The Governor-General of India during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) was:

Lord Auckland (George Eden) was the Governor-General of India from 1836 to 1842, during which the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842) began.

Background:

• The British feared Russian influence in Afghanistan and Persia.
• Dost Mohammad Khan, the Amir of Afghanistan, wanted British help to recover Peshawar from Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but the British refused.
• When Dost Mohammad received a Russian envoy, the British decided to replace him with a friendly ruler.

The plan:

The British, Ranjit Singh and the former Afghan ruler Shah Shuja agreed (1838) to restore Shah Shuja to the throne of Kabul.

The war:

• A British army (the "Army of the Indus") invaded Afghanistan in 1839, captured Kandahar, Ghazni and Kabul, and placed Shah Shuja on the throne.
• Dost Mohammad surrendered and was sent to India.
• However, Shah Shuja was unpopular, and the Afghans rose in revolt in 1841.
• The British envoy, Sir William Macnaghten, and Alexander Burnes were killed.
• The British army retreated from Kabul in January 1842, in winter; almost the entire force of about 16,000 soldiers and camp followers was destroyed in the mountain passes.
• Dr William Brydon is famous as the sole European survivor who reached Jalalabad.
• This was one of the worst disasters in British military history.

After the war:

• Lord Auckland was recalled.
• His successor, Lord Ellenborough, sent an "army of retribution", which recaptured Kabul and then withdrew (1842).
• Dost Mohammad was allowed to return and rule Afghanistan.

Other events of Auckland's time:

The famine of 1837-38 in north India.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Lord Ellenborough succeeded Auckland and ended the war.
• ✗Lord Amherst was Governor-General during the First Anglo-Burmese War.
• ✗Lord Hardinge was Governor-General during the First Anglo-Sikh War.