Wellington Letter 1838 - need help on a name

[Kerry Langford]

Good day all,

 

Here's a letter from the DoW. There is a name mentioned 'Mr Augustus Henry Jernan' that I can't seem to find any info on. If there is someone who has access to the records from the Cadet Office at India House it would be great to see what this lad eventually did with his life.

 

Much appreciated,

 

Kerry

Letter Contents.docx

[Owen]

Hi Kerry,

Reading the first page of the letter, i think your cadet was actually 'Augustus Henry Ternan'.   I think if you google that name you will get results, but as a starter for ten...seems the boy did good!.....quite a career:

General Augustus Henry Ternan  - Bengal Staff Corps - died 23rd December 1893. 2nd Lt. 1839. Lt. Col. 1865. Major-General 1881. Served in Bundlecund 1842-3. Sutlej Campaign 1846 (medal); Punjab Campaign 1849 (medal, MID); Indian Mutiny 1857-8 (medal & clasp, MID).

Good luck!

Owen

P.S.

Memorial to Ternan

 

 

Edited November 24, 2016 by Owen
Edited to add memorial P.S.

[Kerry Langford]

Owen, thank you plenty for pointing that out. Seems the Duke put forward a decent cadet. Now to find out a bit more about his grandfather Colonel Reed.

Thank you once again, it's interesting reading his letters. Gives a good idea of what the man was about.

 

Cheers,

Edited November 24, 2016 by Kerry Langford

[Owen]

Hi Kerry,

My pleasure.  Let us know here what you find out on Reed and Ternan, I for one would be very interested.  

Regards,

Owen

Edited November 24, 2016 by Owen

[peter monahan]

Completely irrelevant to this chaop, but one of my first exposures to the allure of 'Inja' was a reference I ran across to the 'Bundlekund Legion', whihc name struck me both as humourous and intriguing.  I was probably 16, but from thence sprang my life long fascination with British India and its armies.

Kerry, glad one of the members was able to help.

[Kerry Langford]

Brilliant Peter, as I read letters from the war it gets more interesting. Try wrap your head around this one:

Distance between Raniganj and Benares - 488 km's

Distance between Ranigang and Calcutta - 170 km's

That's 658 km's at the greatest distance between the two bodies involved in this letter. 

Once you've read the letter below think of the way in which the messages were delivered, then the time in which that took and finally, if you look at his number of dispatches per day they could accomplish think of the amount of men and the logistics it involved just simply getting this one letter through. Then think of the amount of time the Bullock Trains took! It's mind boggling!

2nd June 1857

To: Henry Carre Tucker (Comissioner of Benares - now Varanasi)

From: Sir Cecil Beadon (Lt/Governor of Bengal Presidency based in Calcutta - now Kolkata)

- The absolute limit to our daily dispatch of dawk carriages from Raniganj is ten, and generally we can only accomplish nine.

- To maintain even this rate, necessary that the carriages should not remain a day in Benares, but should return instantly

- In the same way our Bullock train accommodation between Nuwabganj and Sherghati is limited to 96 men a day

- Greatest number therefore that we can convey between these two places daily is 120; and anything that tends to cripple our means of conveyance limits the number of men we can send

- Now your Bullock train is quite unlimited and though of course the pace is comparatively slow, yet it is of far more importance that a large body of Europeans should be as speedily as possible collected at Benares than a few of them should be pushed on to Allahabad with extreme rapidity to the sacrifice of the former object

- It is of no use encouraging a larger means of from the Soan (river) to Benares, unless we can strengthen our establishment between Raniganj and the Soan of which at present there seems little prospect.

- Unfortunately wagons cannot travel in the hills and the number of carts available is very small.

C. Beadon

P.S.

- Your first batch of 120 ought to arrive the day after tomorrow.

- The men I fear will be fatigued by the journey in such heat as this.

- If Sikhs can be used anywhere with advantage it must be between Benares and Allahabad

[Jack Ternan]

Augustus Henry Ternan was my great great grandfather. His grandfather was Alexander Reed who served in the East India Company as well.

Where did this letter originate?

[Kerry Langford]

Hi Jack,

This is a letter from the Duke of Wellington to Henry St. George Tucker who was heavily involved in the East India Company. He stood as Director for many years as well as serving as Chairman twice. I have been involved in the Tucker side of things for a a few years now. A good friend of mine is the direct lineage from Henry St. George Tucker.

The fact that Augustus was recommended by by the Duke says something about him. Do you have any info you can shed regarding both Ternan and Reed about their lives? Would be fantastic if you have something.

Cheers,

[Jack Ternan]

I know very little about Col. Reed other than he was involved with the East India Company and had a daughter Helena, who married Richard Richards Ternan.  Richard served in the Madras Army of the East India Company and died and was buried in Vellore, India.  I suspect (but have no proof) that he served with Reed.

Augustus had an illustrious career.  If George Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny is to be believed, Augustus predicted that the company's policies would provoke a revolt, made a concerted effort to reverse the policies beforehand, and, unfortunately, was only able to reverse most of the changes.  During the rebellion, Augustus' district and the natives rallied to the British.  After the rebellion, Augustus served in the British Army and managed several districts.  His highly detailed statistical reports are still used to analyze the demographics and economy of the era.

Augustus had seven children, and the men had military careers.  His son and my great grandfather, Trevor Patrick Breffney Ternan, was a Brigadier General, and served in India, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, East Africa, and South Africa before retiring (only to rejoin for WWI and serve at the battle of the Somme).

All in all, I'd say the Duke chose wisely.