John McNeill (diplomat)

Sir John McNeill, KCB, PC, FRSE, FRAS (1795 – 17 May 1883) was a British diplomat and surgeon.

McNeill was born on the island of Colonsay, Argyllshire. He was the third of the six sons of John McNeill (1767–1846) and his wife, Hester "née" McNeill (died 1843), and the brother of Duncan McNeill, 1st Baron Colonsay. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1814, at the age of nineteen. On 6 September 1816m he was appointed assistant surgeon on the Honourable East India Company's Bombay establishment; he became a surgeon on 1 May 1824 and retired from the medical service on 4 June 1836. He was attached to the field force under Colonel East in Kutch and Okamundel in 1818–19 and was afterwards deputy medical storekeeper at the presidency. From 1824 to 1835, he was attached to the East India Company's legation in Persia, at first in medical charge, and latterly as political assistant to the Minister, John Macdonald Kinneir, in which post he displayed great ability. On 30 June 1835, he was appointed secretary of the special embassy sent to Tehran under Henry Ellis to congratulate Mohammad Shah Qajar on his accession to the Persian throne. McNeill received permission to wear the Persian Order 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". He collaborated with J. B. Fraser and David Urquhart in this bout of Russo-phobia.

Palmerston recognized McNeill's ability and sent him to Persia as Minister in May 1836, to replace Ellis. However, McNeill's instructions were less energetic than he wished, for he wanted to pursue an active policy of internal political and military reform. Lacking strong support from London and Calcutta, his position was weak when the shah began the Siege of Herat in November 1837. Moreover, negotiations over a commercial treaty had almost brought a breakdown in relations with Persia. McNeill unsuccessfully attempted a reconciliation between Herat and Persia, and in June 1838, broke off relations with the shah, his policy of making Persia the agent of British influence a failure. McNeill, having been made a Knight Bachelor in 1839, returned to Persia with a new mission in 1841; diplomatic relations were restored in October and a treaty of commerce signed, and he returned home in August 1844.

In 1845, McNeill was appointed chairman of the Board of Supervision, entrusted with the working of the new Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845, a post he occupied for thirty-three years. During the Highland Potato Famine — nearly as disastrous as the Irish Potato Famine — he conducted a special inquiry into the condition of the western Scottish Highlands and Western Isles, during which he personally inspected twenty-seven of the most distressed parishes. At the outbreak the Crimean War in 1854, McNeill published revised editions in French and English of his pamphlet "Progress 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 to Christendom of the autonomy of Turkey and Persia. At the beginning of 1855, when the Crimean disasters had roused public indignation, McNeill and Colonel Alexander Tulloch, an officer of great administrative experience at the War Office, were sent to the Crimea with instructions to report on the whole arrangements and management of the commissariat and the method of keeping accounts, and to the causes of the delays in unloading and distributing clothing and other stores sent to Balaklava. The commissioners started at once for the seat of war. They took no shorthand writer with them, as the remuneration sanctioned by the Treasury 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 criticised Lord 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 the Royal Warrant of October 1858. Very unusually, the Commons, irritated by executive obfuscation, passed a resolution in 1857 calling for special honours and McNeill soon became a Privy Councillor and Tulloch was appointed a KCB. The University of Oxford made McNeill a Doctor 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, first, in 1814, Innes, fourth daughter of George Robinson of Clermiston, Midlothian — she died in 1816; second, in 1823, Eliza, third daughter of John Wilson — she died in 1868; third, in 1871, Lady Emma Augusta Campbell, daughter of John Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll — she survived him. He had children, though it is unclear how many and with which wife. He retired as chairman of the Board of Supervision in 1868. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and an active (founder) member of the Royal Asiatic Society for over sixty years. Despite some recognition, neither his diplomatic nor his military work quite fitted his abilities and he found himself always in an awkward, adversarial relationship to the English establishment. He died at Cannes on 17 May 1883.

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