Category Archives: A to Z 2023

Painting the map red

01 Monday May 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, British Empire

≈ 4 Comments

The British Empire provided direct employment for several of my forebears and relatives, as administrators, soldiers and sailors, and magistrates and missionaries.

For others of them, the Empire (like the Pax Romana of earlier times), meant an imposed peace, which gave opportunity for trade and enterprise somewhere within the shelter of the red on the map.

The territories that were at one time or another part of the British Empire. The United Kingdom and its accompanying British Overseas Territories are underlined in red.
Map from Wikimedia Commons

Many of the relatives I have written about for this year’s A to Z Challenge were younger sons. With no prospect of inheriting an estate they were obliged to find a career and an income. In doing so, they, with other builders of the Empire, ‘conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind.’

Many died young, but more than a few managed to make a good living abroad, with large families and substantial incomes unachievable by those who stayed in England. Their success often required some small help, often a patron’s initial influence. A good education was useful. From then their success depended on their own endeavours and a touch of good fortune.

My posts in 2023:

  • A is for Agra: George Symes (1859 – 1920), father of my step grandfather, served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery. His infant son died in Agra.
  • B is for Buntingdale: Francis Tuckfield (1808–1865), married to Greg’s third great grand aunt, was a Methodist minister, who in early colonial times set up an Aboriginal mission near Colac, in Victoria.
  • C is for Ceylonese coffee: my great great grandfather Wentworth Cavenagh (1822–1895) who in the 1840s left his home in Ireland and travelled the world becoming, successively, a farmer in Canada, a coffee planter in Ceylon, and a gold miner in Victoria.
  • D is for died in Dacca: Edward Henry Mainwaring (1781–1807), son of my fifth great grandparents Rowland Mainwaring (1745–1817) and Jane Mainwaring née Latham (1755–1809) was my fourth great grand uncle. He  served in the Bengal Army for ten years before dying suddenly in Dacca on 22 July 1807, at the age of 25.
  • E is for emigration: a summary of my ancestors and those of my husband who emigrated to Australia, leaving their homes permanently in search of a better life.
  • F is for Ferozepore: birthplace of my 1st cousin four times removed, George Bannatyne Wymer (1839–1908), who was the third child of my third great aunt Emily Crespigny Wymer née Hindes. George was born on 10 December 1839 and christened on 5 January 1840. His father was a soldier in the East India Company.
  • G is for garden at Dapuri near Poona: my third cousin four times removed Eyre Nicholas Champion de Crespigny (1821–1895), by profession a medical practitioner, was a keen amateur botanist who became Superintendent of the Government Botanical Gardens at Dapuri [Dapodi] near Poonah [Pune] in India.
  • H is for Haileybury: my 4th great uncle George Mainwaring (1791–1865) was the youngest son of my 5th great grandparents, Rowland Mainwaring and Jane Mainwaring née Latham. In December 1806 he petitioned to join the clerical and administrative arm of the Honourable East India Company and a year later, at the age of fifteen or thereabouts, George was accepted as a Writer [junior clerk]. George’s career began with two years training—1807 to 1809—in the East India Company’s College. This had been temporarily accommodated in the Gatehouse buildings of Hertford Castle; by 1809 it had moved to new quarters, known as Haileybury College, in Hailey, Hertfordshire.
  • I is for Indian Mutiny: at least three relatives were killed in the 1857 Mutiny:  my second cousin five times removed Lieutenant Matthew Hugh Reveley of the 74th Native Infantry; my first cousin five times removed Captain Rowland Mainwaring Smith of the 54th Bengal Native Infantry; my first cousins five times removed, Cornet Charles Mainwaring of the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry.
  • J is for Jamaica: my fourth great uncle Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring (1837–1906) was tenth of the seventeen children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783–1862), eldest of the eight children of Rowland’s third wife Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (1811–1891). Karl joined the navy and served in Jamaica. After retirement from the navy he was harbour master in Kingston, Jamaica.
  • K is for Retreat from Kabul: Mrs Georgiana Mainwaring, wife of my first cousin five times removed, and her 3 month old son Edward, were caught up in the disastrous 1842 retreat from Kabul but survived.
  • L is for languages: my first cousin five times removed Alliston Champion Toker (1843-1936) was a soldier in the Bengal Army and translator into Indian languages.
  • M is for medals: my step grandfather George Symes (1896–1980) had a collection of medals awarded to soldiers of his regiment, the York and Lancaster, which were awarded to commemorate campaigns in which the regiment and its predecessors took part.
  • N is for New Zealand: my first cousin five times removed was a soldier named Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834–-1866). He fought in the Crimea and in the Māori Wars.
  • O is for Opportunities Lost and Found: the career in the East India Company of Joseph Sherburne, the husband of my 4th great grand aunt (1751–1805), had its ups and downs
  • P is for palanquin: Colonel George Wymer (1788–1868), husband of my 4th great aunt Emily Crespigny Wymer née Hindes was attacked and robbed while travelling by palanquin on the road between Ferozepore to Loodianah, a section of the Grand Trunk Road.
  • Q is for Quebec: my fifth great grandfather William Duff (1754–1795), was taken prisoner by Rebels in 1775 during the American Revolution in the capture of Fort Chambly near Quebec. After the war he again served in Quebec.
  • R is for Railway Accident: my first cousin five times removed Norman William Mainwaring(1821–1858, son of George Mainwaring and Isabella née Byres, was a soldier in the Bengal Army. He died in a railway accident at Howrah station near Calcutta.
  • S is for saving a language: my first cousin five times removed, Lieutenant General George Byres Mainwaring (1825–1893), was a soldier in the Bengal Army and a linguist who studied the little known language of the Lepchas of the Darjeeling hills.
  • T is for twin: Greg’s great grandfather Henry Dawson (1864 – 1929) served for a short while in the British Army. He later emigrated to Australia. His twin brother stayed in England.
  • U is for unlucky in Argentina: my 1st cousin four times removed Henry Arthur Mainwaring (1852–1877) was the fourth of the ten children of the Reverend Charles Henry Mainwaring (1819–1878), rector of Whitmore, and his wife Jane née Delves-Broughton (1824–1873), daughter of a Staffordshire baronet. He emigrated to Argentina but died there as a young man.
  • V is for Vitoria and for Van Diemen’s Land: my second cousin six times removed, Frederick Jemmet Mainwaring (1796–1858), served in the 51st Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular War and was later deployed with the regiment to Tasmania then known as Van Diemen’s Land.
  • W is for the wrath of Wellington: Lieutenant Colonel John Montagu Mainwaring (1761–-1842), my first cousin seven times removed, during a battle in the Peninsular War burned the regimental colours. The Duke of Wellington, the commander of the British army, was greatly displeased.
  • X is for Xiānggǎng: the Royal Navy had a base in Hong Kong. My fourth great uncle Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring (1837–1906) served there and his younger brother Guy (1847–1909) visited the base.
  • Y is for younger sons: the sons of my fourth great grandfather, Rowland Mainwaring (1782–1862), who were not destined to inherit land or wealth, were helped in the first steps of their career, some were educated for the Church, and some found a place in the army or the navy. Their ongoing success depended on their own endeavours and good fortune.
  • Z is for Zagazig: my first cousin five times removed Alliston Champion Toker (1843-1936), was with the Indian contingent at the 1882 battle of Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt. That battle was followed by a pursuit of the enemy to a town called Zagazig.

Z is for Zagazig

30 Sunday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, CdeC baronets, military, Toker

≈ 15 Comments

When I was a girl, in a gloomy corridor of my grandmother’s house in Adelaide there was a lithograph of Tel-el-Kebir, the 1882 battle that won the Anglo-Egyptian War for the British. It probably came from my step-grandfather, George Symes, whose regiment, the Yorks and Lancs, had a part in the victory.

