Early life and North-West Frontier Peter Stark Lumsden was born at Belhelvie Lodge, Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, on 9 November 1829. He was trained at
Addiscombe Military Seminary from the age of 20, and entered the
East India Company's
Bengal Army in 1847 as an
ensign in the 60th
Bengal Native Infantry. and, as assistant
quartermaster general under
Major-General Hugh Rose, shared in the pursuit and capture of
Tantya Tope in 1859, when he was again mentioned in despatches.
Second Opium War and Bhutan War , from
Vanity Fair, 8 August 1885|alt=Colour painting of Lumsden sitting down, holding a riding whip. Lumsden's next period of active service was as quartermaster general on the staff of General Napier, who commanded the 2nd division of the expeditionary force to
China during the
Second Opium War, in 1860. While leading the Commission, he felt he had been given insufficiently clear instructions by the British government, which proved very dangerous as the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated to the brink of war with Russia. He resigned and returned to England in 1885 after the
Panjdeh Incident. He left London to represent the British at negotiations with Russia in selecting the Afghan Frontier Commission to determine the Afghan boundary. Lumsden was appointed a
Knight Grand Cross of the
Order of the Bath and given a commissioner's seat on the
Council of India, which he occupied for a 10-year tenure from 1883. In 1885 he wrote "Countries and Tribes Bordering on the Koh-i-Baba Range", an article for the seventh volume of the journal
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography.
Later life Following completion of his tenure on the Council of India, Lumsden retired from military service in 1893. He identified himself with local affairs and served as a
justice of the peace and as
Deputy Lieutenant for
Banffshire and Aberdeenshire. Lumsden died on 9 November 1918 in his estate at Dufftown, Banffshire. ==Family==