John William Kaye

Sir John William Kaye KCSI (1814 – 24 July 1876) was a British military historian, civil servant and army officer.

The son of Charles Kaye, a solicitor, he was educated at Eton College and at the Royal Military College, Addiscombe. From 1832 to 1841 he was an officer in the Bengal Artillery, afterwards spending some years in literary pursuits both in India and in Britain. In 1856 he entered the civil service of the East India Company, and when in 1858 the government of India was transferred to the British crown, he succeeded John Stuart Mill as secretary of the political and secret department of the India office. In 1871 he was made a KCSI. He died in London.

• 1851: History of the War in Afghanistan (London, 1851), republished in 1858 and 1874
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• 1856: Life and Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm (London, 1856)
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• 1864: History of the Sepoy War in India (London, 1864-1876), which was revised and continued by Colonel G. B. Malleson and published in six volumes in 1888-1889. The full text of this later revised work   is online at ibiblio.org (All six volumes in HTML form, complete, chapter-by-chapter, with all illustrations, footnotes and a combined index)
• 1867: Lives of Indian Officers (London, 1867)
• Peregrine Pultney, a novel
• Long Engagements, a novel

He also edited several works dealing with Indian affairs; wrote Essays of an Optimist (London, 1870); and was a frequent contributor to periodicals.