1890 Bird’s eye view of the battle of Tel-el-Kebir drawn by G. W. Bacon. Image retrieved through Geographicus Rare Antique Maps: a zoomable image is available through the link.
Zagazig is shown on the horizon. The Bengal infantry are to the left on the other side of the canal, the Cameronian Highlanders are in the front of the charge to the left. The 84th Regiment (York and Lancaster) are to the right, being led by an officer with a raised sword and next to the cannon.
The picture of Tel-el-Kebir hanging in my brother’s house

In 1882 Alliston Toker (see L is for Languages) was D.A.A.G. [Deputy Assistant Adjutant General] to the Indian contingent at Tel-el-Kebir and subsequent pursuit to Zagazig; he was mentioned in despatches, receiving the brevet of Lieut.-Colonel and the 4th class of the Order of Osmanieh

13th Bengal Cavalry at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir on 13th September 1882 retrieved from BritishBattles.com

The Anglo-Egyptian war was fought over who should control the Suez Canal.

From 1879 Colonel Ahmed ʻUrabi (or Orabi or Arabi) sought to depose the Khedive Tewfik Pasha and end British and French influence over the country. Egypt had been bankrupted by interest payments on loans incurred to fund an over-ambitious programme of infrastructure projects. The country’s finances were controlled by representatives of France and Britain.

In June 1882 there were riots in Alexandria, and the British bombarded the city.

The British were afraid they might lose control of Egypt, forfeiting loans and interest repayments. They were also concerned about the security of the Suez Canal which, since its opening in 1869, had become a vital part of the global communications of the British Empire.

Garnet Wolseley‘s 24,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops was the largest Imperial overseas force since the Crimean War in the 1850s. On his arrival Wolseley took control of the Suez Canal, secured his communications, created a strong base, built up stores, and concentrated his forces.

To defend Cairo the Egyptian forces dug in at Tel El Kebir, north of the railway and the Sweetwater Canal, both of which linked Cairo to Ismailia on the canal. The defences, though hastily prepared, included trenches and redoubts.

Wolseley planned to approach the position by night and attack frontally at dawn, hoping to achieve surprise, and a final, decisive victory.

Night marches are risky but the approach march of the main forces was made easier because the desert was almost flat and unobstructed.

Orders to prepare for battle were issued at 3pm on the afternoon of 12 September. One hundred rounds and two days’ rations were issued to every man. The orders instructed “Commanding officers are to be very particular about the fitness of water-carts, which will be filled and follow in rear of the battalions, and to make sure, by the personal inspection of company officers at 5 p.m. to-day, that every man has his water-bottle filled, if possible, with cold tea.”

The troops were told to maintain strict silence on the march; orders were to be given in whispers and rifles would be unloaded to avoid chance shots. No lights were to be shown; smoking was banned. Tents were left standing until dusk, campfires burning thereafter, so as not to alert the enemy to the fact that the British were on the move.

The advance from Ismailia began at 1.30am. An estimate of one-mile-per-hour average speed was calculated for a dawn attack. Navigation was by the stars. There were frequent halts to check direction and alignment. The march from the perspective of the 79th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders was described in the regimental history:

“The weird night march, long to be retained in the annals of the regiment and the country, can never be forgotten by those who took part in it ; the monotonous tramp, the sombre lines, the dimly discerned sea of desert faintly lighted by the stars, were at once ghostly and impressive. The pace was necessarily slow ; one halt was made, and shortly afterwards the directing star having become concealed another one was chosen, and the direction slightly changed to the right. The 42nd, 74th, and 75th, did not at once conform, and the consequence was that a halt had to be made as these regiments found themselves almost facing each other.
This line was quickly and silently re-formed, and the advance continued.
Just as dawn was breaking two shots were fired from the left front, and Private James Pollock of the regiment fell dead. It was now evident that the regiment was close upon the enemy. Bayonets were at once fixed.”

At 5.45 a.m. Wolseley’s troops were six hundred yards from the entrenchments and dawn was just breaking, when Egyptian sentries saw them and fired. The first shots were followed by multiple volleys from the entrenchments and by the artillery. British troops charged with the bayonet. The Highlanders charged “to the shrill music of the pipes, and cheering as they ran”.

Wolseley had written in his 1871 “Soldier’s Pocket-Book for Field Service”:

“A ringing cheer is inseparable from charging. I do not believe it possible to get a line in action to charge in silence ; and were it possible, the general who would deprive himself of the moral assistance it gives the assailants, must be an idiot. It encourages, lends nerve and confidence to an assailant : its very clamour makes men feel their strength as they realise the numbers that are charging with them. Nothing serves more to strike terror into a force that is charged than a loud ringing cheer, bespeaking confidence.”
Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, 1882; painting by Henri-Louis Dupray. In the collection of the National Army Museum.
The painting depicts the moment at first light when the Highland Brigade, having advanced within 150 yards of the Egyptian trenches and fixing bayonets as they went, stormed the enemy at bayonet-point.

The British advance was shielded from view by the smoke from the Egyptian artillery and rifles. Arriving in the trenches at the same time, all along the line, the resulting battle was over within an hour. The Egyptians fought strongly, Sir Archibald Alison, a Highland commander, reported in ”The Highland Brigade” by James Cromb, recalled:

‘Retiring up a line of works which we had taken in flank, they rallied at every re-entering angle, at every battery, at every redoubt, and renewed the fight. Four or five times we had to close upon them with bayonet, and I saw these men fighting hard when their officers were flying.’

It was a crushing defeat for the Egyptians. Official British figures gave a total of 57 British troops killed. Approximately two thousand Egyptians died. The British army had more casualties due to heatstroke than enemy action.

British cavalry pursued the broken enemy towards Cairo, which was undefended.

The regimental history of the 79th states:

“At 4.30 p.m. the same day the regiment, with the 74th and 75th, marched about five miles towards Zagazig and bivouacked for the night. The following day it moved on to Zagazig, 13 miles distant.
On entering Zagazig, about 6 p.m., the 72nd Highlanders were seen encamped on the other side of the canal, and raised many a cheer as the regiment passed. They formed part of the Indian contingent, and had pushed on in front of the Highland brigade.”
Occupation Of Zagazig, after the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir from Recent British battles on land and sea by James Grant, page 492 retrieved through Google Books
On the road to Tel-el-Kebir – Zagazig (looking towards the Battlefield) by F Murdoch Wright. Watercolour dated 1882 – 1890 in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum
The British were at Ismailia and marched to Tel el Kebir. Fugitives from the battle fled to Zagazig.

Zagazig, is situated in the eastern part of the Nile delta. It is just under 60 km west of Tel el Kebir and 70 km north of Cairo. Many fugitives from the battle fled there.

Organised Egyptian resistance collapsed after Tel el-Kebir and the puppet regime of the Khedive was restored by the British. ʻUrabi was captured and eventually exiled to the British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Egypt became a British colony in all but name.

Also serving in the battle was Tyrrell Other William Champion de Crespigny (1859 – 1946), brother of the 4th baronet and a distant cousin. I wrote about him in ‘U for Unregistered in 2021‘.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree:

Y is for younger sons

29 Saturday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Mainwaring, younger son

≈ 10 Comments

In “Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune: How Younger Sons Made Their Way in Jane Austen’s England” the historian Rory Muir wrote:

Not all gentlemen were rich; indeed, many had little money of their own and had to pursue a career. The eldest son would normally inherit the family estate, while the daughters and younger sons would receive no more than a start in life. The girls would be introduced into society where they might find a husband, and they would receive some money either as part of their marriage settlement or as capital on which they might contrive to live as a spinster. The younger sons would be helped in the first steps of their career, educated for the Church or the law, or found a place in the army or the navy, and they too would be given or inherit a little capital. Their father, and when he died their eldest brother, would continue to use whatever influence he possessed to help them along, but their success would largely depend on their own endeavours and their good fortune.

Muir argues that younger sons had few choices:

  • The Church. This was safe for the unambitious, but life for most clergymen was humdrum and often poorly rewarded financially.
  • The law offered better rewards but competition was fierce and it was often a struggle in the early years.
  • The navy was a cheaper choice. Boys joined at the age 14 or so without the expense of school or university.
  • The army was more expensive as commissions for each rank were purchased, though this was sometimes waived in times of war.
  • Manufacturing and trade were socially acceptable.
  • Medicine in the early nineteenth century had a lower status than the law.
  • There were desirable positions in Government service, but for these there was fierce competion.
  • India and the colonies were unlikely to produce great personal wealth although there were exceptions

My Georgian and Victorian male relatives, at least most of those I have written about, made their careers as officers in the army and navy or in the colonies as settlers and administrators. The younger sons, prevented by the custom of primogeniture from inheriting any large part of their father’s estate, gave their talents and energies to building the Empire.

