John Macdonald Kinneir

Sir John Macdonald Kinneir (1782–1830) was a Scottish army officer of the East India Company, diplomat and traveller.

Born at Carnden, Linlithgow, on 3 February 1782, Kinneir was the illegitimate son of John Macdonald, comptroller of customs at Borrowstounness, and Cecilia Maria Kinneir. In 1802 he was nominated to a cadetship by Sir William Bensley, under the surname Macdonald, which was used in Indian army lists for the rest of his life. By 1818 he himself was using Kinneir.

On 21 September 1804 Kinneir was appointed ensign in the Madras infantry, but was not posted until the formation of the 24th Madras Native Infantry on 1 January 1807, when he joined the new corps as lieutenant. He became captain in his regiment on 14 April 1818, and was later brevet lieutenant-colonel. For some time he was secretary to the officer commanding in Malabar and Kanara.

Kinneir was attached to Sir John Malcolm's mission in Persia in 1808–9, during part of which time he was supernumerary agent at Bushehr, and travelled widely. In 1810 he went from Baghdad, by way of Mosul and Diarbekr, to Constantinople, visited Manisa and Smyrna, and returned to England through Spain and Portugal. Then ordered to rejoin his regiment, he journeyed to in January 1813 with Colonel Neil Campbell, intending to reach India through Russia and Persia; but after the retreat from Moscow left open a southerly route, he accompanied Campbell to Kilisch in Poland, and then went via Austria and Hungary to Constantinople. After visiting Asia Minor and Cyprus, he returned to Constantinople, and travelled through Armenia and Kurdistan to Bagdad and Bombay.

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