55. William and Ellen Lucy Lewtey of Northern British India

William Henry Lewtey was born in 1845 in either Cawnpore or Saugor. His parents were William and Elizabeth Lewtey. He is 'Lewty' in some of the records.

In 1863, he joined the British Indian Army, as an Apothecary.

The following description of the duties of apothecaries is from FIBIS:

"The European establishment consists of apothecaries, assistant-apothecaries, apprentices, stewards, and assistant-stewards. The apothecaries are charged with the preparation and administration of medicines, the care of wounds, accidents, and injuries, during the intervals of the visits of the surgeons, the admission of patients, and, in fact, are the general assistants of the medical officers in the performance of their professional duties in the field, in garrison, and in all the circumstances in which the troops are employed. It would be impossible to exaggerate the usefulness and importance of this excellent class of public servants. As a body, they are a credit to the service, and are of more real use, from their careful professional training, than any body of nurses could possibly be, to the sick and wounded. 

"They are usually the sons of soldiers, educated in the regimental schools, or in the Military Orphan School. They are admitted to the service after examination by special committees of medical officers—a concours upon a small scale—and after doing duty in regimental hospitals for two years, are (if in Bengal) transferred to the medical college in Calcutta tor two additional years of training. There they are under strict military control; are instructed in anatomy, materia medica, medicine, and surgery; are carefully trained in hospital duties as clinical clerks; and, after undergoing a tolerably strict examination—in somе particulars more severe than that of the College of Surgeons of England—are reported qualified."

Ellen Lucy MacDonald was born in 1851 in Peshawar, North West Frontier [now Pakistan]. Her parents were Robert and Matilda MacDonald.

William and Ellen Lucy were married in 1869 in Sanawur, Kasauli, Himal Pradesh, where she lived. Kasauli was a cantonment and town, established as a hill station in 1842.

Kasauli Circuit House (credit)

At the time of the marriage, he was an Assistant Surgeon, resident of Rawal Pindi [Rawalpindi, Pakistan]. She was recorded as Ellen, but my grandmother remembered her as Lucy.

They had nine children:

• 60.1.1 - Florence Helena Lewtey (1870, Meerut nr Delhi)
• 60.1.2 - Ada Elizabeth Lewtey (1871, Meerut nr Delhi)
• 60.1.3 - Ellenor Maude Lewtey (1873, Peshawar)
• 60.1.4 - Blanche Eveline Lewtey (1874, Murree nr Rawal Pindee)
• 60.1.5 - Alexander Crutchley Lewtey (1877, Fort William, Calcutta)
• 60.1.6 - Eva Beatrix Lewtey (1878, Peshawar)
• 60.1.7 - Rose Violet Lewtey (1880, Peshawar)
• 60.1.8 - George Ronald Crutchley Lewtey (1881, Burma?)
• 60.1.9 - William Crutchley Lewtey (1883, Rawal Pindee)

I don't know why the boys were called 'Crutchley'.

More on these individuals in Chapter 60.

The sequence of places the children were born must have followed William's career.

Meerut was, arguably, where the Indian Rebellion had started in 1857, only 13 years before Florence's birth there. The Rebellion occurred as the result of an accumulation of factors over time, rather than any single event. However, the final spark was provided by the ammunition for the new Enfield Pattern 1853 rifled musket.

Enfield Rifle Musket, 1853 (credit)

The Offending Pre-Greased Cartridge (my photo,
taken at the Duke of Lancaster's Regimental Museum at Carlisle Castle) 

These rifles, which fired Minié balls, had a tighter fit than the earlier muskets, and used paper cartridges that came pre-greased. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder. The grease used on these cartridges was rumoured to include tallow derived from beef, which would be offensive to Hindus, and pork, which would be offensive to Muslims. Despite warnings of the difficulties this may cause, the British pressed on and issued the offending cartridges at Meerut, a large military cantonment, which held one of the largest concentrations of British troops in India: 2,038 British soldiers and 2,357 Indian sepoys, along with 12 British-manned guns. Sepoys who refused to use the cartridges, and freed by rebellious comrades. The trouble spread to Delhi and across Bengal.

Meerut also had a large artillery hospital, which is probably where William gained his early experience. There was also a large military base at Murree, which would have had a hospital.