There were risks in this, and many died young, but more than a few managed to make a good living abroad, with large families and substantial incomes otherwise unachievable.

My Mainwaring ancestors provide a good example. Rowland Mainwaring (1782-1862), my 4th great grandfather, was the younger son of a younger son. His father was an army officer. Rowland joined the navy at the age of 12 as a ‘young gentleman’ midshipman. His three brothers all joined the East India Company. Four of Rowland Mainwaring’s sons joined the navy, two became clergymen, two joined the East India Company or the India Civil Service, three joined the army, six emigrated to New Zealand, South Australia or India. None chose the occupations of law, trade, manufacturing, or medicine.

As for Mainwaring’s daughters, two died young, one married an army officer and the other a clergyman, so allying themselves, unsurprisingly, with the class occupied by their brothers.

Rowland Mainwaring married three times and fathered 17 children:

  1. Rowland Mainwaring (1811-1826) entered the Royal Navy aged 13. (He died in Sydney of dysentery at the age of 15.)
  2. Sophia Henrietta Mainwaring (1815–1871) married an army (militia) officer.
  3. Edward Pellew Mainwaring (1815–1858) joined the navy at the age of 15 (he left when he was 20). He was the heir apparent to the family estate ‘Whitmore’.
  4. Gordon Mainwaring (1817–1872) was first a cadet at Addiscombe Military Seminary, military school of the British East India Company. He then joined the the 53rd Bengal Native Infantry Company, but soon resigned and emigrated to South Australia. In 1858, his elder brother died with no sons and Gordon became the heir to the family estate ‘Whitmore’, which he inherited in 1862.
  5. Paulina Mary Mainwaring (1818–1825) died young.
  6. Charles Henry Mainwaring (1819–1878) clergyman became rector of Whitmore.
  7. William Arthur Mainwaring (1822–1854) joined the army, becoming a Captain of the 79th Highlanders.
  8. George Mainwaring (1824–1850) joined the army, became a Lieutenant of the 85th Light Infantry, then emigrated to South Australia.
  9. Mary Anne Mainwaring (1828–1865) married a clergyman.
  10. Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring (1837–1906) joined the navy, rising to the rank of Captain. He became harbour master in Jamaica. He retired to the island of Jersey.
  11. Randolph Mainwaring (1839–1902) was educated at University College, Oxford. In 1865 he emigrated to New Zealand, where he worked with several of his brothers for a few years on Manipouri Station, South-West Otago. He became a journalist.
  12. Eugene George Henri Mainwaring (1841–1911) was articled to a Civil Engineer. He farmed with his brothers in New Zealand and then worked as a civil engineer in New Zealand.
  13. Laura Chevillard Mainwaring (1843–1843) died young.
  14. Frederic Mainwaring (1844–1922) went with his brothers to New Zealand. He became a Council clerk there.
  15. Guy Mainwaring (1847–1909) joined the navy, where he rose to the rank of Rear Admiral.
  16. Horatio Mainwaring (1848–1913) entered the Indian Civil Service in its Woods’ and Forests’ Department.
  17. Algernon Mainwaring (1852–1926), educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, became a Clerk in Holy Orders.

As Muir suggests, some of the sons of Rowland Mainwaring were indeed helped in the first steps of their career, some were educated for the Church, and some found a place in the army or the navy. They inherited very little capital from their father. Their success did depend on their own endeavours and good fortune.

Gordon Mainwaring
Guy Mainwaring
Randolph, Eugene, Frederic, and Horatio Mainwaring
The youngest son of Admiral Rowland Mainwaring, Algernon, with his widowed mother, Laura Mainwaring
Some of the sons of Admiral Rowland Mainwaring

Related posts

Wikitree: Rowland Mainwaring (1782 – 1862)

Rowland Mainwaring married three times and had 17 children

Rowland (28) married Sophia Henrietta Duff (~20) (~1790 – 1824) on 31 Dec 1810 in Stoke Damerel, Devon, England. Their children were:

  1. Rowland Mainwaring (1811 – 1826)
  2. Sophia Henrietta (Mainwaring) Coyney (1813 – 1871)
  3. Edward Pellew Mainwaring (1815 – 1858)
  4. Gordon Mainwaring (1817 – 1872)
  5. Paulina Mary Mainwaring (1818 – 1825)
  6. Charles Henry Mainwaring (1819 – 1878)
  7. William Arthur Mainwaring (1822 – 1854)
  8. George Mainwaring (1824 – 1850).

Rowland (43) married Mary Anne Clark (41) (1785 – 1835) on 15 Nov 1826 in Preshute, Wiltshire, England. Their daughter was Mary Ann (Mainwaring) Vaughan-Hughes (1828 – 1865).

Rowland (53) married Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (~24) (~1812 – 1891) on 11 Nov 1836 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Their children were:

  1. Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring (1837 – 1906)
  2. Randolph Mainwaring (1839 – 1902)
  3. Eugene George Henri Mainwaring (1841 – 1911)
  4. Laura Chevillard Mainwaring (1843 – 1843)
  5. Frederic Mainwaring (1844 – 1922)
  6. Guy Mainwaring (1847 – 1909)
  7. Horatio Mainwaring (1848 – 1913)
  8. Algernon Mainwaring (1852 – 1926).

X is for Xiānggǎng

28 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Hong Kong, Mainwaring, navy

≈ 5 Comments

Xiānggǎng, with an X, is the modern, pīnyīn, transcription of 香港 ‘fragrant harbour’ pronounced in Mandarin.

The name first came to Western notice in the so-called ‘First Opium War’, a series of skirmishes fought between Britain and imperial China from September 1839 to August 1842 over British insistence on their ‘right’ to trade opium in defiance of a Chinese ban.

The 1842 Treaty of Nanking ended the war in favour of the British. The Chinese were forced to make concessions; one was the ceding of Hong Kong island and, later, following the Second Opium War of 1856 to 1860, Kowloon Peninsular. On 26 January 1841 Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer raised the Union Jack and claimed Hong Kong as a colony. Construction of a naval base began. In 1898 Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories.

‘China Station‘, which referred both to the Royal Navy naval base and the admiral in command, was created in 1865. It had as its area of responsibility the coast of China and its navigable rivers, and beyond this to the western part of the Pacific Ocean and the waters around the Dutch East Indies.

In 1866 my fourth great uncle Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring (1837–1906) was stationed in Hong Kong as a naval lieutenant in the China Squadron, on HMS Princess Charlotte.


HMS Princess Charlotte painted 1838 by James Kennett Willson. Image from Wikimedia Commons
Kellett’s Island, looking west across Wanchai towards Central and the Peak, with HMS Princess Charlotte on the right (1869 – 71). Image from BlouinArtinfo



HMS Princess Charlotte was a receiving ship, a harbour-bound hulk used for stores and accommodation in lieu of a permanent shore base at Hong Kong in 1858.

In July 1866 Lieutenant Mainwaring was given charge of HMS Opossum, a 4-gun screw gunboat with a crew of 38. Given the task of destroying Chinese pirates Mainwaring was notably successful. (See ‘X is for destruction of a piratical fleet near Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong)‘)

‘Expedition against the Chinese Pirates’ from The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865 page 409 with illustration: Fleet of Chinese junks, with HMS Opossum, preparing to attack pirates at How-Chow.

Karl Mainwaring was promoted to commander in 1867. In 1868 he transferred to Jamaica where he served on HMS Aboukir, a receiving ship used for stores and accommodation in lieu of a permanent shore base. (See (J is for Jamaica)

In 1869 Karl Mainwaring’s brother Guy (1847–1909) passed through Hong Kong as a lieutenant on HMS Galatea, a steam-powered wooden frigate, under the command of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria.

HMS Galatea, Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, during the visit of H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh. Tuesday 2nd November 1869.
Photograph by John Thomson, first published in Thomson’s ‘Illustrations of China and Its People‘.
Image from Historical Photographs of China, University of Bristol.
A fellow officer on the Galatea, Lord Charles Beresford, danced the hornpipe. While in Hong Kong, Guy Mainwaring and Charles Beresford were photographed together in costume. (This is the Charles Beresford who as Admiral became notorious for his bitter dispute with Sir John (Jackie) Fisher, First Sea Lord.)
Guy Mainwaring is in the striped shirt.
Photographed by William Floyd of Hong Kong; from the Library of Nineteenth Century Photography

In 1941 China Station was merged with the East Indies Station in December 1941 to form the Eastern Fleet.

