Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, GCMG, KCSI, KCIE, PC (14 February 1850 – 8 June 1924) was a British diplomat and member of the Indian Civil Service.

He left Persia in March 1900,[2] by which time owing to the illness of his wife Ella he had withdrawn from social life and the legation was in a depressed and disorganised state.

The Russians wished to stop British occupation of Herat, so Durand was despatched to prevent "the strained relations which then existed between Russia and ourselves," wrote the Viceroy, Lord Dufferin, and "might in itself have proved the occasion of a long miserable war."

Tensions at home in British newspapers heightened the urgency of the incident, threatening war in Central Asia, which Rahman was desperate to avoid.

[10] Sir Mortimer was deputed to Kabul by the government of British India for the purpose of settling an exchange of territory required by the demarcation of the Joint Boundary Commission between northeastern Afghanistan and the Russian possessions along the same lines as in 1873, except for the southward salient at Panjdeh.

Rahman showed his usual ability in diplomatic argument, his tenacity where his own views or claims were in debate, with a sure underlying insight into the real situation.