Sir Frederick Currie, 1st Baronet

Sir Frederick Currie, 1st Baronet was a British official and diplomat involved in the administration of Punjab. He served as resident at Lahore during the unstable period between the Sikh Wars and dealt with the Multan crisis that developed into the Second Anglo-Sikh War.

Sir Frederick Currie, 1st Baronet was born in Bloomsbury and died in St Leonards. Currie served as British Resident at Lahore in 1848 when the Multan rebellion destabilised the Sikh state; the crisis contributed directly to the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the British annexation of Punjab in 1849.

Amarpal Singh’s The Second Anglo-Sikh War places Frederick Currie at the political centre of the Punjab crisis of 1848. As British Resident at Lahore, Currie works within the restricted regency governing for the young Duleep Singh and must respond as the Multan rebellion spreads from a local confrontation into a wider challenge involving Sher Singh and Chattar Singh Attariwalla. The book follows Currie’s calculations alongside those of the Lawrence brothers and Dalhousie, showing how British decisions about reinforcement, negotiation and intervention helped transform instability inside the Sikh state into a second war and, ultimately, annexation of the Punjab.