Related posts

Wikitree: 

W is for the wrath of Wellington

27 Thursday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Mainwaring, military, Napoleonic wars

≈ 4 Comments

It is easy to criticise the decisions made by a soldier in the heat of battle, and it can be a difficult task to establish just why he took this or that action. Consider the case of Lieutenant Colonel John Montagu Mainwaring (1761–1842), my first cousin seven times removed, who during a battle in the Peninsular War burned the regimental colours.

John Montagu Mainwaring was the second son of Benjamin Mainwaring (1719–1782), an attorney.

In 1784, at the age of 23, he joined the 67th Regiment, where he was promoted to lieutenant in 1789, captain in 1794, and major in 1800. In 1804 Mainwaring transferred to the 90th regiment as lieutenant-colonel, then, in 1808, to the 51st regiment. (John’s older brother also served in the army and his younger brother was a naval officer.)

In the Walcheren Campaign in the Netherlands Mainwaring commanded the advance at Flushing. With two companies of the 51st Regiment and two of the 82nd, he repulsed a French sortie, taking 600 prisoners and capturing two nine-pounder guns.

Early in 1811, he accompanied his Regiment to Lisbon, and commanded it in the three-day-long battle of Fuentes de Oñoro.

Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro painted by Henri Dupray (public domain)

During the fighting, standing on defence behind Poço Velho, Lieutenant Colonel Mainwaring, believing—falsely, as it turned out—that his men were soon to be defeated and over-run, deliberately burned the Regimental Colours. This was a grave matter. The flags and banners unique to a regiment, symbol of its identity and history, were always defended, at any cost. His supporters explained that these precious objects had been destroyed to prevent them falling into enemy hands. Wellington, the commander of the British army, greatly displeased, had Mainwaring court-martialled, and when Mainwaring was wounded in a later engagement had him returned to England.

John Colburne, Field-Marshal and a colonial governor, who during the Peninsular War commanded the 52nd Foot, gave his account of what happened:

Colonel Mainwaring, of the 51st, was placed in a position [Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro] in which he thought he was sure to be surrounded by the French. So he called his officers and said, ‘we are sure of being taken or killed; therefore we'll burn the colours.’ Accordingly, they brought the colours and burnt them with all funeral pomp, and buried the ashes, or kept them, I believe. It so happened that the French never came near them. Lord Wellington was exceedingly angry when he heard of it, as he knew well enough where he had placed the regiment. So he ordered Mainwaring under arrest and tried him by court-martial. An old colonel, who undertook his defence, said, ‘I believe it was something to do with religious principles.’ ‘Oh,’ said Lord Wellington, ‘if it was a matter of religious principles, I have nothing more to do with it. You may take him out of arrest; but send him to Lisbon.’ So he went to Lisbon, and was never allowed to command his regiment again; he was sent home.

John Mainwaring’s nephew, Frederick Mainwaring (V is for Vitoria and for Van Diemen’s Land), was with his uncle and the 51st at the battle. He wrote an account of the Peninsular War, published in 1844. Of Fuentes de Oñoro he said:

Day broke at last; and I well remember , in the early grey of a summer’s morn, as the men stood to their arms, how my eyes stretched to see the French; but they were hidden generally from view by the woods, and I could only just discern two or three dark heavy columns, as quiet and apparently as motionless as ourselves. Soon, however, the musketry began with the attack upon the village, then the deep heavy roar of cannon, and we saw troops in our front, the 3rd Light Division, smartly engaged. We were kept in reserve all this day, remaining under arms, but doing nothing. During the night we were moved to the right on account of some movement of the enemy; but with the dawn of day we were back in our places, and deploying into line, were formed with our left thrown back; a Portuguese brigade was immediately behind us, lining a long broken stone wall, and they began a heavy straggling fire, which would have done us considerable harm, had it not been for the presence of mind and gallantry of our Colonel, (my uncle,) who rushed up, and at the imminent risk of his own life, knocked up their muskets with his sword, and succeeded in stopping (to us) this most dangerous fire. We had not as yet seen the foe; soon, however, a round shot whizzed over our heads, and went bounding away far behind us. I made a most polite bow as it passed: it was the first I had ever heard. I was but a boy, and breathing a short prayer to Heaven, for I was then young and innocent, and such prayers we are told never ascend in vain, I murmured to myself, whilst my heart beat most violently, “Now, I am in earnest in battle;” not that it was fear, --it was a mingled emotion of awe and pleasure, and I know not what, I have never felt it since, and cannot now describe it. I looked towards my uncle, heard I him steadily and coolly giving his orders; then came the heavy gallop and rush of cavalry, an immense column of horse advancing at full speed; again the deep manly voice of the Colonel, “Steady, soldiers; ready--present--fire! In a second all this passed; the regiment, all young soldiers, stood in line like a solid rock, poured in a deadly volley; and when the smoke cleared away, horses were to be seen galloping wildly about without riders, and the enemy’s column were moving, much thinned, round our left flank, to attack the regiments posted there; from them they met the same warm reception, and were repulsed with great loss.

We now retired from the right by companies through a small wood, and reformed again in line on some rising ground, exposed to a heavy cannonade. The officer who commanded out brigade, was not to be found; and upon our commanding officer asking the General of the Division what was to be done, his reply was, “Do whatever you please, Colonel M----g.” This officer then taking the command, retired over a plain, in the presence of a large cavalry force, in the most judicious manner, showing, through the whole operations of the day, the greatest possible skill, judgment, and bravery, and yet his honourable breast has been denied the medal he so nobly earned on that field, as an action two days afterwards, in which this officer took the greatest responsibility upon himself, and which ought to have reflected credit upon him rather than annoyance, was misrepresented to the Great Duke, who, with all his bright qualities, is said (if report does not greatly belie him,) never to alter an opinion or a resolution once formed, and thus a brave and distinguished old General is deprived of an honour he so justly deserved…
Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro (3–5 May 1811). Watercolour in the collection of the National Army Museum.
An ensign and colour sergeant of the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment, 1812.
Aquatint in the collection of the National Army Museum.

The Regimental Colours acted as a rallying point in the heat and smoke of battle, so that soldiers could easily find their unit by its Colours. Losing the Colours to the enemy was a great disgrace for a Regiment. The loss betokened complete defeat.

In The Life of a Regimental Officer During the Great War 1793-1815 by A. F. Mockler-Ferryman published in 1913, Mockler-ferryman writes:

Now, as a matter of fact, Sir John Colborne was wrong in saying that "the French never came near them," for it is perfectly certain that the 7th Division was posted in a most perilous position, and was very seriously attacked, although certainly the 51st was not so desperately engaged as were some of the other regiments. The division, numbering some four thousand infantry (of whom the 51st and 85th were the only British regiments), and supported by fourteen hundred cavalry, was detached two miles from the main position, on practically open ground, and every one in the division knew that since Wellington's left flank was impregnable, Massena would, of necessity, direct his attack on the right flank. Wellington himself was well aware of this, but either he did not anticipate so vast a turning movement as his adversary eventually launched, or he had intended that the 7th Division should only hold the outlying position assigned to it long enough to induce Massena to develop his attack against it. Be that as it may, the fact remains that, at one time, the 7th Division was threatened by twenty thousand of Massena's infantry and nearly the whole of his masses of cavalry, and for a while was in imminent danger of being cut off and annihilated. Wellington, of course, set matters right as soon as he realised that the situation was becoming critical, but there were some who imagined that he was intensely annoyed at having made faulty dispositions in the first instance, and that he endeavoured to justify himself in the eyes of the 7th Division by venting his wrath on the colonel of the 51st. At the same time the burning of the colours was an extraordinary procedure on the part of the colonel, and it is not easy to understand how it was that the other senior officers of the regiment acquiesced in it, if, indeed, they did so. When the circumstances became known to Wellington, he was bound to take notice of what had occurred; but apparently the officers of the 51st considered that he was unduly severe in treating their colonel's action as anything more than an error of judgment, for which a reprimand might have been sufficient. As it was, they always maintained that the commander-in-chief had been harsh and unjust, because it had been represented to him that Colonel Mainwaring had doubted the wisdom of his dispositions.

