Mortimer Durand

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Sir Henry Mortimer Durand (14 February 1850, Sehore, Bhopal, India - 8 June 1924, Polden, Somerset, England), was a diplomat and civil servant of colonial British India.

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. In 1893 he negotiated with Abdur Rahman Khan, amir of Afghanistan, the frontier between British India and Afghanistan. This line is called after him Durand Line, and is now the official international border between Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan.

Speaking fluent Persian, Durand was minister plenipotentiary at Teheran 1894-1900. 1900-1903 British ambassador to Spain, 1903-1906 to the United States of America. From 1906, after his return to England, he devoted his time in writing.

He also published the biography of his father general Henry Marion Durand (1812-1871) and had ambitions as novelist (often with his wife Lady E. R. Durand (1852-1913) as co-author). Some of his publications:

  • An Autumn Tour in Western Persia, 1902
  • Nadir Shah. An Historical Novel, 1908
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