Sir Hugh Cleghorn FRSE LLD (1751-1836) was the first colonial secretary to Ceylon. He was key in the takeover of Ceylon from Dutch control to the British Empire.[1] In 1795 Cleghorn used his friendship with Comte Charles-Daniel de Meuron, who owned a regiment of Swiss mercenaries, the Regiment de Meuron, that controlled Ceylon for the Dutch, to transfer control to the British.[2] His grandson Hugh Francis Clarke Cleghorn was instrumental in the foundation of the forest department and forest conservation in India.