Patrick Colquhoun

Who was Patrick Colquhoun?

Sir Patrick Colquhoun QC was a British diplomat, legal writer and sculler who was considered the father of Cambridge rowing.

Colquhoun was the son of James Colquhoun and the grandson of the Patrick Colquhoun who was Lord Provost of Glasgow. He was educated at Westminster and St John's College, Cambridge. In 1837 he won the Wingfield Sculls and in the same year instituted the Colquhoun Sculls at the University of Cambridge.

From 1840 to 1844, Colquhoun was Plenipotentiary of the Hanse Towns at Constantinople, Persia and Greece, through his father's connections. In Constantinople he was close friends with James Redhouse. He encountered the author George Borrow on his travels and was not impressed. He then returned to England and joined the Home Circuit. He was well respected in the literary world and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1845. Charles Leland wrote Who that knows London knoweth not Sir Patrick Colquhoun? I made his acquaintance in 1848, when, coming over from student-life in Paris. He was also a noted linguist. From 1857 to 1866, he was Aulic Counsellor to the King of Saxony and standing Counsel to the Saxon Legation. He was then member of the Supreme Court of Justice in Corfu from 1858 to 1861. In 1861, when he was Chief Justice of the Ionian Islands, he was knighted on 14 November. Colquhoun became Queen's Counsel in 1868 and a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1869.