There are many names in British history that are forever associated with an event, place or country and are always remembered in this way. For example, Gordon of Khartoum, Wolfe and Quebec, Lawrence of Arabia to name but a few. It is almost impossible to mention these individuals without adding after their name, the place or deed for which they are remembered. Robert Clive is one such man… Clive of India.
But Robert Clive who was born on the family estate near Market Drayton in Shropshire, England started life as a humble office clerk in the East India Company (EIC) in Madras in 1744 when he was 18. He could not in his wildest dreams, have foreseen what life in India would have in store for him.
When the War of the Austrian Succession broke-out in 1743, France and Britain were on opposite sides and the fighting soon spread to India. In 1746 Madras fell and Clive was taken prisoner by the French. He didn’t take kindly to imprisonment and disguised as a native managed to escape to Fort St. David, a British fort near the town of Cuddalore on the Coromandel Coast of India, some 50 miles to the south.
By 1747 Clive had obtained an ensign’s commission in the EIC’s service, where he soon prospered, and when the small British garrison at Trichinopoly was attacked and besieged in 1751 by Franco-Indian forces, Clive was ready with a bold plan to relieve the garrison. Rather than challenging the strong Franco-Indian forces head on though, Clive had devised a surprise diversionary attack on Arcot, the capital city of the Carnatic region of southern India.
Force marching the 500 soldiers and sepoys under his command though some terrible weather conditions he surprised the garrison at Arcot who fled in panic, leaving Clive and his limited forces in control of the city, and its fort, without having fired a single shot.
Clive’s ruse apparently paid dividends as around 4,000 of the besieging Franco-Indian soldiers were immediately despatched from Trichinopoly to retake Arcot.
With many of his men now suffering from disease, Clive immediately began gathering supplies and fresh water. In addition, they worked tirelessly repairing the dilapidated defences of the fort at the centre of the city, mounting the cannon left by the fleeing garrison on the battlements.
The Franco-Indian garrison arrived on 23rd September 1751 and set up camp some 6 miles from the city, blocking the arrival of any resupplies or reinforcements. Ever aggressive, the following day Clive launched a night attack on his besiegers scattering their forces.
The defender’s moral must have suffered greatly, when even more troops arrived to re-enforce the Franco-Indian garrison, bringing their army to a strength of around 11,000 soldiers. In comparison, Clive’s force now comprised 120 Europeans and 200 Sepoys.
The news didn’t get any better when some heavy artillery arrived to start the bombardment of the fort just a few weeks later.
The bombardment continued through the month of October until a clear breach was blown through the walls of the fort. Clive was invited to surrender which he apparently flatly refused to do so, with ‘contemptuous defiance’.
Back in Madras, the British Governor was organising for the relief of Ancot. He somehow persuaded the Mahratta chief, Morari Rao, to join his forces with the British. A force of British troops and sepoys with Mahratta cavalry prepared to march to the rescue of Arcot.
News of the relief column reached the besieging army and plans for an assault on the breached wall of the fort were organised to take place on 14th November.
A spy had alerted Clive of the planned assaulted and he had organised his defences accordingly. Cannons were carefully positioned to cover the breach, and surplus muskets were loaded and stacked to enable the troops covering the breach to maintain a constant blanket of fire.
The enemy launched their attack at dawn and heading the assault were elephants, their heads clad in protective iron plates. The idea was they would use the beasts as battering rams to break down the gates of the fort. All the defender’s musket fire was directed at the oncoming charging beasts. Suffering from their injuries and panicked by the continued cacophony of the sound of lead shot on their iron clad heads the elephants turned on the accompanying soldiers, trampling many of them to death.
The assault on the breach proved just as unsuccessful. The heavy British musket fire along with the relentless shots from the cannons kept the attacking troops at bay. At one point in the proceedings Clive took personal charge of one cannon and fired several rounds into the attackers.
The struggle lasted for about an hour before the attack ended. With several hundred bodies littered outside the fort, darkness fell and when dawn arrived the enemy were no more to be seen. Clive’s force had achieved an amazing feat in the face of the overwhelming numerical odds against them.
The Siege of Arcot marked a sea change for the British experience in India, creating the legend of British courage and invincibility. His conduct during the siege made Clive famous throughout Europe.
Now a national and international hero, Clive married Margaret Maskelyne in February 1753 at St Mary’s Church in Madras. They would go on to have nine children together. Suffering from some sort of nervous disorder, Clive together with Margaret returned to England to recuperate.
Clive returned to India in 1755 as a lieutenant-colonel and assumed the role as deputy governor of Fort St. David at Cuddalore. It was here in 1756 that Clive was delivered news of two disasters that had befallen the British: the new Nawad of Bengal had captured the fort at Calcutta and the British captives had been crammed into punishment cell in the stifling summer heat. It was reported that 43 of the 64 prisoners died as a result of suffocation or heat stroke in the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta.
Clive was given command of the relief expedition and set out in October 1756, with a combined Euro-Indian force of 2,400 soldiers and sepoys. He retook Calcutta in January 1757 and forced the Nawab to restore the East India Company’s privileges, pay compensation, and allow the British to fortify Calcutta.
Clive’s greatest victory was perhaps at the Battle of Plassey in June 1757, where he commanded the Company’s army of around 3,000. Facing him was the Nawab’s force estimated to be 50,000-strong. More a series of skirmishes that a true battle, the price was once again control of Calcutta. Through some complicated and let’s just say underhand discussions, as well as the promise of huge bribes to all concerned, Clive managed to install a new and more compliant Nawab in charge of the city. The skirmish at Plassey was critical to the East India Company’s triumph over its French rivals and, in the longer term, to the establishment of British rule in India. This action established Clive as the virtual master of Bengal and he was confirmed its governor in 1758.
Relatively speaking things were a little less challenging for the rest of Clive’s first tenure as governor, although he did manage to secure fresh territories for the company from both the Dutch and French.
In 1760, the 35-year-old Clive returned to Britain with a fortune of at least £300,000 (equivalent today to £57,300,000) and a land tax rent of £27,000 (equivalent to £5,200,000) a year. On his return he was denounced in Parliament as a corrupt ‘nabob’, whilst others claimed that “[Clive] gave peace, security, prosperity and such liberty as the case allowed to millions of Indians, who had for centuries been the prey of oppression, …”
Whichever is the case, he was created Baron Clive of Plassey in 1762 and made a Knight of the Bath in 1764.
During his time away, the company’s service, civil and military in India, had become mired in corruption and revenues were plummeting. Lord Clive was ordered back to Bengal to sort out the mess. His ship docked in Madras in April 1765.
During his second administration he consolidated the East India Company’s rule in Bengal, collecting taxes and policing its territories. Clive served as Commander-in-Chief Bengal, with the local rank of major-general, organising and training the Company’s army on European lines, turning it into a formidable force. Politically, he put in place a strong administration. The salaries of civil servants were increased and the acceptance of gifts from Indians were forbidden.
Although he attempted to reform the government of Bengal and reduce its inherent corruption, Clive was once again subjected to further political attacks on his return to England in 1767 with some MPs accusing him of running a nefarious administration. Although he was ultimately vindicated by a ringing Parliamentary vote (95 to 155) in his favour in 1773, the toll to his health was heavy.
Two years after the government’s enquiry into the EIC’s affairs, his mind disturbed by opium and in a state of deep depression, Clive committed suicide by cutting his own throat, aged just 49.
A tragic end to a remarkable life, he will always be known as the Founder of the British Empire in India and remembered as Clive of India.
Published: 16th June 2025.