Years afterwards his nephew, Frederick Mainwaring, who, when only fourteen years of age, fought as an ensign of the 51st at Fuentes d'Onor and elsewhere, wrote very strongly on the subject, and referred to the incident of the burning of the colours, though without actually mentioning what had occurred, in the following words:—

"An action, in which this officer took the greatest responsibility upon himself, and which ought to have reflected credit upon him rather than annoyance, was misrepresented to the great Duke, who, with all his bright qualities, is said (if report does not greatly belie him) never to alter an opinion or a resolution once formed."

Colonel Mainwaring was not the only commanding officer in the Peninsula who was troubled by the presence of his regimental colours in the field, for there were occasions upon which the colours hampered the movements of a regiment very considerably. In action they could never be neglected, since they were held to contain, as it were, the soul of the regiment. Originally used as the rallying-point, they had gradually come to be regarded as what nowadays would be termed the mascot of the regiment, so that their loss in battle was thought likely to lead to the most dire consequences. The officers who carried them knew that they were in honour bound to defend them to the last, and when a whole regiment was ordered to skirmish to the front, it was often necessary to leave a company behind to guard the colours. As the war in the Peninsula went on, light infantry regiments realised that their colours were an encumbrance, and observing that rifle regiments were not provided with colours, some of them got permission to place theirs in store. But this was exceptional, and most regiments continued to carry their colours into action. At Waterloo they were everywhere conspicuous, and even in modern times their defence in the field has led to fierce fighting and the performance of signal acts of gallantry. Now, however, the extended battlefield has made their presence an impossibility, and they are no longer taken on active service. Perhaps, in this way, the sentiment attached to the "flag that bore the battle and the breeze" has been rudely crushed; yet the colours of to-day, emblazoned with numerous battle honours, are useful in reminding the young soldiers of a regiment of the victories won by their ancestors.
The Colours of the 51st Foot that were carried at the Battle of Waterloo 1815.
John Mainwaring was not present but his nephew Frederick was a lieutenant with the 51st and present during the battle.
Image from British Light Infantry Regiments: The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

On his return to England John Mainwaring was appointed Commandant of the Depôt at Hilsea near Portsmouth. Afterwards he was appointed Commandant of the Isle of Wight. He was promoted to Major-General in 1819 and was placed on Staff in the West Indies, where he commanded the Army forces for several years. He was appointed Governor of Saint Lucia in 1825.

He retired to the Isle of Wight and died at Cowes in January 1842.

Related posts and further reading

  • A Record of the Services of the Fifty-first (Second West York), the King’s Own Light Infantry … by William Wheater, published 1870, The battle of Fuentes de Oñoro is mentioned on page 76 but there is no mention the loss of the colours
  • The Royal Military Calendar, or Army Service and Commission Book. Containing the Services and Progress of Promotion of the Generals, Lieutenant-generals, Major-generals, Colonels, Lieutenant-colonels, and Majors of the Army, According to Seniority: with Details of the Principal Military Events of the Last Century. by John Philippart, published 1820, Major-General John Montagu Mainwaring pages 12-13
  • The Annual Biography: Being Lives of Eminent Or Remarkable Persons, who Have Died Within the Year 1842 by Charles Roger Dod, published 1843 page 420 Lieutenant-General John Montagu Mainwaring

Wikitree: John Montagu Mainwaring (1761 – 1842)

V is for Vitoria and for Van Diemen’s Land

26 Wednesday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Mainwaring, military, Napoleonic wars, Tasmania

≈ 8 Comments

Many of my Mainwaring cousins served in the British Army. One of note was my second cousin six times removed, Frederick Jemmet Mainwaring (1796–1858).

Frederick Jemmet Mainwaring

Frederick Jemmet Mainwaring was the fourth of the six sons of Edward Mainwaring (1744–1803) and Elizabeth Judith Reeves (1769–1837). During the American War of Independence Edward served as an officer with the King’s Rangers, a British provincial military unit raised in Nova Scotia in 1777. All six of Edward and Elizabeth’s sons were in the army or the navy.

Frederick was born on 15 September 1796 in Shepperton, Surrey. His middle name was probably chosen in honour of his uncle Jemmett Mainwaring (1763–1801), a naval officer.

On 5 April 1810, Frederick, aged 13, joined the 45th Regiment of Foot as an ensign without purchase. Later that year, still an ensign, he transferred to the 51st Regiment of Foot, where his uncle John Montague Mainwaring (1761–1842) was Lieutenant-Colonel. Frederick was promoted to Lieutenant in 1813 and Captain in 1828. He became a Major by purchase in 1838 and finally a Lieutenant Colonel without purchase, unattached, in 1849.

In the Napoleonic war Frederick Mainwaring served in the Iberian Peninsula for three years, at Fuentes d’Oñoro, the siege of Badajoz, Salamanca, the siege of Burgos, San Marcial, Vitoria, the Pyrenees, and the Nivelle. He returned to Britain in early 1814, one of an escort guarding French prisoners of war.

‘Battle of Vittoria, 21st June 1813’
Coloured aquatint from the collection of the National Army Museum.

Waterloo

Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815.  The 51st embarked for Ostend the following month, and were at the Battle of Waterloo in June. Among its achievements the regiment prevented 100 French cuirassiers from escaping.

Frederick, a lucky soldier, took part in all these many battles without ever suffering a wound.

In 1844 he published his memoirs of service, anonymously, in the ‘United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine’ as ‘Four years of a soldier’s life, by a field officer’. Although written many years after the events he describes, the memoir is a convincing portrait of a young subaltern’s adventures in the Peninsular War.

Escorting convicts to Van Diemen’s Land

In 1837 detachments of the 51st Foot were given the task of escorting convicts on their voyage to Australia.

Early in the following year, on 18 January 1838, Captain Mainwaring arrived in Hobart on HMS Neptune with his wife, two children and a servant. In command of an escort of an ensign, two sergeants, and 27 soldiers of the 51st regiment, he had overseen the transportation to Tasmania of 358 male convicts.

Not long after arriving in Van Diemen’s Land Mainwaring was appointed a Justice of the Peace and a Coroner; it was usual for officers of regiments posted to the colony to be assigned these roles.

In October 1838 Captain Mainwaring was promoted to major by purchase. The following year, with this rank, he was appointed Commandant at Launceston.

From the Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas.), Saturday 20 June 1840, page 2:

Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.— On Thursday last, being the 18th of June, our Commandant, Major Mainwaring, held a field day of the Troops stationed here, in commemoration of that day, in which the British army covered their arms with laurels, and on which occasion, our Commandant and Captain Austin were present, being the only Officers stationed here who wear the Waterloo Medal. The detachment on service in Launceston, was divided into two sections, for the purpose of an engagement, which, with all the necessary evolutions, attacking, firing, retreating, forming squares, &c, finished with a hurrah for old England, to the great amusements of a number of spectators.

A few weeks later Mainwaring was replaced as Commandant. He returned to headquarters in Hobart.

Coal mine Commander

In 1843 Major Mainwaring was appointed to command the coal mines at Port Arthur.

From 1833 to 1848 the Coal Mines at Plunkett Point, 20 miles (30km) north of Port Arthur, were a convict probation station and the site of Tasmania’s first coal mine. The mines served as a place of punishment for the ‘worst class’ of convicts from Port Arthur. In 1839 there were 150 prisoners and a detachment of 29 officers stationed at the mines. Large stone barracks, which housed up to 170 prisoners, as well as the chapel, bakehouse and store had been erected. On the hillside above were comfortable quarters for the commanding officer, surgeon and other officials. By 1847 the main shaft was down over 300 feet with an extensive system of subterranean tunnels and caverns. The work of extracting the coal was carried out by convicts in two eight hour shifts. The men had to extract 25 tons in each shift to reach the day’s quota.

The settlement at the coal mines near Port Arthur, Tasmania.
Photographed in 2012 by Andrew Matthews. Image from flickr.com (CC BY-NC 2.0)

India

In 1846 Mainwaring left Van Diemen’s Land, travelling with the 51st Regiment to India. Sadly his wife Catherine died in Madras in January 1847, only 41 years old. They had 4 surviving children.