Alexander was born 1400 miles from Peshawar. At least there was a direct route! The Grand Trunk Road, as it was now called, had linked Kabul (and beyond) to Delhi and Calcutta for 2000 years, and the EIC had metalled it from the 1830s. In Kim (1901), Kipling said:

"Look! Look again! and chumars, bankers and tinkers, barbers and bunnias, pilgrims – and potters – all the world going and coming. It is to me as a river from which I am withdrawn like a log after a flood. And truly the Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India's traffic for fifteen hundred miles – such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world."

Calcutta was the capital of the Bengal Presidency which covered this whole area, and there were important civil and medical facilities there. And we noted above that Apothecaries were required to train there. Despite the road, it might have taken two months or more each way, roughly the same as the voyage to England from Calcutta. It does now seem unlikely that George was born in British Burma, despite that apparently being indicated at probate.

Peshawar Hospital (FIBIS)

According to the Army List, before William was married, he was awarded a medal/clasp for service in Yusufzai in 1863, and another at Huzara in 1868.These indicate active service in the troubled North West Frontier Province, on the Afghan border to the north east of Peshawar.

The Ambela campaign in 1863 was one of many expeditions in the area; this campaign was against local Pashtuns of Yusufzai tribes, who vehemently opposed British colonial rule and frequently attacked British forces. In 1858, an expedition drove the Pashtuns from their base. By 1863, however, they had regrouped around the mountain outpost of Malka. A force led by Neville Bowles Chamberlain planned to destroy Malka. They set up an operational base in the Chamla Valley accessed by the Ambela Pass, but they were soon bogged down a numerically superior local force. Reinforcements drafted in by the local Commander-in-Chief eventually broke through the pass, received the surrender of the Bunerwals and went on to burn Malka. The expedition saw 1,000 British casualties and an unknown number of Indian casualties.

Hazara is a region in the north eastern part of the area. After the First Sikh War, under the terms of the Treaty of Lahore, the area was governed by Major James Abbott. Abbott managed to secure and pacify the area within a year. During the Second Sikh War, Abbott and his men were cut off by the Sikh army from supplies and reinforcements from the rest of the British Army, but were able to maintain their position. By 1849, the British had gained control of all of Hazara. However, the western Pashtun tribes were occasionally rebellious. These tribes included the Swati clans of Allai, the Batagram in the Nandhiar valley, and the Black Mountain (Tor Ghar) Tribes. The British sent many expeditions against these tribes to crush uprisings between 1852 and the 1920s.

William was awarded another medal/clasp for service in Afghanistan in 1878-1879.

Afghanistan Medal (credit)

This indicates active service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. This was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dynasty. The war was part of the Great Game between the British and Russian empires. The war was split into two campaigns - the first began in November 1878 with the British invasion of Afghanistan. The British were quickly victorious and forced the Amir - Sher Ali Khan to flee. Ali's successor Mohammad Yaqub Khan immediately sued for peace and the Treaty of Gandamak was then signed on 26 May 1879. The British sent an envoy and mission led by Sir Louis Cavagnari to Kabul but on 3 September this mission was massacred and the conflict was reignited by Ayub Khan which led to the abdication of Yaqub. The second campaign ended in September 1880 when the British decisively defeated Ayub Khan outside Kandahar.

Royal Horse Artillery Retreating in the Second Anglo-Afghan War
Detail from Maiwand: Saving the Guns by Richard Caton Woodville (credit)

In 1881 William is recorded in a Bengal directory as an Assistant Apothecary at Fort General Hospital, Rawal Pindee. In the same year, he saw service in the Mahsud-Wahiri Expedition, again in the North West Frontier. In 1891, the Army List shows that he was promoted to Apothecary 1st Grade.

Detail of Afghan War Memorial, Reading (my photo)

Ellen Lucy died in 1885 in Umballa [Ambala]. William is recorded as having retired in 1889 but still recorded as an Apothecary in the April 1891 Indian Army List. The job title was officially changed under the Medical Act in 1794, and William became a "Senr Asst Serjn With Hony Rank Of Captain" - which is how he was recorded in the pension records in 1900. Some researchers suggest he died in 1908 but he is recorded as "Surgeon-Captain" in the January 1912 Indian Army List.

Next (William's siblings)