Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1st Baronet

Maj.-Gen. Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet GCB (5 April 1810 – 5 March 1895) was a British East India Company army officer, politician and Orientalist, sometimes described as the Father of Assyriology. Rawlinson was one of the most important figures arguing that Britain must check Russian ambitions in South Asia. He was a strong advocate of the forward policy in Afghanistan, and counselled the retention of Kandahar. He argued that Tsarist Russia would attack and absorb Khokand, Bokhara and Khiva (which they did) and warned they would invade Persia (present-day Iran) and Afghanistan as springboards to British India.

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