Malcolm: Soldier, Diplomat, Ideologue of British India

This biography chronicles the life of the East India Company administrator from his humble origins to his career as a leader of British Imperialism.

As a soldier, statesman, and historian, Sir John Malcolm played a major part in transforming the East India Company from a commercial enterprise into an agent of imperial government. Born in 1769, Malcolm was one of seventeen children of a tenant farmer in the Scottish Borders. He was only thirteen years old when he left home to join the Madras Army in British India. Over the following half-century, Malcolm distinguished himself first as a soldier fighting alongside the future Duke of Wellington, then as an administrator in Central India where he became Governor of Bombay.

Malcolm led three East India Company missions to Persia in the early stages of diplomatic rivalry between Britain and Russia. He wrote nine books on the history and culture of the region, including his highly influential History of Persia. Based on extensive research in Britain, India and Iran, this biography brings to life the story of a man who helped shape a significant era of imperial history.