When Dalhousie arrived in India in January 1848, the country seemed peaceful. Only two years earlier, however, the army of the Punjab, an independent state founded by the religious and military sect of the Sikhs, had precipitated a war that the British had won only with great difficulty. The discipline and economy enforced by the new Sikh regime, sponsored by the British, aroused discontent, and in April 1848 a local rebellion broke out at Multan. This was the first serious problem faced by Dalhousie. Local officers urged immediate action, but he delayed, and Sikh disaffection spread throughout the Punjab. In November 1848 Dalhousie dispatched British troops, and, after several British victories, the Punjab was annexed in 1849.Dalhousie's critics maintained that he had allowed a local rebellion to grow into a national uprising so that he could annex the Punjab. But the commander in chief of the British army had warned him against precipitate action. Certainly, the steps Dalhousie eventually took were somewhat irregular; the uprising at Multan had been directed not against the British but against policies of the Sikh government. In any event, he was created marquis for his efforts. Brought to Britain the "Koh-I-Noor" whose name means "Mountain of Light", the most famous diamond in the World, strapped to his waist to ensure a safe passage. Mined in the l6th Century this 105.6-carat diamond is now the centrepiece of the Queen Mother’s state crown. Died only 48 years old in 1860 and is buried in the family vault in the nearby Cockpen Church. "No man ever gave his life to his Country, more completely or with more consuming devotion": Lord Curzon - British Government in India.  http://www.dalhousie.net/  (worth a wee look)   Thanks to M Chadha Dalhousie India
 

1816 9th Earl is appointed Lt. Governor of Nova Scotia. Founded one of the finest educational centres in Canada Dalhousie University in Halifax It was founded in 1818 as Dalhousie College, and became a university in 1863. The school developed rapidly after substantial benefactions in 1879 by George Monro and subsequent financial assistance from the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations. The academic program is organised into the six faculties of arts and sciences, law, medicine, dentistry, health professions, and graduate studies. Associated institutions are the University of King's College, Mount St. Vincent University, and the Nova Scotia Technical College. Dalhousie is the only centre in the Atlantic provinces for professional training in medicine and dentistry.

1824 Edinburgh Municipal Fire Brigade formed. Official tartan is Red Ramsay

1825-1828 9th Earl with the famous Scottish Architect William Burn, "rebarionalises" the Castle into the mansion as it stands today.

1832. 9th Earl dies and mourned by his old school friend Sir Walter Scott.

1837 Lord Ramsay was returned to the House of Commons as member for the county of Haddington, but he did not retain his seat long enough to take any prominent part in the debates or business of the House, for on the death of his father in the following year he was elevated to the House of Lords as tenth Earl of Dalhousie. He speedily became noted there for his excellent business habits, which attracted the attention of the Duke of Wellington, and obtained for him in 1843, in Sir Robert Peel’s second Administration, the office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade in succession to Mr. Gladstone. Two years later he was promoted to the post of President of the Board of Trade, which he retained until the overthrow of Sir Robert Peel’s Ministry shortly after the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the return of the Whigs to office in 1846. In his position at the Board of Trade Lord Dalhousie displayed remarkable energy and industry in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the commercial affairs of the country, and his skill in the science of engineering made him take especial interest in the construction of the numerous railways which at that period began to intersect the country like network.

1840 Queen Victoria visits the Castle to take tea with her devoted servant the 10th Earl, James Ramsay.

10th Earl James Ramsay appointed Governor General of India at the age of 36 years, on the recall of Lord Hardinge, and was eventually made Marques.

The office of Governor-General of our East Indian dominions was offered to Lord Dalhousie by Lord John Russell, and was readily accepted by him. He was the youngest man ever appointed to that onerous and responsible position, and it was certainly no easy task to undertake the government of a population of two hundred and forty millions, composed of distinct, and in some instances at least, of unfriendly races, differing from each other in blood, language, and religion. But Lord Dalhousie possessed in an eminent degree the courage, moral and physical, of his race, and resolved, as he remarked at the time, in a proverbial expression, to ‘set a stout heart to a stey brae’ (steep bank). In entering upon the duties of his office, he was encouraged by his knowledge of the fact that he enjoyed the confidence both of the Cabinet and the Court of Directors, the former having selected him on account of his known business talents and energy, while the latter cordially approved of his appointment because they believed that the Earl would carry out their schemes of annexation and aggrandisement. Before his predecessor quitted India he made a reduction of 50,000 men in the strength of the army there, and expressed his conviction that for seven years not another hostile shot would be fired within the limits of the British Indian empire. Only a few months, however, after Lord Dalhousie had assumed the reins of Government, the second Sikh war broke out, the siege of Mooltan was undertaken, and the bloody battles of Chilianwalla and Goojerat were fought Very conflicting opinions have been entertained and loudly expressed respecting the justice and expediency of the Governor-General’s policy, but there is no difference of opinion as to the energy and success with which his plans were carried out. The result was the final and complete overthrow of the Sikhs, and the annexation of the Punjaub, and of Berar, Pegu, and Nagpore, and the rich province of Oude, to the British empire.

