Charles Waddington CB (24 October 1796 – 22 November 1858) was a major-general in the

Bombay Engineers The Bombay Engineer Group, or the ''Bombay Sappers'' as they are informally known, are a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The Bombay Sappers draw their origin from the erstwhile Bombay Presidency army of the British Raj. ...

of the British

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Family and education

Charles Waddington was born at 124 Sloane Street,

Brompton, London Brompton, sometimes called Old Brompton, survives in name as a ward in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Until the latter half of the 19th century it was a scattered village made up mostly of market gardens in the county of ...

, on 24 October 1796. He was the fifth son of William Waddington of

Walkeringham Walkeringham is a village and civil parish in Nottinghamshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 908, increasing to 1,022 at the 2011 census. The parish church of St Mary Magdalen is 13th century. It has one public ho ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, by his wife, Grace Valentine, daughter of Henry Sykes of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He was educated at the

Addiscombe Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

from 1811 to 1812.

Career

Waddington received his commission as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

on 3 April 1813, and arrived in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 22 May 1814. He accompanied Colonel Kennedy's force to the Concan, and his services at the assaults of Madanghar (eighty miles south-east of

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

) and of Jamba were favourably mentioned. Towards the end of 1819 he went home on leave, was promoted to be

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

on 16 November 1820, married in 1822, and on his return to India in 1823 acted as executive engineer at Baroda. He was promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 29 July 1825, and appointed in October executive engineer of the Baroda subsidiary force. In November 1827 he was moved to Bombay as

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

at the presidency, and in August 1828 acted also as superintending engineer. He was appointed to the command of the engineer corps and to take charge of the Engineer Institution in October 1830. In September 1834 he commanded the engineers at Sirur, returning to the presidency as superintending engineer in January 1835. On 28 June 1838 Waddington was promoted to be

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

, and in May of the following year was appointed superintending engineer of the southern provinces. In September 1841 he went to Sind as commanding engineer. He accompanied Major-General Richard England in his march through the

Bolan Pass Bolān Pass ( ur, ) is a valley and a natural gateway, through the Toba Kakar range in Balochistan province of Pakistan, south of the Afghanistan border. The pass is an stretch of the Bolan river valley from Rindli in the south to Darwāza n ...

in the autumn of 1842, and was mentioned in England's dispatch of 10 October 1842 for his services at Haikalzai. On 4 November 1842 he was appointed command engineer in

Baluchistan Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...

as well as

Sind Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

. He accompanied Sir Charles Napier as commanding engineer of his force in the celebrated march of eighty-two miles from Dijikote on 6 January 1843 to Imamghar, where they arrived on 12 January. Instructed to demolish the fort, Wadding fired his mines on 15 January. He himself lit the fuses of three mines, and was bending over the train of one when his assistant called upon him to run as the other mines were about to explode. Waddington took part in the Battle of Miani on 17 February 1843, where he acted as aide-de-camp to Napier and was mentioned in dispatches. He was also at the Battle of Hyderabad, or Dubba, on 24 March, when Napier again mentioned him as having "rendered the most important aid in examining the enemy's position with that cool courage which he possesses in so eminent degree". On 4 July he received the medal for Miani and Hyderabad and was appointed a Commander of the military division of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

and also promoted to

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

. After a period of leave in England, Waddington was employed in special duty at Puna until October 1847, where he was appointed superintending and executive engineer at Aden, altered to chief engineer in April 1851, the court of directors desiring that 'their high approbation of his valuable services be conveyed to this zealous and able officer' (30 July 1851). He was promoted to

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

on 24 Nov. 1853 and major-general on 28 November 1854. On 4 May 1854 he was appointed chief engineer in the public works department, Bombay, and his services in making the preparation for the Persian expedition received official acknowledgement on 3 Dec. 1856. In November 1857 Waddington was appointed to the command in Sind. In September 1858 he was compelled by ill-health to leave India, and he died in London on 22 November of that year.

Personal life

In 1822 Waddington married Anne Rebecca, daughter of John Pinchard of

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

; and by her he left a family of six sons and two daughters. His eldest son, William (b. 1823), colonel Bombay Staff Corps, served in Persia (medal and clasp) 1856–1857, and became J.P. for Wiltshire. Another son, Thomas (b. 1827), became major-general of the Bombay Staff Corps. He married in 1862 Emilie Helena Willoughby, daughter of Major-General Michael Francklin Willoughby.

Publications

Waddington contributed several papers to the ''Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers'', including: *"Account of the

Battle of Meanee The Battle of Miani (or Battle of Meeanee, ) was a battle between forces of the Bombay Army of the East India Company, under the command of Charles Napier and the Baluch army of Talpur Amirs of Sindh, led by Mir Nasir Khan Talpur. The battle ...

" (vol. 9) *"Doctrines of Carpentry in their Application to the Construction of Roofs" (vol. 10)

References

Referred works

* * *

India Office Records The India Office Records are a very large collection of documents relating to the administration of India from 1600 to 1947, the period spanning Company and British rule in India. The archive is held in London by the British Library and is public ...

*Despatches *Kelly's Handbook *Royal Engineers' Records ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Waddington, Charles 1796 births 1858 deaths Graduates of Addiscombe Military Seminary Companions of the Order of the Bath British East India Company Army generals English civil engineers Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Bengal Engineers officers