On 4 September 1849 Frederick became a Lieutenant Colonel without purchase, unattached. He later left the 51st Regiment and joined the 59th.

At the time of the 1851 census Frederick Mainwaring, occupation Lieutenant Colonel unattached, was living in Guernsey with his three younger children. His oldest daughter had married in 1848.

About 1852 Frederick married again. He and his second wife had one son. In 1858 he died on Jersey at the age of 62.

Related posts

Other relatives on my family tree who went to Van Diemen’s Land to guard convicts:

Wikitree: Frederick Jemmett Mainwaring (1796 – 1858)

U is for unlucky in Argentina

25 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Mainwaring

≈ 8 Comments

My 1st cousin four times removed Henry Arthur Mainwaring (1852–1877) was the fourth of the ten children of the Reverend Charles Henry Mainwaring (1819–1878), rector of Whitmore, and his wife Jane née Delves-Broughton (1824–1873), daughter of a Staffordshire baronet.

At the time of the 1871 census Henry was recorded as 19 years old, with no occupation, living at Whitmore rectory with his parents and siblings.

Unwilling to follow his father into the Church and, perhaps responding to an urge for adventure, Henry decided to try his luck abroad. He left Whitmore and England (I am not sure exactly when) and took up farming in a remote corner of South America.

Perhaps Henry had heard a lecture on opportunities overseas like the talk on “South America as a Field for Emigration” given by Richard Seymour, who had spent four years in Argentina. Like Henry, Richard was the son of a cleric, the Reverend R. Seymour of Kinwarton, a Warwickshire village. (The lecture was reported in the Alcester Chronicle of 8 January 1870.)

After giving an introduction to the history and geography of Argentina, Seymour mentioned that the expense of travelling to Buenos Aires— £15 to £50— was very reasonable for a distance of 7,000 miles. Seymour and his partner had bought 36 square miles (nearly 25,000 acres) of beautiful grassland for 6 pence an acre. The land was beside the River Saladillo; a drought would not be a complete disaster.

Seymour argued that what Argentina needed was settlers, who would provide a measure of mutual protection. A number of families would not suffer from the monotony felt by solitary settlers. Seymour told his audience that living was cheap and that meat in particular was plentiful. He spoke of the fertile soil which did not need manure for crops to flourish. He ended his lecture by stating that “if he could help in any way any persons who wished to try their fortunes in the Argentine Republic, he should be only too glad to do so.”

Grazing land in the pampas, Argentina. Photographed in 2007 by Maximiliano Alba. Image from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5

Argentina’s agricultural colonies

In 1864 a farming colony had established on the western Pampas at Fraile Muerto ‘Dead Friar’ in Córdoba province, Argentina. The area was 300 miles (500 km) north-west of Buenos Aires. In founding this, Anthony Maitland Bell (1834–1876) and Robert Anderson Bell (1835–1881), from Dunbar in Scotland, were following the experience of Scots and Irish immigrants who had, a generation earlier, established large, unfenced sheep runs in the Province of Buenos Aires. The original intention had been to raise cattle and sheep, but crops paid better and the early settlers moved to to arable farming.

Map of the Argentine Republic in 1869. Bell Ville (formerly known as Fraile Muerto) is midway between Córdoba and Rosario. Map by user Jorge_salazar_1. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the late 1860s, with the area connected by rail to Buenos Aires 300 miles to the south-east, more English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants began to arrive, attracted by the quality of the land and its low cost.

In 1869 Thomas Large Henly, from Calne, Wiltshire, advertised a scheme in which young men were offered the opportunity to learn farming and eventually own a plot of land in the Santa Fe region of Argentina. In April 1870 Henly sailed on the Royal Mail Steamer Oneida from England with his family and 80 young men each of whom had paid £150 to join the scheme.

The enterprise was generally well regarded, and it had the support of the Argentine President, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. This second colony, however, was doomed to failure. The person with whom Henly had contracted to buy land (some 27,000 acres) near Fraile Muerto turned out to be a con-man. There was no land. Henley’s colony folded and the colonists dispersed.

It appears that Henry Mainwaring probably joined a similar scheme, for he had been living at Los Quebrachos, about four miles south of Fraile Muerto (which was renamed Bell Ville). Sadly, on 3 October 1877, Henry died, only 25 years old (I have not been able to find any record giving his cause of death). Henry was buried the next day in the Fraile Muerto Protestant Cemetery.

Henry Mainwaring was unlucky to die so young so far from home. I hope he enjoyed his brief career as a South American farmer.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree: Henry Arthur Mainwaring (1852 – 1877)

T is for twin

24 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, Dawson, military

≈ 8 Comments

My husband Greg had a great grandfather named Henry Dawson (1864 – 1929), who served for a short while in the British Army.

He was born on 30 Jul 1864 in Corby, Lincolnshire, the son of Isaac Dawson and Eliza Dawson née Skerrit. Henry had a twin brother, Charles, and at least seven other siblings. 

In the 1881 census Henry, then 16, and his twin brother Charles, both agricultural labourers, were recorded as residents of The Terrace, Corby.  On the night of the census their parents and other members of the family were away from home.

On 5 December 1883 Henry Dawson, labourer, then 19, enlisted at Lincoln as a gunner [private] in the Royal Artillery.

On 28 May 1885 Henry became ill and was found to have a faulty heart; he had had rheumatic fever as a child. Deemed medically unfit for service and discharged on 28 July 1885, he returned to Corby.

His army career cut short, Henry decided to emigrate to Australia.

I have not been able to find any record of his arrival. He may have been the 23 year old Henry Dawson, born Lincolnshire, who arrived in Townsville, Queensland, on 6 April 1888.

 From 7 June 1889 Henry worked on the Victorian railways in various roles, as lampman, carriage cleaner, porter. (See R is for Railways – triennial listing of railways employees in Victoria.)

On 12 December 1889 Henry married Edith Caroline Edwards in Brunswick, a suburb of Melbourne.  They had eight children.

On 30 July 1929, on his 65th birthday he died in Kyneton of pneumonia and heart failure.

My mother-in-law Marjorie talked to me once or twice about her grandfather Henry. She could remember his death in Kyneton on his 65th birthday when he was visiting her family there. She was 9 years old. Marjorie did not mention his brief service in the army, perhaps because she had never been told. She thought that he might have been to New Zealand. He hadn’t enjoyed it.

Henry’s brother Charles remained in England. He became a brickyard labourer then a colliery hand. He married but had no children. Charles died in 1928, a year before his twin.

Image retrieved from a family tree at ancestry.com
The grave of Henry Dawson and his wife in Kyneton cemetery, photographed in 2022

Related post

Wikitree: Henry Dawson (1864 – 1929)

S is for saving a language

22 Saturday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, British East India Company, India, military

≈ 16 Comments

Many of my distant relatives were soldiers. One was my first cousin five times removed Lieutenant General George Byres Mainwaring, eighth of the fourteen children of George Mainwaring and Isabella née Byres. He was born on 18 July 1825 and baptised on 21 October 1825 in Banda, Bengal, India. (Three more soldiers were his older brothers, General Rowland Rees Mainwaring, Captain Norman Mainwaring, and a younger brother, Cornet Charles Mainwaring.)

George’s mother Isabella was the illegitimate daughter of Lieutenant-General Patrick Byers of the East India Company’s Infantry, who in 1817 inherited a family estate at Tonley, near Tough, 20 miles west of Aberdeen. Isabella was probably Anglo-Indian, with an Indian mother.

George attended school at Mr Tulloch’s Academy, Aberdeen, not far from the residence of his maternal grandfather Patrick Byers, who took an interest in his grandsons. George was later taught Classics and mathematics at the school of Messrs Stoton and Mayor in Wimbledon, London.

At the age of seventeen, Mainwaring was commissioned into the 16th Bengal Native Infantry regiment, probably through the influence of his grandfather Byers. On 8 January 1842 he sailed for India.

In 1843 Mainwaring fought in the Battle of Maharajpur in the Gwalior campaign, and was awarded the ‘Gwalior Campaign Bronze Star’. He took part in the Sutlej campaign of 1845-46, including the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, and Sobraon. He was awarded the ‘Sutlej Campaign Medal’ and two clasps in 1846.

Death of Major-General Churchill at the battle of Maharajpore. 1844 lithograph from Wikimedia Commons.

