 1805 - 1869
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| Prefix |
Maj. Gen. |
| Born |
16 Aug 1805 |
Whitwell, Ireland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
1 Nov 1869 |
Bristol |
| Person ID |
I35 |
My Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
24 Sep 2013 |
| Family 1 |
Reeve Eliza Cobden, b. 31 Dec 1816, d. 1 Apr 1867, Bristol |
| Married |
28 Aug 1832 |
Bangalore India |
| Children |
| > | 1. Harris Mary Hamlyn, b. 31 May 1848, Bangalore, India , d. 1 Sep 1932, Wadhurst, Sussex |
| | 2. Harris Hamlyn Lavicount, b. 16 Aug 1845, Madras, India , d. 5 Jul 1925, Tumut, New South Wales |
| | 3. Maj Gen Noel Hamlyn Harris, b. 1834, Bellary Tamil Nadu , d. 1900, Kensington |
| | 4. Harris Eliza Reeve, b. 1835, Bangalore India , d. 23 Nov 1863, Coonoor, India |
| | 5. Harris Lt. Col. Henry Thomas, b. 18 Nov 1837, Bangalore India , d. 1882, Bangalore India |
| | 6. Harris Mary Isabella, b. 1842, Madras, India , d. 1843 |
| | 7. Harris Harriet Huntingdon, b. 23 Jan 1844, Bellary Tamil Nadu , d. 1901, Coimbatore |
| | 8. Harris William Hamlyn, b. 5 Jul 1851, Madras, India , d. 1905, Tumut, New South Wales |
| | 9. Harris Isabella Hamlyn, b. 18 May 1852, d. 6 Jan 1915 |
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| Last Modified |
29 Nov 2012 |
| Family ID |
F11 |
Group Sheet |
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| Notes |
- Hamlyn was born in Ireland, the son of a relatively famous general from the Napoleonic wars. He became a soldier himself in India with the East India Company and rose through the ranks to Major General in the Madras Native Infantry. He and his wife had 9 children before they retired to live in Bristol, Somerset. He married a second time after his first wife died.
Hamlyn applied to be a cadet in the Honourable East India Company 1821/2, and joined the Madras Army. The Madras Presidency covered much of Southern India. He became a Lieutenant in the 15th regt in 1832, Major in 1846, Lt Col in 1854, Colonel in 1857 and Major General in 1861 in the 15th Madras Native Infantry.
source: 'Alphabetical list of Officers of the Madras Army' published in 1838.
The 15th Madras Native Infantry regiment had been raised in the 1770s during the Carnatic Campaign, and then became the 15th Madras from 1824-1885. Although the 15th was busy at the start of the century and in Afghanistan and Burma at the end, it seems Hamlyn was serving with them during a prolonged period of peace when they saw no major action.
In the 1830s the Madras Army was concerned with internal security and support for the civil administration. This was a multi-ethnic army in which the British officers were encouraged to learn and speak Asian languages. In 1832-1833 the Madras Army put down a rebellion in the Visakhapatnam district.
The Army of the Madras Presidency remained almost unaffected by the Indian Rebellion of 1857. By contrast with the larger Bengal Army where all but twelve (out of eighty-four) infantry and cavalry regiments either mutinied or were disbanded, all fifty-two regiments of Madras Native Infantry remained loyal and passed into the new Indian Army when direct British Crown rule replaced that of the Honourable East India Company.
source: wikipedia
According to the India Office Records held in the National Archives, Hamlyn retired from the army on 31st Dec 1861, and died on 1st Nov 1869 in Bristol.
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Florence Stacy in her Whitty family memoir suggests that despite a full pension, there were financial pressures for Hamlyn Lavicount: Eliza was now an invalid and needed constant nursing care, Isabella was to go to London for an operation which it was hoped would enable her to walk better, Henry needed financial assistance because his Army pay as a lieutenant in the Madras Army was relatively small, and Harriet, Mary and Wiiliam were all still in various stages of education (see below).
[Hamlyn was a Major General when he left the Madras Army, not a lieutenant, so not sure the above note is correct about his pay]
By 1867 Hamlyn and his wife were living in Bristol. Eliza died at Frankfort House, Whiteladies Road, Clifton on 1 April 1867 of cancer of the stomach, following at least two unsuccessful operations and a prolonged period of ill-health.
Hamlyn Lavicount remarried in Bristol in 1869, shortly before his own death in the same year of a stroke at 2 Eastfield Villas Westbury on Trym (now a northern suburb of the city of Bristol). His death certificate suggests that he had had a previous stroke: the cause of death is given as 'disease of the brain with partial paralysis' and 'apoplexy 24 hours'.
Source: from notes of Mary Whitty
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Marriage record 1832:
At Bangalore, Lieut. Hamlyn Lavicount Harris, 15th regt. N.I., to Eliza Cobden, eldest daughter of the Rev. W. Reeve.
East India Register and Directory Marriage Announcements
1861 Census Record:
Hamlyn L Harris, age 55, Colonel East India Service, born Ireland, was living with his wife Eliza age 44, born India (East), at Bouron Court in Flax Bourton.
with them live daughters Harriet age 18, Mary age 12 and son William age 7, and Isabella, all born India (East).
Also living there are 3 domestic servants.
He married a second time to a Charlotte Evans on 15th May 1868, after his wife Eliza died on 1st April 1867.
1869 Probate record:
The will with a codicile of Hamlyn Lavicount Harris, late of 2 Eastfield Villas, Westbury-pon-Trym, Gloucestershire, late General in Her Majesty's army, deceased, who died 1st November 1869 at 2 Eastfield Villas aforesaid, was proved at Bristol by the oath of Charlotte Harris of 2 Eastfield Villas aforesaid, wido, the relict, the sole executrix. Effects under £300.
[1]
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| Sources |
- [S1] ‘Alphabetical list of Officers of the Madras Army’ published in 1838.
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