (by his 2nd marriage) of the authorJohn Wilson, and (by his 3rd marriage) ofGeorge Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll.
McNeill died at Poralto nearCannes inFrance, on 17 May 1883.[2] A memorial to his memory lies on the south-east wall of Liberton Cemetery in Edinburgh, at the grave of his third wife, Emma Augusta.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chichester, Henry Manners (1893). "MacNeill, John". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.| Diplomatic posts | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister to Persia 1836–1838 | Succeeded by No representation due to theSiege of Herat |
| Preceded by Relations restored | Minister to Persia 1841–1844 | Succeeded by |
