Charles Reid (Indian Army officer) explained

Honorific Prefix:General Sir
Charles Reid
Honorific Suffix:GCB
Birth Date:19 March 1818
Birth Place:London, England
Death Date:.[1]
Death Place:Southsea, England
Children:Lavinia Adelaide Reid (1848–1930);
Charles Oakeley Reid (1852–1854)

General Sir Charles Reid (19 March 1818 – 23 August 1901) was an officer in the East India Company and later Indian Army, and aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.

Personal life

Reid was born in London on 19 March 1818.[2] [3] [4] His father George Reid (c.1778 – 25 January 1827) owned the Bunker's Hill and Friendship sugar plantations in Jamaica and rented Watlington Hall, Norfolk (destroyed by fire in 1940 and rebuilt).[5] His mother Louisa (1786–1879) was the daughter of Sir Charles Oakeley (1751–1826), a former governor of Madras.[6] He had five sisters including Louisa Elizabeth (the eldest daughter), Helena Catherine (born 1814 or 1815), Amelia Maria (1821–1896, the sixth child) and Georgina Ann, and three brothers. Reid was educated at Repton School, and joined the East India Company as a cadet in 1835, aged 16.

In Mussoorie, Bengal, India, on 24 September 1846 Reid married Lavinia Lucy Fisher (Deyrah Dhoon, India 1829 – London 24 August 1888),[7] [8] [9] [10] daughter of Captain John Fisher (d.1890).[4] They had two children, Lavinia Adelaide (Loodiana, India 15 November 1848 – Portsmouth 1930),[11] [12] who married Lieut. Arthur Warry, RA,[13] and Charles Oakeley Reid (India 1852 – India 9 June 1854).[14] Reid's London address was 97 Earl's Court Road, Chelsea.[8]

General Sir Charles Reid died at Southsea,[15] on 23 August 1901, aged 83. His will included a legacy of £100 to his sister Amelia Maria, although she had predeceased him by five years.[16] He was buried in Kensington and Chelsea Cemetery.[17]

Military career

Reid served in Sindh under Sir Charles Napier in 1843, and led the Sirmoor Battalion at the Siege of Delhi.[18] He was severely wounded on 14 September 1857, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel, receiving the CB in 1858.[19]

Reid later served in Oudh in 1858–1859, and was promoted to colonel and became an aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria. While serving as aide-de-camp, he devised the Queen's Truncheon which the Royal Gurkha Rifles carry as their regimental colour.[20] In 1876, Reid was invited to demonstrate to the Prince of Wales the end loading system which he had introduced, accompanied by a "full battery of Royal Horse Artillery", including guns and limbers, 132 horses, and four chargers, all transported along with the Prince and Reid on the Royal Train from Lahore to Amritsar.[21]

Reid was promoted to major-general in 1867, lieutenant-general in 1875, and brevetted general in 1877. He was awarded pensions for good service and for his wound.

Reid's decorations included the Sutlej Medal, the India General Service Medal and the Indian Mutiny Medal.[22] He was knighted in 1871 as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), and was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the order (GCB) in 1886.

Other activities

See main article: Leeds Tiger. In 1860 Reid shot and killed a large Bengal tiger whose skin was shown at the 1862 International Exhibition.[23] It was subsequently purchased by William Gott, mounted by a taxidermist, and displayed in a series of museums in Leeds, West Yorkshire (Leeds City Museum since 2008), where it is known as the Leeds Tiger.[24] [25] [26] Over the years the displayed taxidermy-mount became subject to a mythology that the original tiger had been a killer of bullocks and even people, but no such evidence has yet been found.[27] [28]

