Charles McMahon

Lieutenant-General Charles Alexander McMahon FRS FGS (23 March 1830 – 21 February 1904) was an Anglo-Irish soldier, geologist, and administrator in British India.

Early life and family Born at Highgate, McMahon was the son of Captain Alexander McMahon (born 1791), an officer of the East India Company, originally of Kilrea, County Londonderry, He fought at Saintfield and Ballynahinch and fled to France, where he served in Napoleon’s Irish Legion and died fighting on the French side at Waterloo.

In 1881, McMahon’s father was an elderly inmate of the Royal India Asylum at Hanwell.

Career After training at the Addiscombe Military Seminary, McMahon was commissioned into the Madras Army and served for eight years in the 39th Regiment, Madras Native Infantry, and for thirty years was a member of the Punjab Commission. He was appointed as Commissioner of Lahore and Hissar in the Punjab Province. In 1899 he was awarded the Lyell Medal by the Geological Society of London.

Honours McMahon was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and a Fellow of the University of Lahore.