{{short description|British scientist and Secretary to the Governor of Bengal (1726-1795)}}
{{For|other men of this name|John Walsh (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix = 
| name = 
| honorific_suffix = FRS
| image = <!--(filename only)-->
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{birth date |1726|7|1|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Fort St. George]], [[Madras]] (Chennai), India
| death_date = {{death date and age |1795|3|9|1726|7|1|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Mayfair]], [[Westminster]]
| other_names = 
| citizenship = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| fields = Politics, physiology 
| workplaces = [[East India Company]]
| patrons = 
| education = 
| thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )-->
| thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )-->
| thesis_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )-->
| doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )-->
| known_for = Work on the electrical properties of torpedo fish
| academic_advisors = 
| doctoral_students = 
| notable_students = 
| awards = [[Copley Medal]]
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| spouse = <!--(or | spouses = )-->
| partner = <!--(or | partners = )-->
| children = 
| parents =
| father = Joseph Walsh
| mother =
| relatives = [[Nevil Maskelyne]] (cousin)
}}
'''John Walsh''' (1 July 1726 – 9 March 1795) was a [[British people|British]] scientist and Secretary to the Governor of [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]].<ref name=dnb>{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Walsh, John (1725?-1795)|volume=59}}</ref>

John was born in Fort St. George,<ref name= berks>{{cite web
|url= https://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jwalsh.html
|title = Col. John Walsh (1726-1795)
|author = David Nash Ford
}}</ref> son of Joseph Walsh, Secretary to the Governor of [[Fort St. George, India|Fort St. George]] and cousin to [[Nevil Maskelyne]], the [[Astronomer Royal]], and his cousin Margaret Maskelyne, the wife of [[Robert Clive|Lord Clive]].

==Life==
He entered the [[English East India Company]] at the age of fifteen and eventually became Clive's private secretary.<ref>{{cite web|title=Warfield Park Case Study: Imagining Home|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/warfield-park-berkshire/warfield-park-case-study-imagining-home/|website=East India Company at Home, 1757-1857|publisher=University College London|access-date=16 April 2013|archive-date=7 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107090608/http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/warfield-park-berkshire/warfield-park-case-study-imagining-home/|url-status=dead}}</ref> During the 1757 Plassey campaign against the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, John Walsh was awarded £56,000 in prize money. Upon his return to England in 1759, his fortune was estimated at £147,000, and he quickly sought to purchase the necessary trappings of aristocratic power in eighteenth century Britain: land and political influence. In late 1764, Walsh purchased the large estate of [[Warfield Park]], near [[Bracknell]] in [[Berkshire]] and spent the next two years doing it up.<ref name=own>{{cite web|title=Warfield Park Case Study: A Country House of One's Own|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/warfield-park-berkshire/warfield-park-case-study-a-country-house-of-ones-own/|website=East India Company at Home, 1757-1857|publisher=University College London|access-date=16 April 2013|archive-date=7 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107090804/http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/warfield-park-berkshire/warfield-park-case-study-a-country-house-of-ones-own/|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was MP for [[Worcester (UK Parliament constituency)|Worcester]] from 1761 to 1780.<ref name=hop>{{HistoryofParliament |1754 |last=Drummond|first=Mary M.|title=Walsh, John (1726–1795)|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/walsh-john-1726-95}}</ref> He continued to serve Robert Clive, or 'Clive of India' as he became known, and attempted to form a parliamentary interest in his favour.

