The Hon. Sir Ashley Eden KCSI CIE (13 November 1831 – 8 July 1887) was an official and diplomat in British India.
Eden was the third son of Robert John Eden, 3rd Lord Auckland and bishop of Bath and Wells. His uncle was George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland. He was born at Hertingfordbury in Hertfordshire, and educated first at Rugby and then at Winchester, until 1849, in which year he received a nomination to the Indian civil service. He spent 1850 and 1851 at the East India Company's college at Haileybury, but did not pass out last of his term until December 1851. In 1852 he reached India, and was first posted as assistant to the magistrate and collector of RájsháhĂ.
In 1856 he was promoted to be magistrate at Moorshedábád, and during the Indian Mutiny he checked sympathy with the revolt in that city. In 1860 Eden was appointed secretary to the government of Bengal and an ex-officio member of the Bengal legislative council. This post he held for eleven years, during the last part of Sir John Peter Grant's lieutenant-governorship, and throughout Sir Cecil Beadon's and Sir William Grey's terms of office.
In 1860 Eden accompanied a force ordered to invade the hill state of Sikkim in the Himalayas, as political agent, and in March 1861 he signed a treaty with the raja, which secured protection to travellers and free trade. This success caused Eden to be appointed special envoy to the hill state of Bhutan in 1863. He was accompanied by no armed force and his demands were rejected. He signed a treaty favourable to the Bhutiás. This treaty was not ratified by the supreme government, and the Bhutan war was the result.
In 1871 Eden became the first civilian governor of British Burma, a post he held until his appointment in 1877 as lieutenant-governor of Bengal. In 1878 he was made a K.C.S.I., and in 1882 resigned the lieutenant-governorship.
After his retirement from India, on being appointed a member of the secretary of state's council in 1882, admirers founded in his honour the Eden Hospital for Women and Children in Calcutta, and a statue was erected. The Eden canal joins the Ganges and the Tistá, and was intended to relieve Bihar from famine. Eden returned to England and attended the council for the remainder of his life.
He died suddenly of paralysis on 9 July 1887.
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Albert Fytche |
Chief Commissioner of British Crown Colony of Burma 1871–1875 |
Succeeded by Sir Augustus Rivers Thompson |
Preceded by Richard Temple |
Lieutenant-governor of Bengal 1882–1885 |
Succeeded by Sir Stewart Colvin Bayley (first time) |