James Metcalfe (Bengal Army officer)

Lieutenant-Colonel James Metcalfe CB (1817 – 8 March 1888) was an Anglo-Indian military officer in the Bengal Army.

Biography

Metcalfe was born in India, an illegitimate son of Charles Metcalfe and a Punjabi Sikh mother whom his father had met whilst envoy to the court of Ranjit Singh at Lahore[1] He had three full brothers.[2]

He was educated at the East India Company Military Seminary at Addiscombe in Surrey. He returned to India in 1836 as a commissioned second lieutenant in the Bengal Native Infantry part of the Bengal Army.[3] He became adjutant of his regiment in 1839 until 1846. On the death of his father in 1846 he inherited a fortune of £50,000.[3]

Between 1848 and 1853 he served as aide-de-camp to The Marquess of Dalhousie during his term as Governor-General of India.[3] During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 he was appointed interpreter to the Commander-in-Chief in India General Sir Colin Campbell as well as aide-de-camp and commandant to the headquarters.[3] After the rebellion he was made a Companion of the Order of Bath and promoted to lieutenant-colonel. He retired from service in 1861. He later migrated to London, where he died on 8 March 1888.[3]

Personal life

In 1852 he married José Eliza, daughter of Evelyn Meadows Gordon of the Bengal civil service.[3]

References
  1. Sita Anantha Raman 2009 Women in India: a social and cultural history, volume 2. Praeger, p. 87.
  2. Hall, D. G. “Sir Charles Metcalfe: Governor of Jamaica, Sept., 1839 to May, 1842.” Caribbean Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 2, 1953, pp. 90–100. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40652570. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.
  3. "Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021.
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