Background
Claude Martin Wade was born in 1794 to Joseph Wade and his wife in the British Army in India.
Claude Martin Wade was born in 1794 to Joseph Wade and his wife in the British Army in India.
He managed relations between the British and important rulers in India such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Shah Shuja, King of Afghanistan. He was one of the first to "force the Khyber pass."
He was named after a childless French adventurer and "renaissance man" Claude Martin. The reason for this is not known and Claude died leaving his immense fortune, in the manner of a childless man, to charity.
Wade was appointed a cadet in the Bengal service of the East India Company in 1809.
1823 diplomatic agent at Ludhiana, taking over from a Captain Murray In 1835, Claude was in charge of relations with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In the 1830s, the British decided to replace Dost Mohammad Khan by Shah Shuja on the Kabul throne.
A tripartite Treaty of 1838 was drafted between the British, Shah Shuja and Ranjit Singh. The Lahore ruler signed the treaty on 26 June 1838, but the Governor-General, Lord Auckland, before signing it sent the draft to Shah Shuja at Ludhiana through Macnaughten, Wade and Mackeson.
The Shah objected to various articles, but he secured various assurances from the British Government, and on 17 July 1838, the mission left Ludhiana with the signed treaty.
In 1848 he had his last appointment as political agent for the vast area of Malwa.
