David Ochterlony Sir David Ochterlony , 1st Baronet GCB ( 12 February 1758 – 15 July 1825 ) was a British general . Biography . David Ochterlony was born in Boston , Massachusetts , and attended the Dummer Charity School ( now known as The Governor ' s Academy ) in nearby Byfield , Massachusetts . In 1777 , he went as a cadet to India , where he served under Lord Lake in the battles of Koil , Aligarh and Delhi , and was appointed resident at Delhi in 1803 . In 1804 , having been promoted to the rank of major - general , he defended the city with a very inadequate force against an attack by Yashwantrao Holkar . On the outbreak of the Anglo - Nepalese War ( 1814 – 15 ) he was given the command of one of four converging columns , and his services were rewarded with a baronetcy in 1815 . Subsequently he was promoted to the command of the main force in its advance on Kathmandu , and outmanoeuvring the Gurkha s by a flank march at the Kourea Ghat Pass , brought the war to a successful conclusion and obtained the signature of the Treaty of Sugauli ( 1816 ) , which dictated the subsequent relations of the British with Nepal . For this success Ochterlony was created Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath , the first time that honour had been conferred on an officer of the British Indian Army . In the Pindari War ( 1817 – 18 ) he was in command of the Rajputana column , made a separate agreement with Amir Khan , detaching him from the Pindari s , and then , interposing his own force between the two main divisions of the enemy , brought the war to an end without an engagement . He was appointed resident in Rajputana in 1818 , with which the residency at Delhi was subsequently combined , and during this period encountered and engaged in an ongoing personal feud with James Tod , which was based most likely on the power politics within the hierarchy of the East India Company . When Durjan Sal revolted in 1825 against Balwant Singh , the infant Raja of Bharatpur , Ochterlony acting on his own responsibility supported the raja by proclamation and ordered out a force to support him . Lord Amherst , however , repudiated these proceedings . Ochterlony , who was bitterly chagrined by this rebuff , resigned his office , and retired to Delhi . The feeling that the confidence which his length of service merited had not been given him by the governor - general is said to have accelerated his death , which occurred at Meerut in 1825 . The Ochterlony column at Calcutta commemorates his name . Personal life . As the official British resident of Delhi , David Ochterlony acculturated and thoroughly embraced Persian Mughal culture . He was reputed to have thirteen Indian concubines . Every evening , he used to take all his thirteen wives on a promenade around the walls of the Red Fort , each on the back of her own elephant . The most prominent among his wives was " Bebee Mahruttun Moobaruck ul Nissa Begume " , a former Brahmin dancing girl from Poona who had converted to Islam . Nicknamed " " Generallee Begum " " , she was Ochterlony ' s favorite wife and mother of his youngest children . As such , she took clear precedence over the others . She was known to be a devout Muslim , having once applied for leave to make the " hajj " to Mecca . Although much younger than Ochterlony , she maintained the dominant part of the relationship . This led one observer to remark that " making Sir David the Commissioner of Delhi was the same as making Generallee Begum " . Another observer remarked that " Ochterlony ' s mistress is the mistress now of everyone within the walls . As a result of her influence , Ochterlony considered raising his children as Muslims and when his two daughters by Mubaruk Begum had grown up , he adopted a child from the family of the Nawabs of Loharu , one of the leading Muslim families of Delhi . Raised by Mubaruk Begum , the girl went on to marry her cousin , a nephew of the famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib . She even seems to have set herself up as a power in her own right and to have formed her own independent foreign policy . At one point , it was reported that " Mobarruck Begum , alias Generalee Begum fills the ( Delhi ) papers with accounts of the " Nizars " and " Khiluts " ( gifts and dresses of honor ) given and taken by her in her transactions with the " Vacquils " ( ambassadors of the different ( Indian ) powers - an extraordinary liberty , if true . " However in spite of all her power and high status , Mubaruk Begum was widely unpopular among the British and the Mughals alike . She offended the British by calling herself " Lady Ochterlony " and on the other hand , also offended the Mughals by awarding herself the title " " Qudsia Begum " " , a title previously reserved for the Emperor ' s mother . After Ochterlony ' s death , she inherited " Mubarak Bagh " , an Anglo - Mughal garden tomb he had built in the north of Old Delhi , but her intense unpopularity combined with her dancing girl background ensured that no Mughal gentleman would use her structure . To this date , it is still referred to as the " " Rundi ki Masjid " " ( The prostitute ' s mosque ) by the local inhabitants of the old city . Descendants . Ochterlony had at least six natural children by two or more of his concubines :