Robert Napier Raikes

General Robert Napier Raikes (13 October 1813 – 23 March 1909) was a British Indian Army officer who became General of the Remount, responsible for the provision of horses throughout the British Indian Army, in 1889.

Robert Napier Raikes
General Robert Napier Raikes Painted by Arthur Trevithin Nowell
Born13 October 1813
Drayton, Norfolk, England
Died23 March 1909 (1909-03-24) (aged 95)
Allegiance United Kingdom / British Empire
Service/branch British Indian Army
RankGeneral
Battles/warsGwalior campaign
Second Anglo-Burmese War
Indian Rebellion

Military career
His tobacco case, well-worn from hard riding in India. Engraved Col. R N Raikes — Honestum præferre utili. Silver hallmark London 1875.

He was born 13 October 1813 in Drayton the son of Robert Napier Raikes the vicar of Gayton and rector of Hellesdon all in Norfolk, England; and the grandson of Robert Raikes, the promoter of Sunday schools. He was at Addiscombe Military Seminary in 1828 as a cadet. He entered the Indian Army as a cadet in the Bengal Staff Corps on 19 November 1829 sailing from Portsmouth 29 November, arriving Calcutta 14 May 1829. He then travelled across country, only reaching his regiment at Cawnpore on 7 November. Apparently his men carried the old flint-lock musket, of which Wellington's maxim was "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." He first returned home "on furlough" 35 years later.[1]

He was promoted to major 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 [Mainpuri], 20,000 rupees in all, and sent it into Agra with two loyal Sikhs, 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." [2]

Raikes was promoted to colonel in 1866, lieutenant general in 1881 and general in 1889. He was reputed to have shot a hundred tigers. He returned to England in 1870 and later retired to Watford and Malvern. He died aged 95 on 23 March 1909.

Raikes was awarded medals for the Gwalior campaign in 1843, the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852/3 and the Indian Rebellion.

Family

Raikes married Harriet Beckett in 1854; they had three infant daughters who died in Agra during the Indian Rebellion. Additionally, they had two daughters and four sons[3].

Their daughters were:

  • Mabel born 25 September 1863
  • Ethel Florence Raikes born 5 August 1872 in Swanmore, Hampshire, England. She married Alexander Duncan Turnbull, tea planter in Assam, India (son of George Turnbull (civil engineer)) on 1 December 1897 and had one daughter Doris Katherine Raikes Turnbull born November 1898 in Nowgong, Assam, India. Ethel and Alexander divorced. Ethel then had the surname Doryn. Then she married 11 April 1911 in the Register Office, Strand, London the artist Leopold Braun (born in Vienna and later(?) a French citizen, died 21 January 1943 Saint-Cloud, near Versailles) and lived in France. During World War II in penury she lived in Menton, France, breaking her hip. After WWII, known familiarly as Ottie Braun, she lived with her daughter in East Dundry and then in a nursing home in Long Ashton both just south of Bristol. She died 27 February 1952 in the Hospital Provincial Palma de Mallorca in Spain.

Their four sons were:

  • Robert Haig Napier Raikes born 2 April 1861, probably in India
  • Herbert William Napier Raikes born 1 June 1865 in Cheltenham, England, married in USA
  • Reginald Durie Napier Raikes born 28 January 1874; first married Fanny Katherine Skene and had two sons and one daughter; second marriage Edna Featherstonehaugh; died 1962. Colonial Service (Southern Nigeria); District Commissioner; Nigeria medal; retired about 1920; later in Hollywood films; then Fountainstown House, Myrtlewick, County Cork, Ireland, dying there July 1962.
  • Major Cyril Probyn Napier Raikes born 12 November 1875.

References
  1. The Newberys in Six Generations page 65, printed by Bemrose and Sons Limited, Derby and London, 1911
  2. The Newberys in Six Generations page 65, printed by Bemrose and Sons Limited, Derby and London, 1911
  3. Pedigree of Raikes compiled by Duncan Raikes, published 1980, ISBN 0-900592-73-7 that is an updated version of Pedigree of Raikes privately published 1930 by Phillimore & Co, 120 Chancery Lane, London
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