Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/244

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on his road. On 14 and 15 Sept. Nott's troops dislodged them, and they dispersed. Communications between Nott and Pollock were frequent and continuous. Pollock reached Kabul first, and when Nott arrived on 17 Sept. the British flag was flying from the heights of the Bala Hissar. Nott encamped a few miles from the city. The combined army remained at Kabul until 12 Oct., when it marched for India by way of Jalalabab. At Gandamak Nott received a letter from Lord Ellenborough transmitting a copy of the general order issued on 21 Sept., acknowledging the splendid services of the army. This order very handsomely complimented Nott on his own brilliant victories, and notified his appointment from 30 Nov. following to the office of resident at the court of Lucknow, with title of envoy to the king of Oude. ‘I rejoice,’ wrote Lord Ellenborough, ‘in the opportunity afforded to me by the vacancy of that office of marking the high sense I entertain of the value of your military services, and of making known to the army and people of India that the situation of greatest dignity and emolument under the government is deemed by me to be the due reward of a successful general.’ Nott gratefully accepted the proffered honour. On 23 Dec. the army reached the Satlaj, over which a bridge of boats had been thrown, and the governor-general, the commander-in-chief, and their staff, accompanied by several native chiefs, received the troops with every demonstration of honour. While being feasted and fêted at Firozpúr, Nott, by direction of the governor-general, prepared a memorandum on the carriage or transport department, which displayed knowledge of the subject and common sense. Before leaving Firozpúr Lord Ellenborough presented Nott with a valuable sword in the name of the British government.

Nott now bade adieu to the army of Kandahar, and proceeded to Lucknow to take up his new appointment. Soon after he was installed at the court of the king of Oude, he was summoned to Agra by the governor-general to be invested with the order of the G.C.B. He arrived on 11 March, and the ceremony was performed amid great splendour. A day or two after Lord Ellenborough sent Nott the Kandahar and Kabul medals, begging that he would wear them on his entry to Lucknow. On 20 Feb. the thanks of both houses of parliament were voted to the generals and their armies for the ‘intrepidity, skill, and perseverance displayed by them in the military operations in Afghanistan, and for their indefatigable zeal and exertions throughout the late campaign.’ The vote was introduced into the House of Lords by the Duke of Wellington, who bore especial tribute to Nott's merits; while in the House of Commons Sir Robert Peel warmly eulogised him. ‘During the whole of the time he was employed in these dangerous undertakings,’ Peel said, ‘his gallant spirit never forsook him, and he dreamt of nothing but vindicating his country's honour.’ Lord Ellenborough, in his correspondence with the Duke of Wellington, expressed the opinion that Nott was superior to all the other generals.

In June 1843 Nott married a second time. In October he had a recurrence of an illness which he had contracted in Afghanistan, and in the following year he was obliged to proceed on leave to the Cape of Good Hope. After a few weeks at the Cape he became so much worse that he was sent to England, where he arrived in the summer of 1844. He received numerous invitations, but he was too ill even to go to Windsor, and he lived in retirement at Carmarthen. The court of directors of the East India Company on 21 Aug. passed a resolution granting an annuity of 1,000l. for life to Nott. In December the city of London bestowed upon him the freedom of the city. But the disease of the heart which affected him assumed an aggravated form, and, dying on 1 Jan. 1845, he was buried on 6 Jan. in the churchyard of St. Peter's, beside the grave of his father and mother.

A full-length portrait of Nott, painted by T. Brigstocke, a Welsh artist, is in the town-hall of Carmarthen; another by the same artist is in the Oriental Club, London; and a third is in the town-hall of Calcutta. A portrait was also painted by Benjamin Rawlinson Faulkner [q. v.] for Henry Wood, and presented by that gentleman to the military college at Addiscombe. A statue, by Davies, in bronze was also erected at Carmarthen by public subscription, to which the queen contributed 200l. and the East India Company 100l. In order to procure a proper site in Carmarthen, several houses near the town-hall were pulled down and a square formed, which has been called ‘Nott Square.’ The bronze for the statue was made of guns captured at the battle of Maharajpúr, and presented by the East India Company.

Nott married first, on 5 Oct. 1805, at Calcutta, Letitia, second daughter of Henry Swinhoe. Fourteen children were the issue of this marriage, but only five survived him. He married secondly, in June 1843, at Lucknow, Rosa Wilson, daughter of Captain Dore, of the 3rd Buffs.

Nott was a self-reliant man, who, when