| Drake, Roger the governor
of the Council of the fort
william in Bengal from August 1752 to 1758. Roger Drake, who
came to calcutta
as a writer of the East India Company's service in 1737, rose to the position
of the Fort William's governor by dint of his meritorious services to
the company. But he was not a man of crisis. He was strengthening the
fortifications of Calcutta without taking any permission from the nawab
and without trying to understand the implications of such illegal activities.
Though Nawab alivardi
khan's administration had ignored Drake's illegal activities,
Nawab sirajuddaula
on his accession to the throne issued several parwanas to dismantale
all defence structures made illegally and also to stop using dastak
for private trade of the company's servants. Drake ignored the nawab's
orders. Exasperated Sirajuddaula led an expedition to bring the Fort William
Council under the laws of the realm. On 16 June 1756 he stormed Calcutta.
Two days later Roger Drake fled, leaving behind many of his countrymen
and officers, to safety at Fulta, about twenty miles down the river. His
cowardly flight and consequent sack of Calcutta by the nawab's sepoys
had made him highly controversial. After the Battle of palashi
he was sacked by the Court of Directors and replaced by william
watts first and then by robert
clive.
[Sirajul Islam]
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