James Henry Skene
| James Henry Skene MRAS | |||||||||||
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| File:Skene, James Henry.jpg | |||||||||||
| Born | 1812 | ||||||||||
| Died | 1886 | ||||||||||
| Residence |
HM Consul at Aleppo, care of Messrs Grindlay & Co, 53 Parliament St Aleppo c/o Foreign Office, SW [A6:2] | ||||||||||
| Occupation | diplomacy | ||||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
Her Majesty's Consul
Notes From Elsewhere
James Henry SkeneBirthdate:March 3, 1812Birthplace:Inverie, ScotlandDeath:Died October 3, 1886 in Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
Scottish traveller and diplomat, Sir James Henry Skene, lived for twenty years in the “east” and served as British consul in Aleppo from March 1855 to about 1877. ... Skeene provides a typical account of Western knowledge of the Albanians in the mid-nineteenth century.
Scottish soldier, traveller and diplomat. Served in the 73rd Perthshire Regiment. From 1852 onward he was Vice-Consul, then Consul, and finally Consul-General at Aleppo. Author of Anadol: the Last Home of the Faithful (London 1853) and The Frontier Lands of the Christian and the Turk, Comprising Travel in the Regions of the Lower Danube in 1850 and 1851 (London 1853) and With Lord Stratford in the Crimean war (London: R. Bentley, 1883), among other works. During the Crimean war he served Stratford de Redcliffe, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and became embroiled in a dispute with General Beatson and the Bashi-Bazouks. Skene was highly critical of Beatson’s conduct when in charge of the Bashi-Bazouks, and therefore at odds with Burton, who later wrote of Skene that “he was known on the spot to be taking notes, that every malignant won his ear, and that he did not cease to gratify the Ambassador’s prejudices by reporting the worst. General Beatson was peppery, like most old Indians, and instead of keeping diplomatically on terms with Mr. Skene, he chose to have a violent personal quarrel with him.”[242] One of Skene’s reports to Stratford de Redcliffe about the Bazouks, which includes a section about a multiple duel challenge involving Burton, is included in Volume 1.
Publications
External Publications
“Anadol: the Last Home of the Faithful” (London 1853) and “The Frontier Lands of the Christian and the Turk, Comprising Travel in the Regions of the Lower Danube in 1850 and 1851" (London 1853)
House Publications
On the people of Albania and other parts of Greece. Read 7 June 1848. Printed
On the Greeks and the Turks ref. nov. 1848. Not to be read
