A descendant of an
Ó Conghalaigh clan of Ireland, Conolly was a cousin of
Sir William Macnaghten, Secretary of the British East India Company's Political and Secret Department. Conolly believed that Rawlinson's new post gave him the opportunity to advance humanitarianism in
Afghanistan, and summed up his hopes: If the British Government would only play the grand game – help Russia cordially to all that she has a right to expect – shake hands with
Persia – get her all possible amends from
Oosbegs – force the
Bokhara Amir to be just to us, the Afghans, and other Oosbeg states, and his own kingdom – but why go on; you know my, at any rate in
one sense,
enlarged views.
Inshallah! The expediency, nay the necessity of them will be seen, and we shall play the noble part that the first Christian nation of the world ought to fill." In 1841, in an attempt to counter the growing penetration of Russia into Central Asia, Conolly unsuccessfully tried to persuade the various
khanates there to put aside their differences. In November 1841 he was captured while on a rescue mission to free fellow British officer Lieutenant Colonel
Charles Stoddart, held in
Bukhara. The two were executed by the
Emir of Bukhara,
Nasrullah Khan, on 24 June 1842 on charges of spying for the
British Empire. They were both beheaded in the square in front of the
Ark of Bukhara. Arthur Conolly's elder brother, Lieutenant
Henry Valentine Conolly, administrator of Malabar, was murdered in 1855 in
Calicut (in present-day
Kerala, South India). ==Legacy==