User:Olivander/Archibald Bogle

Major General Sir Archibald Bogle (18 August 1805 – 12 June 1870) was a British soldier and statesman who served in several administrative roles across India and Burma during the Company Raj. He is primarily remembered for his successful administration of the province of Arakan, which under his leadership went from being perhaps the most unhealthy, undesirable station in all India, to "one of the most prosperous and well-governed provinces under the Presidency of Bengal."

Early life
Archibald Bogle was born in Dumbarton on 18 August 1805, the son of Andrew Bogle, a Glaswegian merchant of Kingston, Jamaica, and his wife, Mary (nee. Stirling). After his mother's affair with Henry Stanhope - a son of the Earl of Harrington - Archibald moved to Cheltenham with his mother and elder sister Janet in 1811; his parents divorced shortly afterwards. He was educated at Harrow School and at the Royal Engineers Establishment at Chatham. Despite his engineering background, he obtained a cadetship in the East India Company’s Bengal Infantry during the 1822 season.

First Anglo-Burmese War
Bogle landed in Calcutta around May 1823, was appointed an ensign of infantry and assigned to the 2nd Bengal Grenadiers. His tenure in that elite corps was short lived, and in 1824, on the outbreak of war with Burma, he was attached to the 57th Bengal Native Infantry and sent to reinforce the relatively small British column fighting the Burmese in Assam.

When the campaign resumed after the rains subsided in early January 1825, the 57th found itself at the forefront of the British advance on Rangpur - the seat of Burmese power in Assam. On the morning of 27 January 1825, the Burmese garrison made an attack upon an advanced post of the British encampment at a bridge over the Namdong nullah, which was defended by a detachment of local infantry. On hearing the firing Colonel Richards, the British commander, moved to support them with two companies of the 57th. After staging a feint withdrawal, the British successfully lured the Burmese out of the surrounding jungle and routed them with a bayonet charge which took the enemy completely by surprise. Two days later on 29 January, the 57th took part in an assult against a large, heavily-defended Burmese stockade outside Rangpur. In this action Colonel Richards and, perhaps most notably, a Lieutenant Brooke were amongst a great many wounded, although Bogle himself escaped unscathed. Besieged in Rangpur, the Burmese garrison quickly capitulatd, thus ending what was arguably the most successful campaign of the war.

When he finally landed in Calcutta around May 1823, Bogle was appointed ensign and posted to the 2nd Bengal Grenadiers. His tenure in that elite corps was short lived however, as in 1824, on the outbreak of war with Burma, he was attached to the 57th Bengal Native Infantry and sent to reinforce the relatively small British column fighting the Burmese in Assam.

to the and soon after saw action in Burma in 1824-25, including the capture of Rangpur, and of the stockades of Dupha and Bisa, and in many minor affairs. He received a mention for his services which saw him soon promoted Lieutenant in May 1825. He served as regimental interpreter and Quartermaster, and in December 1827 was sent to act as Deputy Judge Advocate General to the Dinapore Division of the Bengal Army, the first in a succession of judicial and magisterial appointments which was to take him through posts in the Arakan, Upper and Lower Assam and, in 1849, to the Tenasserim Provinces in the role of Commissioner. In 1834 he had been responsible for the establishment of a Bhutanese colony in Assam and, two years later, he served against the Raja of Dewangiri in the pursuit of a Bhutanese force after thir defeat by a detachment of the Assam Sebundy Corps at Sorbang Katta stockade on the Bhutan frontier.

Bogle’s military promotions followed closely on his civil service successes, becoming Captain in 1832, Major in 1844, and Lieutenant-Colonel in February 1851. During the Second Burma war he was present at the capture of Martaban, and at the capture of Rangoon, being severely wounded on that occasion and several times mentioned in despatches. In April 1853 he was present at the capture of Beeling stockade, and at the end of that year had the honour of knighthood conferred on him for his services in Burma. Bogle was subsequently promoted Colonel in November 1854 and left India on sick furlough in March 1857, weeks before the outbreak of the mutiny, not to return. He was promoted to Hon. Major-General in August 1862, and died eight years later in London on 2nd June 1870.

Henry Havelock was born at Ford Hall, Bishopwearmouth (now in Sunderland), the son of William Havelock, a wealthy shipbuilder, and Jane, daughter of John Carter, solicitor, of Stockton-on-Tees. He was the second of four brothers, all of whom entered the army. The family moved to Ingress Park, Dartford, Kent, when Henry was still a child, and here his mother died in 1811. From January 1800 until August 1804 Henry attended Dartford Grammar School as a parlour boarder with the Master, Rev John Bradley, after which he was placed with his elder brother in the boarding-house of Dr. Raine, headmaster of Charterhouse School until he was 17. Among his contemporaries at Charterhouse were Connop Thirlwall, George Grote, William Hale, Julius Hare, and William Norris, the last two being his special friends. Shortly after leaving Charterhouse his father lost his fortune by unsuccessful speculation, sold Ingress Hall, and removed to Clifton.

In accordance with the desire of his mother he entered the Middle Temple in 1813, and became a pupil of Joseph Chitty; his fellow-student was Thomas Talfourd. Henry's legal studies having been interrupted by a misunderstanding with his father, Havelock was thrown upon his own resources, and obliged to abandon the law as a profession. By the good offices of his brother William, who had distinguished himself in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo, he obtained on 30 July 1815, at the age of 20, a post as second lieutenant in the 95th Regiment of Foot, Rifle Brigade, and was posted to the company of Captain Harry Smith, who encouraged him to study military history and the art of war. He was promoted lieutenant on 24 October 1821. During the following eight years of service in Britain he read extensively all the standard works and acquired a good acquaintance with the theory of war.