Charles Reid (Indian Army officer)

General Sir Charles Reid GCB (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.

General Sir

Charles Reid

GCB
Black and white photograph showing a white man with dark hair and a moustache in military uniform
Reid in 1858
Born(1818-03-19)19 March 1818
London, England
Died23 August 1901(1901-08-23) (aged 83).[1]
Southsea, England
Spouse(s)
Lavinia Lucy Fisher (c.1829–1888)
​
​
(m. 1846)​
ChildrenLavinia Adelaide Reid (1848–1930);
Charles Oakeley Reid (1852–1854)

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][7][8] 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.[6][8] Reid was educated at Repton School, and joined the East India Company as a cadet in 1835, aged 16.[9]

In Mussoorie, Bengal, India, on 24 September 1846 Reid married Lavinia Lucy Fisher (Deyrah Dhoon, India 1829 – London 24 August 1888),[10][11][12][13] daughter of Captain John Fisher (d.1890).[4] They had two children, Lavinia Adelaide (Loodiana, India 15 November 1848 – Portsmouth 1930),[14][15] who married Lieut. Arthur Warry, RA,[16] and Charles Oakeley Reid (India 1852 – India 9 June 1854).[17] Reid's London address was 97 Earl's Court Road, Chelsea.[11][18]

General Sir Charles Reid died at Southsea,[19][nb 1] on 23 August 1901, aged 83.[1] His will included a legacy of £100 to his sister Amelia Maria, although she had predeceased him by five years.[6] He was buried in Kensington and Chelsea Cemetery.[21]

Military career
Colour photograph of an elaborate ceremonial staff with bronze and silver elements including a crown held up by a group of Gurkha soldiers.
Replica of the Queen's Truncheon, devised by Reid

Reid served in Sindh under Sir Charles Napier in 1843, and led the Sirmoor Battalion at the Siege of Delhi.[22] He was severely wounded on 14 September 1857, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel, receiving the CB in 1858.[18]

Reid later served in Oudh in 1858–1859, and was promoted to colonel and became an aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria.[19] While serving as aide-de-camp, he devised the Queen's Truncheon which the Royal Gurkha Rifles carry as their regimental colour.[23] 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.[24][nb 2]

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.[19][9]

Reid's decorations included the Sutlej Medal, the India General Service Medal and the Indian Mutiny Medal.[9] 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.[19][25]

Other activities
Main article: Leeds Tiger
Colour photograph of open jaws of the tiger
Leeds Tiger snarling

In 1860 Reid shot and killed a large Bengal tiger whose skin was shown at the 1862 International Exhibition.[26] 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.[27][28][29] 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.[30][31]

Selected publications
  • Reid, General Sir Charles (1858). Extracts from letters and notes written during the siege of Delhi in 1857. London: Henry S. King & Co. Full text available online (Reprinted 2009 by Naval & Military Press, ISBN 978-1845742270)

Notes
  1. Jamaica Who's Who gives place of death as "Southsea, Wales",[7] and Southsea, Wrexham, Wales, exists. The Times of London states "Southsea", unqualified,[19] implying the better-known Southsea near Portsmouth, England, but so does the Cardiff Times,[20] which might suggest the place in Wales. A death was recorded of a Charles Reid aged 83 in Jul–Sept 1901 at Portsmouth,[1] which appears to confirm Southsea, England.
  2. According to the source, the end loading system was not about loading guns with ammunition; it was about loading and unloading the full battery of guns, limbers and horses on and off trains in a speedy and efficient manner

References
  1. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 17 June 2021. Includes link to scan of printed register
  2. "Charles Reid, in the England, select births and christenings, 1538-1975". ancestry.co.uk. Ancestry. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  3. "Obituary: General Sir Charles Reid". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 26 August 1901. p. 5 col.e. Retrieved 18 June 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. "Death of General Sir Charles Reid". Greenock Telegraph and Clyde Shipping Gazette. 26 August 1901. p. 2 col.f. Retrieved 18 June 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive. He married in 1840 Lavinia daughter of Captain John Fisher.
  5. "Watlington-Hall". Norfolk Heritage Explorer. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  6. "Reid, Amelia Maria". suffolkartists.co.uk. Suffolk Artists. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  7. "Jamaica Who's Who 1916 – Macaulay to Rubie (Reid, William Octavius)". Jamaican Family Search. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  8. "George Reid junior 1780 – 1827: Profile & Legacies Summary". Legacies of British Slavery. UCL Department of History. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  9. "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. Retrieved 17 June 2021. Much of the biographical information appears to be a near copy of The Times obituary, and is accessible without subscription.
  10. Ancestry: India, Select Marriages, 1792–1948, FHL Film Number: 498984
  11. 1881 England Census 97 Earls Court Road, Chelsea, London, RG11/51, p.35
  12. "Obituaries". Illustrated London News. 8 September 1888. p. 298/26 col.b. Retrieved 18 June 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive. Deaths ... Lady Reid (Lavinia Lucy), wife of General Sir Charles Reid ... on August 24 (1888) aged fifty-nine.
  13. "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 18 June 2021. Deaths Sep 1888 Reid Lavinia Lucy. 59 Kensington 1a 115
  14. "Lavinia Adelaide Reid: India, select births and baptisms 1786-1947". ancestry.co.uk. Ancestry. Retrieved 21 June 2021. Father Charles Reid, mother Lavinia Lucy, baptised 28 February 1849, FHL film number 498987
  15. 1901 England Census Charles Reid Chelsea RG13/38 p.48, schedule 68
  16. "Marriages". The Munster express, or, weekly commercial & agricultural gazette. 20 May 1871. p. 4 col.a. Retrieved 18 June 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  17. "Charles Oakeley Reid: India, select deaths and burials 1719-1948". ancestry.co.uk. Ancestry UK. Retrieved 21 June 2021. Parents Charles and Lavinia Lucy Reid, FHL Film Number: 498992
  18. Reid, Sir Charles. Who's Who 2021. 1 December 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U190261. ISBN 978-0-19-954089-1. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  19. "Obituary: Sir Charles Reid". The Times. 26 August 1901. p. 4.
  20. "Obituary: General Sir Charles Reid". The Cardiff Times. 31 August 1901. p. 4. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  21. "Reid, Charles (Gen. Sir)". deceasedonline.com. Deceased Online. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  22. "Reid, Sir Charles (1819–1901)". Dictionary of Indian Biography. p. 355. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  23. "Colours and The Queen's Truncheon". Sirmoor Rifles Association. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  24. "Military". Friend of India and Statesman. British Newspaper Archive. 12 February 1876. p. 25/143 col.a. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  25. "No. 25592". The London Gazette. 29 May 1886. p. 2633.
  26. Tuker, Francis (1957). Gorkha: The Story of the Gurkhas of Nepal. London: Constable and Co. p. 92.
  27. Sterndale, Robert Armitage (1884). Natural history of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co. p. 593.
  28. 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.
  29. "The larger carnivora of India". Madras Weekly Mail. British Newspaper Archive. 31 July 1886. p. 9 col 4, 10 col a. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  30. "Leeds nostalgia: The story of the Leeds Tiger". Yorkshire Evening Post. JP Media. 31 December 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  31. "The Tiger Who Came to Leeds". Leeds Museums & Galleries. 12 April 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

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