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 ...

Sir Mowbray Thomson (1 April 1832 – 25 February 1917) was an officer in the British

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

Early life and education

Mowbray Thomson was born in "Bhurtpore" (modern day Bharatpur, Rajasthan), India on 1 April 1832, son of Dr Richard Mowbray Martin Thomson (c. 1799–1849), a marine surgeon at Calcutta, and Mary, née Prendergast.List of Pre-mutiny Inscriptions in Christian burial grounds in the Patna District, J. F. W. James, 1935, p. 6 He was educated in England and attended

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 ...

as a cadet.

Military career

In 1853 he received a commission in the 53rd Bengal Native Infantry, a regiment in the British East India Company. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Thomson played a key role in the defense of Wheeler's Entrenchment during the Siege of Cawnpore. He was one of the few survivors of the siege and subsequent massacre at Sati Chaura Ghat .The Annual Register, p. 162 Thomson was invalided to England, heavily wounded, and promoted to brevet-major. While convalescing in England, he wrote ''The Story of Cawnpore'', a first-hand account of the siege, which was published in 1859. After returning to India, he was given a civilian post as political agent at

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

, and later appointed Governor-General's agent for Wajid Ali Shah, the former King of

Oudh The Kingdom of Awadh (, , also Oudh State, Kingdom of Oudh, Awadh Subah, or Awadh State) was a Mughal subah, then an independent kingdom, and lastly a British protectorate in the Awadh region of North India until its annexation by the Br ...

. He retired in 1885, with the Army rank of major-general, and was promoted to full general in 1894. Thomson died in Reading, England on 25 February 1917. The funeral service was held on 28 February in Saint Bartholomew's church, Reading and his body cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London.

References

Sources

*Obituary: p. 162, ''The Annual Register: a review of public events at home and abroad, for the year 1917''. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1918. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Mowbray 1832 births 1917 deaths British East India Company Army officers British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British Indian Army generals Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire