Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Robertson, Archibald (d.1847)
ROBERTSON, ARCHIBALD (d. 1847), major-general and director of the East India Company, was nominated a cadet in 1800, and was made ensign in the 6th native infantry (Bombay establishment) on 22 May 1801. On 17 Oct. he became lieutenant. Shortly before this the gaekwar of Gujarat had called in the help of the government of Bombay, and a British resident (Major Walker) had been appointed. The Arab troops, which formed the garrison of Baroda, mutinied and seized the gaekwar. Robertson took part in the siege by which Baroda was recovered. In 1803 he was given the command of a local corps in Gujarat, and in the following year he was also employed as a revenue officer.
In 1805, when arrangements were made for the administration of Gujarat, he was appointed first assistant of the collectorship of Kaira, and remained twelve years in this position. He assisted Colonel Walker in the operations undertaken in 1807–8 to compel the rajputs of Kattiawar to pay their tribute to the gaekwar, including the siege of the fort of Kandorna; and he was also present at the siege of Malia in 1809. He became captain in the army on 4 July 1811, and in the 6th native infantry on 1 Oct. 1812.
In 1817 he was made collector of the eastern zilla, north of the Mahi; and in 1823 he was given charge of the province of Khandeish as collector and magistrate. He found this important district in a very disturbed state, but he organised police, put down robbery and murder, corrected abuses, and at the end of three years left it in good order. In 1827 he was appointed resident at Satara (a post afterwards occupied by Outram and Bartle Frere). There he worked smoothly with the rajah while satisfying his own government. He became major on 9 Jan. 1822, lieutenant-colonel on 1 May 1824, colonel on 1 Dec. 1829, and major-general (local rank) on 28 June 1837.
He returned to England in 1831, and was elected a director of the East India Company in 1840. He died in London on 9 June 1847.
[Gent. Mag. 1847, ii. 640; Dodwell and Miles's List of Officers of the Indian Army; East India Company's Register; Wilson's continuation of Mill's History of British India.]