Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/354

Shakespear  Dictionary of Hindustani and English,’ 1817; to the fourth edition of 1849 was added an English-Hindustani Dictionary.  ‘Muntakhabat-i-Hindi, Selections in Hindustani,’ 1817–18.  ‘Introduction to the Hindustani Language,’ 1845. 

 SHAKESPEAR, RICHMOND CAMPBELL (1812–1861), soldier and administrator, youngest son of John Talbot Shakespear, of the Bengal civil service, by Emily (eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray of the Bengal civil service and his wife, Amelia Richmond Webb), was born in India on 11 May 1812. He came to England with his first cousin, [q. v.], and was with him at a preparatory school, ‘governed,’ says Thackeray, ‘by a horrible little tyrant.’ Both boys afterwards passed to the Charterhouse school. In Colonel Newcome, Thackeray embodied some traits in the character of Richmond's eldest brother, Colonel John Dowdeswell Shakespear. Shakespear entered the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe in 1827, obtaining a commission as second lieutenant in the Bengal artillery on 12 June 1828. He arrived in India on 10 Feb. 1829, and served at various stations in Bengal until 19 Jan. 1837, when he was appointed assistant in the revenue department and stationed at Gorakhpur.

On 25 Sept. 1838, having returned to military duty, he joined at Delhi the 6th light field (camel) battery of nine-pounders under the command of Captain Augustus Abbott, and, leaving Delhi on 4 Nov., marched in the army of the Indus under Major-general Sir Willoughby Cotton and Lieutenant-general Sir John (afterwards Lord) Keane, to the Indus, and on through the Bolan pass to Kandahar, where he arrived in April 1839. He took part in the expedition to Girishk under Sir [q. v.] against the Kandahar chiefs, returning to Kandahar on 29 May.

On 21 June he was appointed political assistant in the mission to Herat of Major [q. v.], the newly appointed envoy to Shah Kamran. Shakespear's special duty was to instruct the soldiery of Herat in gunnery and drill. On the advance of the Russians on Khiva, Todd sent Shakespear to the khan of Khiva to aid in the negotiation for the surrender of the Russian captives, whose detention had led to the Russian advance. Shakespear left Herat with an escort on 14 May 1840, reached Merv (265 miles) on 23 May, and Khiva, 433 miles further, on 12 June. He induced the khan to make a treaty with the Russian general, who was within three days' march of his capital. The prominent conditions of the treaty were that the Russian force should withdraw within Russian territory, and that the Khivans should restore all Russian captives who had been taken into slavery by them. Shakespear undertook to collect all Russian captives within the Khivan dominions, and march them in safety to Russia. By 14 Aug. he succeeded in collecting 416 captives, believed to be all that there were. He carried them successfully across the Turkestan desert in defiance of the wild tribes by which it was infested, and on 1 Oct. delivered the grateful captives to the Russian authorities of Orenburg. From Orenburg he posted to Moscow by way of Lanbeersk, and continued his journey by diligence to St. Petersburg, where he arrived on 3 Nov. He was much fêted and was cordially received by the czar. From St. Petersburg Shakespear carried despatches to London. On 31 Aug. 1841 he was knighted by the queen. He contributed to ‘Blackwood's Magazine,’ June 1842, a paper entitled ‘A Journey from Herat to Orenburg,’ which was republished by Blackwood in the series of ‘Travel, Adventure, and Sport.’

Shakespear returned to India the same year. On 3 Jan. 1842 he was appointed military secretary to Major-general (afterwards Field-marshal Sir) [q. v.], commanding the force assembled at Peshawar for the relief of Sir Robert Sale at Jalalabad. He reached Peshawar on 5 Feb., and remained there for two months while the column was organised and reinforcements were brought up. On 31 March he accompanied Pollock to Jamrud, and on 5 April entered the Khaibar pass. He volunteered to accompany Lieutenant-colonel Taylor as his aide-de-camp in his attack on the heights on the right, and took command of the men lately comprising the garrison of Ali-Masjid. In his despatch Pollock mentioned that Shakespear's exertions throughout the day were conspicuous and unceasing (London Gazette, 7 June 1842). He again distinguished himself at Mamu Khel on 24 Aug., at Jagdalak on 8 Sept. and at Tezin on 12 and 13 Sept. On each occasion he was mentioned by Pollock in despatches. On arrival at Kabul on 15 Sept. he volunteered to accompany six hundred Kazlbach horsemen to rescue the British captives detained by the Afghans at Bamian. The captives, by the exertions of [q. v.] and by liberal bribery,