Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison KCSI CIE (20 May 1832 – 18 February 1896) was a Scottish colonial administrator who was Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, then a province of British India.

[3] In 1855 he ranked fifth at the first competitive examination for the Indian Civil Service, and after spending a year in England in the study of law and oriental languages he landed at Kolkata (then Calcutta) on 26 September 1856.

In March 1857 he was appointed an assistant in Hissár, then a district of the North-Western Provinces and in the following month was transferred to the Punjab, where he joined shortly after the outbreak of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

His first station in his new province was Amritsar, and immediately after his arrival there he was employed under the orders of the deputy commissioner in carrying out the measures which were taken to prevent the Jalandhar mutineers from crossing the Beas River.

In 1875, he published a treatise on The Native States of India, with the leading cases illustrating the principles which underlie their relations with the British government.

A staunch believer in the policy of masterly inactivity, he regarded with grave apprehension the measures which, carried out under the government of Lord Lytton, culminated in the Afghan war of 1878–9.

Neither of these questions was dealt with officially by Lytton's government; but with reference to the second the viceroy intimated semi-officially that he disapproved of a circular which Aitchison had issued, as mixing up morals with politics.

He was a staunch advocate of the policy of advancing indigenous Indians in the public service as they proved their fitness for higher posts and for more responsible duties.

[3] Aitchison, a religious man, was a supporter of Christian missions while in India, and after his retirement was an active member of the committee of the Church Missionary Society.