Charles John Canning, Earl Canning, also called (1837–59) Viscount Canning of Kilbrahan, (born December 14, 1812, London, England—died June 17, 1862, London), statesman and governor-general of India during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. He became the first viceroy of India in 1858 and played an important part in the work of reconstruction in that colony.
The youngest son of George Canning, he was a member of Parliament from 1836 and inherited a viscounty from his mother in 1837. He joined the cabinet of Sir Robert Peel in 1841 as undersecretary of state for foreign affairs and from 1846 served as commissioner of woods and forests. He was postmaster general under Lord Aberdeen (1853–55) and was appointed governor-general of India by Lord Palmerston’s government in 1856. Canning immediately dispatched a military expedition to the Persian Gulf against the shah of Persia, who had seized the British protectorate of Her?t in Afghanistan. The expedition drove the shah’s forces out of Her?t and won the friendship of D?st Mo?ammad Kh?n, ruler of Afghanistan, consolidated by a treaty in 1857.
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