In 1854 Mainwaring returned to England. A considerable linguist, fluent in both Hindi and Urdu, he returned to India in 1857 at the time of the Mutiny to serve as an interpreter. He was posted first to Cawnpore (where his brother Charles had been murdered), and later transferred to the Punjab region.

In August 1860 at Chini [Kalpa] in the Valley of the Sutlej River, 125 miles (200km) north-east of Simla, Captain Mainwaring encountered the war-correspondent and artist William Simpson.

Simpson describes his their meeting:

A few days before our departure from Chini a Captain Mainwaring arrived from Simla. Mainwaring had travelled among the Lepchas in the Darjeeling district, and he told me a great deal about that race. The noted peculiarity of this man might be expressed by saying that he was a serpentphil. He seldom went out but he brought back a serpent in his hands, "all alive 0!" He stroked them, expressed his admiration for their great beauty, and wondered how any one could kill such lovely things. He seemed to have acquired some manner of handling the serpents, and whether they were poisonous or not appeared to make no difference to him. Somehow he had the power of a serpent-charmer. We learned afterwards that at some station where he had been quartered he collected some hundreds of serpents, and when a change of quarters took place he could not carry off his pets, nor would he kill them ; they were all set free in his garden, to the horror and fright of every one at the station, particularly of the ladies.

We had now been over two months at Chini, and on the 28th of August we began our march back to Simla. Mainwaring accompanied us.

George Mainwaring, it seems, had earlier been posted to Darjeeling and had travelled widely in Sikkim. For a while he lived with the Lepcha ethnic group of the Lebong area near Darjeeling, before moving to to a village called Polungdong (present day Phalut). Lebong is a valley about 1,000 feet below Darjeeling, a few miles to the north. Phalut is 50 miles north-west of Darjeeling in very remote country.

Lepcha is spoken in Sikkim and the Darjeeling area of West Bengal. In his travels Mainwaring became acquainted with the language, and 1876 published a Lepcha grammar. He had great affection for the Lepchas and their language. ‘Lepcha’, he said, ‘was the language spoken in the Garden of Eden’. Mainwaring also compiled a dictionary of Lepcha, published posthumously.

Phalut, with Mt Kangchenjunga at background Photographed by user Rkb95 2017 Image from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0
A view of the Himalayan peaks of (from the left) Mt.Lhotse, Mt.Everest, Mt.Makalu and Mt.Chomolonzo from Phalut in West Bengal, India. Photographed by user Shilbhadra in 2011. Image from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0
Lepcha man and woman from Dalton’s “Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal,” 1872. Image from Wikimedia Commons
Mainwaring’s Lepcha grammar can be read through GoogleBooks

Mainwaring spent over 30 years among the Lepcha. He has been described as “Lepcha Mad”:

Mainwaring’s involvement with the Lepcha people was not confined to their grammar and dictionary only for he actually lived like a Lepcha and one could almost claim that he thought like a Lepcha. He opened up a Lepcha school at Lebong and has been credited for buying a hundred acres of land for a collective farm for the Lepchas. He dressed in the Lepcha costume and even while attending official matters in Darjeeling he would not shed the Lepcha dress.

In the forward to his 1876 Lepcha grammar Mainwaring wrote that:

“Of the language I cannot speak too highly. The simple and primitive state in which the Lepchas lived is admirably shown by it. It has no primary word (beyond the words for gold and silver) to express money, merchants or merchandise, fairs or markets. Their peaceful and gentle character is evinced by their numerous terms and tenderness and compassion, and by the fact that not one word of abuse exists in their language. Nevertheless the language itself is most copious, abounding in synonyms and possessing words to express every slightest change, every varying shade of meaning, it admits of flow and power of speech which is wonderful, and which renders it capable of giving expression to the highest degree of eloquence. The language also arrests the astonishing knowledge possessed by the Lepchas. I shall here again make an extract from the letter before quoted:- “Of all the almost inconceivable diversity of trees with which the hills are covered ; of all the almost incalculable variety of plants and flowers with which the forests are filled ; the Lepchas can tell you the names of all, they can distinguish at a glance the difference in the species of each genus of plants, which would require the skill of a practiced botanist to perceive ; and this information and nomenclature extends to beasts, to birds, to insects, and to everything around them, animate and inanimate ; without instruction, they seem to acquire their knowledge by intuition alone. The trees and the flowers, and the birds, and the insects have therefore been their friends and companions. But now, this simple knowledge, this beautiful language, this once happy people are fast dying out. The Lepchas have left their woods and innocence and have fallen into sin and misery, and is there no one that will help them, no one that will save?

Mainwaring’s army career continued alongside his involvement with the Lepchas and their language and customs. In 1862 he was promoted to captain, and in 1867 to major with the Bengal Staff Corps. His promotion continued and he reached Lieutenant General on 1 January 1887.

He died on 16 January 1893 at Serampore, near Calcutta. He is buried in the Danish cemetery, Serampore.The gravestone reads:

GENERAL GEORGE BYERS MAINWARING
60 Grenadiers.
Born 18th July 1824
died 16th January 1893.

Obituary in the ‘Englishman’s Overland Mail‘ (Calcutta, West Bengal) 25 January 1893:

On the 16th instant, General G.B. Mainwaring, of the Indian Staff Corps, died at Serampur, where he had lived for many years. On the military authoriteis at Barrackpur being made aware of hte fact, they ordered a public funeral, which took place on Tuesday afternoon. The Commanding Officer at Barrackpur, Lieutenant-Colonel J.D. Douglas, and a number of other officers were present, and the body was conveyed to the grave by Artillerymen. A Battery of Artillery stationed at Flagstaff Ghat, on the Barrackpur side of the river, fired the regulation number of minute guns as the funeral procession set forth. General Mainwaring, whose first commission was in the 16th Native Infantry, was present at the battle of Maharajpur, in the Gwalior campaign. He went through both the Punjab campaigns, and was also on service during the Mutiny. General Mainwaring was a student of Eastern languages, and had published a Lepcha Grammar. For some years he had been employed in preparing a dictionary of the same language. He claimed to have made some remarkable discoveries with regard to the origin of language, or what he called the "powers of letters," and he is supposed to have left some writings on the subject.

Obituary in the Madras Weekly Mail 2 February 1893:

General Mainwaring. 
The death of General G. B. Mainwaring, of the Staff Corps, says the Pioneer, carried off one of the few living students of the little known language of the Lepchas of the Darjeeling hills, For many years of his service General Mainwaring was on "general duty" at Darjeeling, engaged in the work of preparing a Grammar and Dictionary of the Lepcha language. The Grammar he lived to complete, and it was published by the Bengal Government some years ago. The body of the work is admirable, and it remains, and is likely to remain, the standard authority on the obscure language of a tribe which is rapidly dying out. For the Dictionary the General collected and collated very ample materials ; but towards the end of his life his health was weak, and he could not bring himself to face the task of carrying the work through the press. It will not, however, be lost to the scientific world. Some months before the General's death the Bengal Government had entrusted the task of bringing out the Dictionary to Dr. Adolf Grünwedel, Director of the Indian Section of the Museum of Ethnography in Berlin, a well known authority on Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Lepcha, who has already published a small glossary of the latter tongue. The fact that the work is in Dr. Grünwedel's hands is a guarantee that it will be a worthy monument of the labours of General Mainwaring, and of the German savant who has succeeded to the fruits of so many years' toil.

Obituary in the Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 26 January 1893: 

The late Lieutenant-General G.B. Mainwaring, of the Indian Army, whose death is announced this week, was a cousin of our fellow citizen, Lieutenant-General R.Q. Mainwaring. He was born in India and nearly the whole of a useful life was spent among the natives of our great dependency. For many years he dwelt among the hills in West Calcutta, and became so conversant with the language of the Lepcha tribe that by direction of the Government he prepared and wrote a Lepcha dictionary. He rarely visited England, but once when he went to Reading to see a sister, an amusing incident occurred. He left a hamper in the cloakroom at the railway station and told the porter in charge of heard anything moving, to pour a little warm water on the basket. When he returned, and inquired after his deposit, he found the official, having detected mysterious movements in the hamper, had deluged it with boiling water and administered an effective quietus to a rare and valuable snake. The deceased, who was in his 68th year, entered the army in 1842, and was placed in the Indian supernumerary list in 1884. He served with distinction in the Punjab and Indian Mutiny Campaigns.

