James Atkinson (Persian scholar)

[3] Under Atkinson the Government Gazette continued to be a great success publishing two issues per week from 1823 and in 1827 it was the most widely circulated of all the English language newspapers in Bengal.

[9] For the years 1825-1828 Atkinson leased the Press and the Government Gazette from the Orphan Society for an annual fee of 40,000 rupees effectively becoming its proprietor to run as his own business.

In the same year he published Customs and Manners of the Women of Persia, and their domestic superstitions, translated from the original Persian manuscript (Kitábi Kulsúm Naneh).

[3] He proceeded with the Army under Sir John Keane on its ill-fated expedition into Afghanistan to replace the unpopular and weak, but pro-British, Shah Shoojah-ool-Moolk on the throne and oust Dost Mohamed Khan who had been making political overtures to the Russians.

Atkinson was present at the storming of Ghuznee in July 1839 and the eventual capture of Kabul shortly after in the First Afghan War; for his part he was awarded the Order of the Dooranee Empire (3rd class).

Atkinson was recalled to India in December 1840 to take up his post as Superintending Surgeon of the Cawnpore Division and thus avoided the fate of the remaining British garrison which was destroyed whilst attempting to withdraw to Jellalabad in the winter of 1841.

He writes of the history of the land, its buildings and people, having met and painted many of the protagonists in the campaign, including both Shah Shoojah-ool-Moolk and Dost Mohammad Khan.

[11] The same year Atkinson published Sketches in Afghaunistan, a folio of 25 tinted lithographed plates showing the topography and landscapes of Afghanistan and the Punjab creating an important record of "what was then an unexplored country".