RUSSELL

Lieutenant-Colonel Edward St. John Neale (1812–1866) was a British diplomat and military officer best remembered as the Chargé d'affaires in Japan from 1862 to 1864. He is most noted for his leadership during the crisis following the Namamugi Incident, navigating escalating tensions with the Tokugawa shogunate and the Satsuma Domain. Neale, who had been stationed in Beijing from 1860 as Secretary of the Legation following the settlement of the Second Opium War, was transferred to Japan in March 1862, when Rutherford Alcock went home on leave. Alcock returned to Japan in 1864. The place to which he is hesitant to return because of his health is therefore Japan.