The story of Clive of India and how three Shrewsbury, Shropshire Streets came to be named.
Clive of India is a figure Shrewsbury residents are unsure whether to honour or to ignore. This is due to his chequered early life, and involvement with the East India Company, culminating in his taking his own life in suicide.
Robert Clive - Wikipedia
Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB, FRS (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, Commander-in-Chief of British India, was a British officer and privateer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal.
He is credited with securing a large swath of South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) and the wealth that followed, for the British East India Company.
In the process, he also turned himself into a multi-millionaire. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key early figures setting in motion what would later become British India.
Blocking impending French mastery of India, and eventual British expulsion from the continent, Clive improvised a military expedition that ultimately enabled the East India Company to adopt the French strategy of indirect rule via puppet government.
Hired by the company to return a second time to India, Clive conspired to secure the Company's trade interests by overthrowing the locally unpopular heir to the throne of "Bengal," the richest state in India, richer than Britain, at the time. Back in
England, he sat as a Tory Member of Parliament in London.
Clive was one of the most controversial figures in all British military history.
His achievements included establishing control over much of India, and laying the foundation of the entire British Raj (though he worked only as an agent of the East India Company, not the British government).
For his methods and his self aggrandisement he was vilified by his contemporaries in England, and put on trial before Parliament. via Robert Clive - Wikipedia
In the mid-1700's the East India Company has power over commerce on the sub-continent, with the blessings of the British government.
A clerk in the company, Robert Clive, is frustrated by his lack of advancement, and transfers to the military arm of the company, where he excels.
Clive's leadership and gift for manipulation strengthen England's hold over India and lead to personal wealth, which is often threatened by the enemies he makes along the way. via Clive of India (1935) - IMDb
Later, after Clive loses his seat in Parliament and all his money in the election campaign, and the doctor tells Margaret that their baby son will die within months, they return to India where madman King Suraj Ud Dowlah of Northern India has killed one hundred and forty-six English subjects by suffocation in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Clive forges the name of Admiral Charles Watson to a treaty with Suraj Ud Dowlah's uncle, Mir Jaffar, because the timid admiral hasn't the courage to sign, and after receiving encouragement from Margaret, he launches a surprise counterattack with far inferior forces against Suraj Ud Dowlah.
The enemy counters using battle elephants, but Mir Jaffar's forces arrive and destroy Suraj Ud Dowlah's. Mir Jaffar, now king, presents Clive with a gift that allows him to retire to England.
Years later, Governor Pigot calls on Clive to return to India where chaos now reigns due in large part to the flagrant abuses of the East India Company directors via Clive of India (1935) - Overview - TCM.com
In declining health Clive went to England in 1760. He was given an Irish peerage, knighted, and made a member of Parliament. In 1765, when administrative chaos and fiscal disorder brought the company near disaster in Bengal, he returned to Calcutta as governor and commander in chief.
Clive limited the company to Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, bringing these states under direct company control. He reformed the company's administrative practices, restored financial discipline while abolishing abuses, and reorganised the army. His efforts made the company sovereign ruler of 30 million people who produced an annual revenue of £4 million sterling.
Clive left India in February 1767. Five years later, in the absence of his strong hand in Bengal, the company appealed to the British government to save it from bankruptcy caused by widespread corruption.
Clive's enemies in Parliament claimed that he was responsible for the situation. After a long trial he was exonerated; but continuing attacks on his integrity, together with illness and physical exhaustion, led him to commit suicide in London on Nov. 22, 1774.
via Robert Clive facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia ...
He is credited with securing a large swath of South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan) and the wealth that followed, for the British East India Company.
In the process, he also turned himself into a multi-millionaire. Together with Warren Hastings he was one of the key early figures setting in motion what would later become British India.
Blocking impending French mastery of India, and eventual British expulsion from the continent, Clive improvised a military expedition that ultimately enabled the East India Company to adopt the French strategy of indirect rule via puppet government.
Hired by the company to return a second time to India, Clive conspired to secure the Company's trade interests by overthrowing the locally unpopular heir to the throne of "Bengal," the richest state in India, richer than Britain, at the time. Back in
England, he sat as a Tory Member of Parliament in London.
Clive was one of the most controversial figures in all British military history.
His achievements included establishing control over much of India, and laying the foundation of the entire British Raj (though he worked only as an agent of the East India Company, not the British government).
For his methods and his self aggrandisement he was vilified by his contemporaries in England, and put on trial before Parliament. via Robert Clive - Wikipedia
In the mid-1700's the East India Company has power over commerce on the sub-continent, with the blessings of the British government.
A clerk in the company, Robert Clive, is frustrated by his lack of advancement, and transfers to the military arm of the company, where he excels.
Clive's leadership and gift for manipulation strengthen England's hold over India and lead to personal wealth, which is often threatened by the enemies he makes along the way. via Clive of India (1935) - IMDb
Clive, Robert, baron, 'Clive of India', 1725-1774
Clive, Robert, baron, 'Clive of India', 1725-1774 Born in Shropshire, Robert Clive gained a post as a scribe in the East India Company in 1743, but reached India (1744) deep in debt after a prolonged voyage out to India, after which he tried to shoot himself.
He quickly transfered to the military branch of the company, which was then engaged in the Carnatic Wars, and rose rapidly through the ranks, reaching captain by 1751. In the same year he was allowed to try out a plan for the capture of Arcot, capitol of the Carnatic, where he was then besieged.
The defense of Arcot (23 September-14 November 1751) made Clive's name. With just over 200 men, he held off a 10,000 strong attacking army, and once reinforced was able to go on the attack.
He was absent from India from 1753 to 1755, having returned to England to regain his health. In 1756, the new nabob of Bengal, Suraj Dowlah, broke his treaty with the East India Company, and occupied Calcutta, imprisoning the Company staff he found there in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Clive commanded the land forced sent against Suraj Dowlah, and on 23 June 1757 defeated his army at the battle of Plassey, deposing him, and gaining control of Bengal for the East India Company, who appointed him governor of Bengal (1757-1760). via Robert Clive, Baron Clive, 'Clive of India', 1725-1774
Clive forges the name of Admiral Charles Watson to a treaty with Suraj Ud Dowlah's uncle, Mir Jaffar, because the timid admiral hasn't the courage to sign, and after receiving encouragement from Margaret, he launches a surprise counterattack with far inferior forces against Suraj Ud Dowlah.
The enemy counters using battle elephants, but Mir Jaffar's forces arrive and destroy Suraj Ud Dowlah's. Mir Jaffar, now king, presents Clive with a gift that allows him to retire to England.
Years later, Governor Pigot calls on Clive to return to India where chaos now reigns due in large part to the flagrant abuses of the East India Company directors via Clive of India (1935) - Overview - TCM.com
In declining health Clive went to England in 1760. He was given an Irish peerage, knighted, and made a member of Parliament. In 1765, when administrative chaos and fiscal disorder brought the company near disaster in Bengal, he returned to Calcutta as governor and commander in chief.
Clive limited the company to Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, bringing these states under direct company control. He reformed the company's administrative practices, restored financial discipline while abolishing abuses, and reorganised the army. His efforts made the company sovereign ruler of 30 million people who produced an annual revenue of £4 million sterling.
Clive left India in February 1767. Five years later, in the absence of his strong hand in Bengal, the company appealed to the British government to save it from bankruptcy caused by widespread corruption.
Clive's enemies in Parliament claimed that he was responsible for the situation. After a long trial he was exonerated; but continuing attacks on his integrity, together with illness and physical exhaustion, led him to commit suicide in London on Nov. 22, 1774.
via Robert Clive facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia ...
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