Hugh Cleghorn (colonial administrator)

Sir Hugh Cleghorn FRSE LLD (1751-1836) was the first colonial secretary to Ceylon. He was key in the takeover of Ceylon from Dutch control to the British Empire. In 1795 Cleghorn used his friendship with Comte Charles-Daniel de Meuron, who owned a regiment of Swiss mercenaries, the Regiment de Meuron, that controlled Ceylon for the Dutch, to transfer control to the British. His grandson Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn was instrumental in the foundation of the forest department and forest conservation in India.