General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Robert Napier

Raikes Please see separate page for Raikes of the United States of America Raikes refers to: Prominent English family * Robert Raikes the Elder (1690-1757), British printer and newspaper proprietor * Robert Raikes (1736-1811), English promoter of Su ...

(13 October 1813 – 23 March 1909) joined the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

aged 16 in 1829. He first returned home to England "on furlough" 35 years later. Aged 76 in 1889, he became General of the Remount, responsible for the provision of horses throughout the British Indian Army.

Military career

Robert

was born 13 October 1813 in

Drayton Drayton may refer to: People * Drayton (surname) Legal cases * '' United States v. Drayton'', 536 U.S. 194 (2002) Places Australia *Drayton, Queensland, a locality in the Toowoomba Region *Shire of Drayton, a former local government area in Quee ...

the son of Robert Napier Raikes the vicar of Gayton and rector of

Hellesdon Hellesdon is a village and civil parish in the district of Broadland in Norfolk, England. Hellesdon is located north-west of Norwich and south of Aylsham. History Hellesdon has signs of very early settlement. A variety of flint instrument ...

all in

Norfolk, England Norfolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, a ...

; and the grandson of

Robert Raikes Robert Raikes ("the Younger") (14 September 1735 – 5 April 1811) was an English philanthropist and Anglican layman. He was educated at The Crypt School in Gloucester. He was noted for his promotion of Sunday schools. Family Raikes was born ...

, the promoter of Sunday schools. Aged 15, he was a cadet at

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 ...

in 1828. Aged 16, he entered the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

as a cadet in the

Bengal Staff Corps Bengal ( ) is a historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Bengal proper is divided between the modern-d ...

, sailing on 19 November 1829 from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, arriving

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

14 May 1829. He then travelled across country, only reaching his regiment at

Cawnpore Kanpur ( Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary financial and commercial centre of northern India. Founded ...

on 7 November. Apparently ''his men carried the old flint-lock musket, of which

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

's maxim was'' "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." He was promoted to

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in 1854 with the 67th Bengal Native Infantry. He became adjutant to the native Grenadiers, and later became adjutant to the First Gwalior Cavalry.

Indian Rebellion

''"Being a good linguist, having picked up all the dialects, able to speak one at one place and another ten miles away, while he was Major, he managed to gather the whole of the treasury at Mynpoorie ainpuri 20,000

rupee Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currency, currencies of Indian rupee, India, Mauritian rupee, Mauritius, Nepalese rupee, Nepal, Pakistani rupee, Pakistan, Seychellois rupee, Seychelles, and Sri Lankan rupee, Sri Lanka, and of former cu ...

s in all, and sent it into Agra with two loyal

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

s, marching his men to within ten miles of that city. They quoted a native proverb that "an ill-wind was blowing", and refused to go any further. There was no mutiny; they just disbanded themselves and went home. Being devoted to him, as he rode away they formed up on each side of the road, with tears pouring down their faces, and bade him farewell." ''

was promoted to

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), 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 colon ...

in 1866,

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

in 1881 and

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

in 1889. He was reputed to have shot a hundred tigers. He returned to England in 1870 and later retired to

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

and Malvern. He died aged 95 on 23 March 1909.

was awarded

medals A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be in ...

for the

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

campaign in 1843, the

Second Anglo-Burmese War The Second Anglo-Burmese War or the Second Burma War ( ; 5 April 185220 January 1853) was the second of the three wars fought between the Burmese Empire and British Empire during the 19th century. The war resulted in a British victory with more ...

in 1852/3 and the

Indian Rebellion The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form ...

Family

married Harriet Beckett in 1854; they had three infant daughters who died in

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

during the Indian Rebellion. Additionally, they had four sons- one of whom the soldier

Cyril Raikes Cyril Probyn Napier Raikes (1875–1963) was a British Army officer who was awarded the Military Cross in the World War I Mesopotamian campaign flying in the British army's Royal Engineers monitoring the oil pipelines there. He had previously fou ...

- and two daughters.''Pedigree of Raikes'' compiled by Duncan Raikes, published 1980, that is an updated version of ''Pedigree of Raikes'' privately published 1930 by Phillimore & Co, 120 Chancery Lane, London Raikes's sister Julia Maria (1815–1887), whose husband was Major-General Sir

Henry Gee Roberts Major-General Sir Henry Gee Roberts (18 July 1800 – 6 October 1860) was a British officer and political agent who served in the Bombay Army of the East India Company and afterwards in the British Raj in India. Early years Henry, born at Cho ...

(1800–1860), was the mother of Caroline Alice Roberts (1848–1920), a fiction writer who married the composer Sir

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

References

family {{DEFAULTSORT:Raikes, Robert Napier British Indian Army generals 1813 births People from Drayton, Norfolk British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Burmese War British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 1909 deaths Raikes family Military personnel from Norfolk