William Nott
| Sir William Nott | |
|---|---|
Sir William Nott by J. Deffet Francis
|
|
| Born |
20 January 1782 near Neath, Wales |
| Died | 1 January 1845 (aged 62) Carmarthen, Wales |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch | Indian Army |
| Years of service | 1798–1843 |
| Battles/wars | First Anglo-Afghan War |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath |
Sir William Nott GCB (20 January 1782 – 1 January 1845) was a British military leader in British India.
Nott was born in 1782, near Neath in Wales, the second son of Charles Nott, a Herefordshire farmer, who in 1794 became an innkeeper of the Ivy Bush Inn at Carmarthen in Wales. Nott was educated in Neath, and then at Cowbridge Grammar School but left education after his father became an innkeeper. Nott joined the volunteer corps in 1798 and obtained a cadetship in the Indian army and went to India in 1800 when under Company rule in India it was a key component of the growing British Empire.
In 1825 Nott was promoted to the command of his regiment of native infantry; and in 1838, on the outbreak of the First Afghan war, he was appointed to the command of a brigade. From April to October 1839 he was in command of the troops left at Quetta, where he rendered valuable service. In November 1840 he captured Khelat, and in the following year compelled Akbar Khan and other tribal chiefs to submit to the British.
On receiving the news of the rising of the Afghans at Kabul in November 1841, Nott took energetic measures. On 23 December the British envoy, Sir William Hay Macnaghten, was murdered at Kabul; and in February 1842 the commander-in-chief, General Elphinstone, sent orders that Kandahar was to be evacuated. Nott at once decided to disobey, on the supposition that Elphinstone was not a free agent at Kabul; and as soon as he heard the news of the Massacre of Elphinstone's army, he urged the government at Calcutta to maintain the garrison of Kandahar with a view to avenging the massacre and the murder of Macnaghten. In March he inflicted a severe defeat on the enemy near Kandahar, and in May drove them with heavy loss out of the Baba Wali Pass.
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