Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 54.djvu/403

 institute and a general inquiry office. During 1855–6 he lectured on the Crimean war with a diorama. Shortly after this he left London in debt, and was employed throughout the American war as a newspaper correspondent. Returning to England, he lived to a ripe old age, and died at Brighton in 1885. A book professing to be his ‘autobiography’ was printed in India about 1873, but was suppressed.

Besides the works mentioned, he wrote: 1. ‘Handbook of India,’ London, 1844. 2. ‘The Oriental Interpreter, and Treasury of East India Knowledge,’ London, 1848. 3. ‘Alfred the Great: a romance,’ 1849. 4. ‘The British Officer: his Position, Duties, Emoluments,’ London, 1851. 5. ‘Life of the Duke of Wellington,’ 2 vols. London, 1852–3. 6. ‘The Military Encyclopædia,’ London, 1853. 7. ‘The Old Field Officer, or the Military and Sporting Adventures of Major Worthington’ (pseudonym), 1853. 8. ‘India: its History, Climate, Productions, and Field Sports,’ London, 1853. In a later edition (1857) this was carried down to the mutiny. 9. ‘Memoirs and Correspondence of Major-General Sir William Nott,’ 2 vols. London, 1854. 10. ‘A Familiar History of British India,’ London, 1859; another edition, ‘brought down to 1865 by J. H. Siddons’ (pseudonym), was published in 1865. 11. ‘A Familiar History of the United States’ (under the above pseudonym), London, 1865. 12. ‘A Familiar History of the British Army from 1660,’ London, 1871. 13. ‘A Personal History of the Horse Guards from 1750,’ London, 1873. 14. ‘The Shakespearean Referee: a Cyclopædia of 4,200 Words occurring in the Plays of Shakespeare,’ Washington, 1886. Two farces also appeared in his name, ‘Polkamania’ and ‘An Object of Interest’ (Lacy's edition, vol. xvi.).

[Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xi. 267, 315; details kindly furnished by H. J. Hunter, esq., of Bath; Allibone's Dict. of English Literature; Brit. Mus. Cat.] 

STODDART, CHARLES (1806–1842), diplomatist, born at Ipswich on 23 July 1806, was the son of Major Stephen Stoddart (1763–1812), of the 6th dragoons, and his wife Katherine Randal (1773–1824). Major Stoddart was thrown from his horse and killed near Limerick in 1812.

Appointed to the royal staff corps as second lieutenant on 15 March 1823, and lieutenant on 9 Feb. 1826, Stoddart was placed on half-pay on 7 Feb. 1834 with the rank of captain. From 1833 to 1835 he was secretary to the Royal United Service Institution, London; and secretary to the Institute of Civil Engineers. In 1835 he went to Persia as military secretary to the British envoy, Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Ellis (1777–1855) [q. v.] When the king of Persia (Mahomed Shah) marched to attack Herat in 1837, Stoddart was ordered to accompany him, and remained in the Persian camp throughout the greater part of the siege. Having left with John (afterwards Sir John) McNeill [q. v.] in June 1838, he was sent back in July with a message to the shah saying that unless the siege was raised England would declare war. This threat, with the news that a British force had reached the Persian Gulf, produced the desired effect, and Herat was saved. Writing on 16 Aug. 1838 to his brother (the Rev. George Stoddart), Stoddart said, ‘I cannot tell you how thankful to the Almighty I feel at being the humble means of effecting this happy change from war to peace.’ Stoddart's services during this critical period were warmly acknowledged by McNeill in a despatch dated 6 Oct. 1838.

After the retirement of the Persian army, Stoddart, who had been given the local rank of lieutenant-colonel (2 June 1837), joined Eldred Pottinger [q. v.] in Herat, and shortly afterwards left for Bokhára, being instructed by McNeill to negotiate for the release of Russian captives there, and, if possible, to conclude a treaty of friendship with the ameer, Nasrulla Khan ({sc|Kaye}}). Reaching Bokhára on 17 Dec. 1838, he appears to have offended the ameer by riding on horseback in the precincts of the palace, and, according to one account, by striking a court official, though it is more probable that he merely drew his sword when an attempt was made to force him to an obeisance (Edinburgh Review, 1845). According to the account given by Grover, and accepted by Kaye, Ferrier, and later writers, he was seized four days after his arrival at Bokhára, and confined for two months in the Siah Cha or ‘Black well,’ an underground dungeon infested with vermin. The same authorities state, with some discrepancies, that, worn out by his sufferings, he consented to become a mahomedan [see ]. That Grover, Kaye, and Ferrier were all to some extent misinformed is clear from letters which Stoddart wrote on 14 and 17 March 1839, in which he said that he was still confined, not in the Siah Cha, but in the Zindan, and that he was in good health. Nor do any of the original reports of his alleged conversion support the statement that this event took place within two or even three months after his imprisonment. It was questionable indeed whether it took place at all. That he became a mahomedan