In 1778 the [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]] of the [[Worcestershire Militia]] died soon after the regiment had been embodied for home defence duties during the [[American War of Independence]]. The [[Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire]] appointed Walsh to the vacancy. This caused great dissatisfaction among the other officers who were passed over, and it was some time before they were persuaded to withdraw their threats of resignation. In 1781 he was promoted to [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant-colonel]] of the regiment, from which he resigned in 1787.<ref>[http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/bat_worcs_militia.php Capt Robert Holden, ''Historical Records of the 3rd and 4th Battalions of the Worcestershire Regiment'', London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, 1887], p. 37; Appendix D.</ref>

=== Electrical properties of torpedo fish ===
In later life, John Walsh's interests were scientific, with a particular interest in [[electric fish]].<ref name="neuro">{{cite web|last1=Wade|first1=Nicholas|last2=Piccolino|first2=Marco|last3=Simmons|first3=Adrian|title=John Walsh 1726–1795|url=http://neuroportraits.eu/portrait/john-walsh|website=Portraits of European Neuroscientists}}</ref><ref name="trends">{{cite journal|last1=Piccolino|first1=Marco|last2=Bresadola|first2=Marco|title=Drawing a spark from darkness: John Walsh and electric fish|journal=Trends in Neurosciences|date=January 2002|volume=25|issue=1|pages=51–57|doi=10.1016/S0166-2236(00)02003-8|pmid=11801339|s2cid=7426379|url=http://utenti.unife.it/marco.piccolino/historical_articles/Walsh/Walsh_TINS.pdf|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103221/http://utenti.unife.it/marco.piccolino/historical_articles/Walsh/Walsh_TINS.pdf|archivedate=4 March 2016}}</ref> He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1770 and awarded their [[Copley Medal]] in 1773 for a paper on the electrical properties of [[torpedo fish]].<ref name="copley">{{cite web|title=Copley Medal|url=https://royalsociety.org/awards/copley-medal/|website=The Royal Society}}</ref><ref name="rs">{{cite journal|last1=Walsh|first1=John|last2=Seignette|first2=Sieu|title=Of the Electric Property of the Torpedo|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|date=1 January 1773|volume=63|pages=461–480|doi=10.1098/rstl.1773.0039|s2cid=186213996}}</ref>

=== Death ===
John Walsh died in 1795 at his home in [[Mayfair]].<ref name =berks/> He left his fortune to his niece, [[Margaret Benn Walsh|Margaret Walsh]], and her husband, [[Sir John Walsh, 1st Baronet|John Benn]], on the condition that they change their surname to Benn-Walsh.<ref name=rebuild>{{cite web|title=Warfield Park Case Study: Rebuilding Warfield|url=http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/eicah/warfield-park-berkshire/warfield-park-case-study-rebuilding-warfield/|website=East India Company at Home, 1757-1857|publisher=University College London}}</ref> With his own fortune of £80,000 made in India while Assistant to the Resident of [[Benares]], his brother-in-law Francis Fowke in the 1770s, John Benn-Walsh had become a very wealthy man and went on to inherit extensive estates in Warfield, Buckinghamshire, in Radnorshire, and in Ormathwaite, Cumberland and be created Baron Ormathwaite.<ref name=rebuild/>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/images/jwalsh.gif Drawing of John Walsh] from the [http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jwalsh.html Royal Berkshire History website]

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|gb}}
{{succession box
 | title  = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Worcester (UK Parliament constituency)|Worcester]]
 | with   = [[Henry Crabb-Boulton]] 1761–73
 | with2  = [[Thomas Bates Rous]] 1773-74
 | with3  = [[Nicholas Lechmere Charlton|Nicholas Lechmere]] 1774
 | with4  = [[Thomas Bates Rous]] 1774-80
 | years  = 1761–1780
 | before = [[Thomas Vernon (MP for Worcester)|Thomas Vernon]]
 | before2= [[Henry Crabb-Boulton]]
 | after  = [[William Ward, 3rd Viscount Dudley and Ward|William Ward]]
 | after2 = [[Thomas Bates Rous]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Copley Medallists 1751-1800}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, John}}
[[Category:1726 births]]
[[Category:1795 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Warfield]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies]]
[[Category:British MPs 1761–1768]]
[[Category:British MPs 1768–1774]]
[[Category:British MPs 1774–1780]]
[[Category:Worcestershire Militia officers]]
[[Category:British zoologists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]
[[Category:18th-century British scientists]]
[[Category:18th-century British zoologists]]
[[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]]