But ‘peace hath her victories,’ more glorious far than those of war, and it is a relief to turn from the contemplation of the sanguinary conflicts fought in India during Lord Dalhousie’s vice-royalty to the civil and social improvements which he effected. Under his auspices an extensive line of railway was opened; Calcutta was placed by means of the electric telegraph in immediate correspondence with Bombay, Madras, and Lahore; canals were formed; education was greatly extended among the natives; infanticide and religious persecution were restrained, if not entirely extinguished; and various important reforms introduced into the legal and civil departments of the administration.

Meanwhile the health of Lord Dalhousie had suffered from his exciting and exhausting labours, as well as from the climate, and he was obliged to return to England in 1856, having held the reins of empire upwards of eight years. He had been made a Knight of the Thistle in 1848; in 1849 he had been elevated to the rank of marquis, and had received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament and of the East India Company for the ability and zeal which he had displayed in the critical contest with the Sikhs. His lordship’s enfeebled health prevented him from taking that place in the Government of the country for which his talents and experience eminently fitted him. But in 1852, on the death of the Duke of Wellington, he received from the Earl of Derby the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports. He had held since 1845 the office of Lord-Clerk Register and Keeper of the Signet in Scotland.

He brought to Britain the "Koh-I-Noor" whose name means "Mountain of Light", the most famous diamond in the World, strapped to his waist to ensure a safe passage. Mined in the l6th Centaury this 105.6-carat diamond is now the centerpiece of the Queen Mother’s state crown. Died only 48 years old in 1860 and is buried in the family vault in the nearby Cockpen Church. "No man ever gave his life to his Country, more completely or with more consuming devotion": Lord Curzon - British Government in India

1854 a Town of Dalhousie was eastablished by him in India  The city, northwestern Himachal Pradesh state, northwestern India. Situated in the Himalayan foothills at an elevation of 7,500 feet (2,300 m), it is 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Pathankot, with which it is linked by road. A hill station, Dalhousie is a popular summer resort, offering relief from the heat of the plain to the south. Panjab University has a vacation centre there for teachers of its affiliated colleges. The cantonment of Balun is just to the north. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 6,855.

 Among his early studies was the physiological action of alkaloids (complex chemical compounds derived from plants); he established their relationship to pyridine, a nitrogen-containing organic compound closely resembling benzene in chemical structure. With John Shields, he verified Roland Eötvös' law for the constancy of the rate of change of molecular surface energy with temperature.

In 1892 the British physicist Lord Rayleigh asked chemists to explain the difference between the atomic weight of nitrogen found in chemical compounds and the heavier free nitrogen found in the atmosphere, Ramsay predicted that nitrogen isolated from the atmosphere was consistently contaminated with a hitherto undiscovered heavy gas. Devising a method that assured the total removal of nitrogen and oxygen from air, Ramsay and Rayleigh found (1894) a chemically inert gaseous element, later called argon, making up nearly 1 percent of the atmosphere.

The following year Ramsay liberated helium from the mineral cleveite and thus became the first person to isolate that element. He later (1903) demonstrated that helium, the lightest of the inert gases, is continually produced during the radioactive decay of radium, a discovery of crucial importance to a modern understanding of nuclear reactions. The positions of helium and argon in the periodic table of elements (a systematic ordering of the elements according to their atomic weights and chemical properties) indicated that at least three more noble gases should exist, and in 1898 Ramsay and the British chemist Morris W. Travers isolated these elements--called neon, krypton, and xenon--from air brought to a liquid state at low temperature and high pressure.                                 

Discoverer of the "Noble Gases" - Sir William Ramsay (1852-1916)
William Ramsay was born in Glasgow and attended Glasgow Academy before studying at Glasgow University and the University of Tübingen. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the University College of Bristol in 1879. Two years later, he married and also became Principal at the Bristol, while continuing his researches in organic chemistry and gases. In 1887 he was appointed to the prestigious chair of Chemistry at University College London. In 1894, Ramsay attended a lecture by Lord Rayleigh, an English physicist. Rayleigh had noticed a discrepancy between the density of nitrogen made by chemical synthesis and nitrogen isolated from the air by removal of the other known components. Ramsay decided to follow this up and soon found a heavy, unknown component of air which did not have any obvious chemical reactivity. He named the gas "argon" and followed this up in the next few years with the discovery of neon, krypton, and xenon. He also isolated helium which had been observed in the spectrum of the sun, but had not been found on earth. In 1910 he also isolated and characterized radon. Ramsay was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air." In the same year, Lord Rayleigh received the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of argon.
Picture of Sir William Ramsay via Wikipedia.