Selected publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Index entry. 17 June 2021. FreeBMD. ONS. Includes link to scan of printed register
  2. Web site: Charles Reid, in the England, select births and christenings, 1538-1975 . subscription. ancestry.co.uk . Ancestry . 20 June 2021.
  3. News: Obituary: General Sir Charles Reid . 18 June 2021 . Sheffield Daily Telegraph . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 26 August 1901 . 5 col.e.
  4. News: Death of General Sir Charles Reid . 18 June 2021 . Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 26 August 1901 . 2 col.f. He married in 1840 Lavinia daughter of Captain John Fisher..
  5. Web site: Watlington-Hall . Norfolk Heritage Explorer . 17 June 2021.
  6. Web site: George Reid junior 1780 – 1827: Profile & Legacies Summary . Legacies of British Slavery . UCL Department of History . 17 June 2021.
  7. Ancestry: India, Select Marriages, 1792–1948, FHL Film Number: 498984
  8. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/LNDRG11_51_56-0009?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=b0868a2a81fb0ac4ef85e0ecf4c93221&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ZpY1072&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=13276261 1881 England Census 97 Earls Court Road, Chelsea, London, RG11/51, p.35
  9. News: Obituaries . 18 June 2021 . Illustrated London News . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 8 September 1888 . 298/26 col.b. Deaths ... Lady Reid (Lavinia Lucy), wife of General Sir Charles Reid ... on August 24 (1888) aged fifty-nine..
  10. Web site: Index entry. 18 June 2021. FreeBMD. ONS. Deaths Sep 1888 Reid Lavinia Lucy. 59 Kensington 1a 115
  11. Web site: Lavinia Adelaide Reid: India, select births and baptisms 1786-1947 . subscription . ancestry.co.uk . Ancestry . 21 June 2021 . Father Charles Reid, mother Lavinia Lucy, baptised 28 February 1849, FHL film number 498987.
  12. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7814/images/LNDRG13_37_38-0565?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=c37a69fda16c2ff67d8d9af6d38fc38c&usePUB=true&_phsrc=ZpY1070&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=353194 1901 England Census Charles Reid Chelsea RG13/38 p.48, schedule 68
  13. News: Marriages . 18 June 2021 . The Munster express, or, weekly commercial & agricultural gazette . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 20 May 1871 . 4 col.a.
  14. Web site: Charles Oakeley Reid: India, select deaths and burials 1719-1948 . subscription . ancestry.co.uk . Ancestry UK . 21 June 2021 . Parents Charles and Lavinia Lucy Reid, FHL Film Number: 498992.
  15. News: Obituary: Sir Charles Reid . The Times . 26 August 1901 . 4.
  16. Web site: Reid, Amelia Maria . suffolkartists.co.uk . Suffolk Artists . 17 June 2021.
  17. Web site: Reid, Charles (Gen. Sir) . deceasedonline.com . Deceased Online . 20 June 2021.
  18. Book: Dictionary of Indian Biography . 355 . 17 June 2021 . en . Reid, Sir Charles (1819–1901).
  19. Book: Reid, Sir Charles . Who's Who 2021 . 20 June 2021 . 1 December 2007. 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U190261 . 978-0-19-954089-1 . subscription.
  20. Web site: Colours and The Queen's Truncheon . Sirmoor Rifles Association . 17 June 2021.
  21. News: Military . 22 June 2021 . Friend of India and Statesman . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 12 February 1876 . 25/143 col.a.
  22. Web site: Lot 849, 15 December 2011: The mounted miniature dress medal group of four attributed to General Sir Charles Reid, G.C.B., Sirmoor Rifles, the famous 'Gurkha Reid' of the Siege of Delhi . Dix Noonan Webb . 17 June 2021. Much of the biographical information appears to be a near copy of The Times obituary, and is accessible without subscription.
  23. Book: Tuker, Francis. Gorkha: The Story of the Gurkhas of Nepal. Constable and Co.. 1957. London. 92.
  24. Book: Sterndale, Robert Armitage. Natural history of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon. Thacker, Spink and Co.. 1884. Calcutta. 593.
  25. Anonymous. 1862. Forty-third report of the Council of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. Reports of the Council of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. 43. 9.
  26. News: The larger carnivora of India . 22 June 2021 . Madras Weekly Mail . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 31 July 1886 . 9 col 4, 10 col a.
  27. News: 31 December 2016. Leeds nostalgia: The story of the Leeds Tiger. Yorkshire Evening Post. JP Media. 8 June 2020.
  28. Web site: 12 April 2021. The Tiger Who Came to Leeds. 16 June 2021. Leeds Museums & Galleries. en-GB.

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