Mortimer Durand

Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, GCMG KCSI KCIE (14 February 1850 – 8 June 1924) was a British diplomat and civil servant of colonial British India.

Born at Sehore, Bhopal, India, he was the son of Sir Henry Marion Durand, the Resident of Baroda and he was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School, and Tonbridge School.

Durand entered the Indian Civil Service in 1873. During the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878–1880) he was Political Secretary at Kabul. From 1884 to 1894, he was Foreign Secretary of India. Durand was appointed Minister plenipotentiary at Tehran in 1894 although despite being a Persian scholar and speaking the language fluently he made little impression either in Tehran or on his superiors in London. He left in 1900 by which time owing to the illness of his wife Ella he had withdrawn from social life and the legation was in a depressed and disorganised state. From 1900 to 1903 he served as British Ambassador to Spain, and from 1903-1906 as Ambassador to the United States of America. He was appointed a CSI in 1881 knighted a KCIE in 1888 and a KCSI in 1894 and appointed a GCMG in 1900.

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