1887 Death of Lady Ramsay and Lord Ramsay                   Thanks to Louise Stanley  for this Information

Nov 25,1887. The Countess of Dalhousie died at Harve Yesterday morning. Her ladyship had just returned from a tour she had made in company with the Earl through the United States, but had owing to illness, to break her homeward journey at Harve. She was the Youngest daughter of the sixth Earl of Tankerville, and was married to Lord Dalhousie in 1877.

The Earl of Dalhousie. On Friday we recorded the death of Lady Dalhousie to-day we announce the death, in melancholy and pathetic circumstances, of her husband, the Earl of Dalhousie. who survived his wife only a few hours. Lord and Lady Dalhousie had been travelling in the United States, and were on their way home when Lady Dalhousie ,s ill-health compelled them to break their journey at Harve, where she died on Thursday last.

 Lord Dalhousie was much affected by his bereavement, but retired to rest that night at his usual hour, and apparently in his usual somewhat indifferent health. A few hours later he was seized with anapoplectic fit. Medical help was at once procured, but he never rallied, and he died at 9 o'clock on Friday morning. A career. not only of promise but also of useful performance. is thus prematurely closed. and a large circle beyond Lord and Lady Dalhousie's own family will have to regret the loss of kindly and accomplished friends; Of Lady Dalhousie it may be said that she materially assisted her husband in the world of society and politics, and that her party at Dover-House was the most memorable social feature of Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Government. Lord Dalhousie was the eldest son of George Maule Ramsay, twelfth Earl, and was born 1847. he was formerly in the Royal Navy, from which he retired in 1979, with the rank of commander, after 18 year service, the two last of which were passed in command of the Britannia.

The Life of Lord Ramsay up until this time had not been before the public more than that of any other naval officer in active service, when suddenly he embarked on a political career. Mr..Torr, one of the members for Liverpool, at that time a three-cornered constituency, had died, and the vacancy thus accessioned was contested in February,1880, by Lord Ramsay, then an undergraduate of Balliol collage, and Mr. Edward Whitley, the present member for the Everton Division of Liverpool. The contest excited an unusual amount of interest, not only in Liverpool, but throughout the country. With much ability and untiring energy. Lord Ramsay fought for the Liberal cause, and the interest excited by the circumstances of contest was much enhanced by the fact that Lord Ramsay father, the then Earl of Dalhousie, was not only passively but actively opposed to his son’s candidature.

 Lord Ramsay was unsuccessful, only polling 23,885 votes to Mr. Whitley,s 26,106---a minority of 2,221. within a few weeks of this by-election a general election was entered upon, and Lord Ramsay had an up hill fight for the vacant seat gained himself such conspicuous position in the Liberal party and such a firm hold upon the constituency that he was selected as a Liberal minority member for Liverpool with Lord Sandon. Now the Earl of Harrowby, and Mr. E. Whitley as his Conservative colleagues in the representation. there being no contest upon the occasion.

 Lord Ramsay  enjoyed the distinction of being the very first new member returned to the Parliament of 1880-85. His possession of a seat in lower House, however, proved but of very brief duration, for on the 20th of July his father died, and he was transferred to the House of Lords in succession to  the peerage.

 In the following September he accepted office as Lord-in-waiting to the Queen in Mr. Gladstone’s Administration. This post he held throughout that administration, and  though not having an opportunity to fill a more arduous one was rewarded for his services by being created a Knight of the Thistle in November, 1881, to fill the  vacancy created by the Earl of Airlie.

Upon the introduction of Mr.Gladstone,s Home Rule Bill and the consequent retirement of Sir George Trevelyan from the then recently-created Secretary ship of State for Scotland,  Lord Dalhousie accepted the office, and filled it till the resignation of Mr.Gladstone,s Government.

He had been placed on retired list of the Royal Navy in 1884, his health, which was never very robust, preventing him from taking any prominent part in public affairs. He has had to nurse himself carefully for years past, and the trip which he and the countess had lately taken to the United States was entered upon as much in the interest of health  as in that of amusement and instruction. his relation with his tenants on his extensive estates in Scotland were of the most satisfactory and friendly character, and he proved himself during his short tenure of the estates a model landlord.

Lord Dalhousie in December,1877, Lady Ida Louise Bennett, youngest daughter of Charles, sixth Earl of Tankerville, leaves five sons. the eldest, Arthur George Maule, Lord Ramsay, who now succeeds as 14th Earl of Dalhousie, having been born in September 1887. Lord Dalhousie was a deputy Lieutenant of St Andrew, a Magistrate and a deputy Lieutenant of Forfarshire, and sat in the House of Lords as Baron Ramsay in peerage of United Kingdom, which title was conferred upon his father in 1875. The remains of the Countess were brought from Harve and removed to Hereford-Gardens on Saturday morning under the charge of Dr W.M.Collins, of Cadogan-place, the Earl body subsequently arrived in charge of Dr Fagge.