The Danish cemetery is heritage listed by the West Bengal Heritage Commission. The listing of the cemetery in the Hooghly district mentions General Mainwaring, author of Lepcha language dictionary, who died at Srirampur.

It has been suggested that Mainwaring’s studies of the Lepcha grammar and lexicon helped save the language from extinction. He is still remembered by the Lepchas:

  • The Sikkim Lepcha Youth Association confers the ‘G.B.Mainwaring Award’ annually to recognise and encourage contributions to the field of Lepcha language in Sikkim.
  • The Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association (ILTA), Kalimpong, celebrates the G.B. Mainwaring Birth Anniversary.
Map of places associated with George Byres Mainwaring

RELATED POSTS AND FURTHER READING:

Wikitree: George Byers Mainwaring (1825 – 1893)

George’s grandparents, Rowland Mainwaring (1745 – 1817) and Jane Mainwaring née Latham (1755 – 1809), are my 5th great grandparents.

R is for Railway Accident

21 Friday Apr 2023

Posted by in A to Z 2023, British East India Company, India, Mainwaring, military, railways

≈ 13 Comments

My first cousin five times removed Norman William Mainwaring, son of George Mainwaring and Isabella née Byres, was born on 21 July 1821 and baptised on 10 October in Benares, Bengal. He was the fifth of their fourteen children. Norman’s mother Isabella was the illegitimate daughter of Lieutenant-General Patrick Byers. She was probably Anglo-Indian, with an Indian mother.

Norman Mainwaring was educated in both classical and mathematical subjects by a Mr Tulloch at Bellevue school, Aberdeen, Scotland. His brothers Rowland, Harry, and George also attended this school. Norman was later a pupil at Kings College, Aberdeen; it is probably not a coincidence that his maternal grandfather Lieutenant-General Patrick Byers lived nearby.

On 26 August 1840 Mainwaring, 19 years old, petitioned to join the East India Company as a cadet in the Bengal Infantry. He was nominated by William Butterworth Bayley Esq, director and chairman of the British East India Company, to whom he had been recommended by his mother.

His application successful, Mainwaring joined the Company’s Bengal army. By 1841 he was firmly established in the 73rd Native Infantry regiment. In 1843 he was promoted to lieutenant, and in 1854 to captain.

Mainwaring served in the Punjab campaign of 1848-49, which ended in its annexation by the British.

On 21 April 1849 Norman Mainwaring married Jane Kent in Lahore, at that time the capital of the Punjab region. Jane Kent was the illegitimate Anglo-Indian daughter of Robert Kent of the Bengal Army, quite likely Lieutenant Colonel R. Kent of the 18th Regiment Native Infantry, who had died at Lahore in 1848.

Norman Mainwaring and Jane Mainwaring née Kent had seven children:

  • Isabella Jane Mainwaring 1850–1934
  • Georgeanne Agnes Emma Mainwaring 1852–1863
  • Robert Byres Mainwaring 1854– died young
  • Norman Hawthorn Mainwaring 1855–1856
  • Rowland Kent Mainwaring 1855–1938
  • Edward Currie Mainwaring 1856–1914
  • Norman Hall Mainwaring 1857–1910

In 1851 Mainwaring, at the time a Lieutenant of the 73rd N.I. was seconded to a civilian engineering project, placed at the disposal of the director of the Ganges irrigation canal for employment as assistant executive engineer. He was attached to the 2nd division of the Ganges Division of the Canal Department of the Bengal Department of Public Works.

The Ganges Canal was constructed between 1842 and 1854 in response to a disastrous famine, the Agra famine of 1837–38, in which some 800,000 people died. The British East India Company sponsored the project; the driving force behind it was Colonel Proby Cautley (1802-1871), British palaeontologist and engineer.

Hindu priests opposed the canal, believing that it would imprison the waters of the holy river Ganges. In response Cautley undertook to leave gaps in the dams through which water could flow unchecked. He further appeased the priests by  repairing  bathing ghats along the river, and he inaugurated  dams by ceremonies honouring Lord Ganesh, the god of good beginnings.

The Canal opened on 8 April 1854. When irrigation commenced a year late,r over 3000 square kilometres, encompassing 5,000 villages, were able to draw on Canal water.

The Ganges Canal at Roorkee in the Saharanpur District of Uttar Pradesh, watercolour by William Simpson dated 1863. Image from the collection of the British Library.

In 1854, recently promoted to Captain, 73rd Native Infantry regiment, and with the civilian title of Deputy Superintendent Second Division Ganges Canal, Mainwaring resigned pleading poor health, and asked to be permitted to rejoin his regiment. A sceptical newspaper, the Indian Standard, commented “that any one acquainted with the late and present ongoings of that division of the canal would be able to form their own opinion as regards this excellent officer’s resignation”.

Two of Captain Mainwaring’s children were baptised in St. John’s Anglican Church Wynberg, Capetown, South Africa: Edward on 2 February 1857 and Norman on 14 March 1858. I cannot find any record of Norman Mainwaring serving in South Africa, however. He may have been passing through, for Captain N.W. Mainwaring of the 73rd Regt. B.N.I. [Bengal Native Infantry] was reported to have arrived on 21 September 1857 in Calcutta on HMS Belleisle. The Belleisle had sailed from Plymouth, possibly stopping over in South Africa.

In January 1858 the Indian News and Chronicle of Eastern Affaires reported that Captain N.W. Mainwaring of the 73rd N.I. was to remain at the Presidency (Calcutta, the capital of Bengal) from 1st November 1857 to 1 January 1858 on a medical certificate. I know nothing about the illness or the injury covered by the medical certificate.

On 21 April 1858 Captain N. Mainwaring 73rd N.I. was appointed to act as a probationary assistant in the Department of Public Works in the Hyderabad assigned districts, also known as Berar Province.

Norman Mainwaring’s career as a engineer, however, and as a soldier, came to a sudden end on 3 June 1858, when he was accidentally killed in a railway accident at Howrah station near Calcutta:

A dreadful accident happened at the Howrah Station on the 1st of June. Captain Mainwaring of the 73rd N. I. was a passenger by the down train. When the train stopped at Howrah that the guard might collect the tickets, Captain Mainwaring attempted to get out under the impression that the train was to go no further. The train moved on, there was no standing room between the door of the carriage and a brick work buttress. Horrible to relate, Captain Mainwaring was thus crushed and dragged between the train and the brickwork till the bones of the pelvis had been almost reduced to powder, and other frightful lacerations had been inflicted. Captain Mainwaring lingered for forty-eight hours in great agony and then expired.

Friend of India and Statesman of 10 June 1858
‘Railway station near Calcutta’ photographed in 1895 by American photographer, William Henry Jackson (1843-1942). Image retrieved puronokolkata.com : Howrah Railway Junction Station, Howrah, 1854 – https://puronokolkata.com/2015/11/18/howrah-railway-junction-station-howrah-1854/ The present very grand station building at Howrah was built in the early 20th century.

Mainwaring was 37 years old when he was killed. His widow Jane née Kent received a pension and the five surviving young children were provided with assistance by the Bengal Military Orphan Society.

Not long after her husband’s death Jane Mainwaring took the children to England. At the time of the 1861 census she and the children, aged 3 to 10, were living in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The household included a cook and a nurse.

Jane died in 1870 in Exeter, Devon. One daughter had died in 1863. Isabella married an English clergyman. Rowland emigrated to Queensland, Australia. Edward Mainwaring emigrated to America. Norman Mainwaring lived in Yorkshire.

RELATED POSTS:

  • H is for Haileybury about Norman’s father George Mainwaring
  • I is for Indian Mutiny Norman’s brother Charles was killed at Cawnpore and his brothers, Rowland and George, were caught up in the mutiny. I do not know about Norman’s experience in the mutiny.

Wikitree:

  • Norman William Mainwaring, born at Jaunpore and baptised 1821 at Benares, was killed in 1858 in a railway accident at Howrah. Son of George Mainwaring (1790 – 1865), and grandson of Rowland Mainwaring (1745 – 1817) and Jane Mainwaring née Latham (1755 – 1809), my 5th great grandparents.