Mountstuart Elphinstone, born in 1779 as the forth son of John, 11th Baron Elphinstone, became a member of the Bengal Civil Service, arriving in India in 1796. In 1802 Elphinstone went to Poona as the assistant to the govenor-general's agent aand soon distinguished himself in two battles. Conspicuous military and diplomatic services ensured his rapid advancement and in 1808 Elphinstone obtained the important position of Ambassador to the Afghan Court of Kabul. In 1819 he went to Bombay to take up the governorship and prepared the code of law which subsisted for forty years. The foundations of the public education system were laid by him. He was probably presented with the plates on his return to England in 1829. He declined a baronecty and any further offices, instead devoting himself to writing his well known 'History of India'. He died in 1859, a statue being erected in St. Paul's Cathedral in memory of him, one of the founders of the Anglo-India Empire.