Arthur Mitford Becher
(1816-1887)
6. General Sir Arthur Mitford Becher KCB, the 6th child of George Becher and Harriet Geldart nee Barclay, was born 7th May 1816 in Benares.
He entered Addiscombe Military Seminary near Croydon, as an Infantry Cadet on 11th June 1832 and became an Ensign on 23rd October 1833.
He went out to India arriving there on 2nd January 1834 and initially served with the 33rd Native Infantry but was posted to the 61st N.I. 24th May 1834.
His following commissions were: Lieutenant 16th July 1839 61st Native Infantry; Captain 11th April 1845; Brevet-Major* 3rd April 1846; Major 18th February 1861;
Brevet-Lt. Col.* 7th June 1849; Lt. Col. 18th February 1863; Colonel 28th November 1854; Maj-General 27th April 1861; Lt-General 25th June 1870.
* A Brevet rank is one given as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but without receiving the authority, precedence or pay of the real rank.
The portrait, left, shows him in 1875.
He entered Addiscombe Military Seminary near Croydon, as an Infantry Cadet on 11th June 1832 and became an Ensign on 23rd October 1833.
He went out to India arriving there on 2nd January 1834 and initially served with the 33rd Native Infantry but was posted to the 61st N.I. 24th May 1834.
His following commissions were: Lieutenant 16th July 1839 61st Native Infantry; Captain 11th April 1845; Brevet-Major* 3rd April 1846; Major 18th February 1861;
Brevet-Lt. Col.* 7th June 1849; Lt. Col. 18th February 1863; Colonel 28th November 1854; Maj-General 27th April 1861; Lt-General 25th June 1870.
* A Brevet rank is one given as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but without receiving the authority, precedence or pay of the real rank.
The portrait, left, shows him in 1875.
He was appointed Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General 2nd Class 1st December 1838 and was upgraded to 1st Class on 12th January 1842. He served throughout the campaigns in Afghanistan in 1839 and 1842 and was present at the storm and capture of Ghuznee, for which he received a medal.
Serving throughout the Sutlej campaign of 1845 and 1846, including the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah and Sobraon when he was severely wounded, and he was appointed brevet-major and aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of India, receiving for his services a medal with two clasps. On 11th February 1843 he was granted two years leave at the Cape where his daughter Ada Frances Becher was born in 1844. He also served during the Punjab campaign in 1848 and 1849, including the siege and surrender of Mooltan and the battle of Goojerat.
He was appointed quartermaster-general of the army in 1852 and was stationed in Simla from 1854 during which time he and his wife and daughters enjoyed being involved in the local amateur dramatic society appearing in some productions.
Much later, in 'Forty-one Years in India,' published in 1897, Lord Roberts recalled a lunch he had with the then Colonel Arthur Becher which was a turning point in his career. Lord Roberts recalled that 'My father had always impressed upon me that the Political Department was the one to aspire to, and failing that the Quartermaster-General's, as in the latter there was the best chance of seeing service. I cherished a sort of vague hope that I might some day be lucky enough to become a Deputy Assistant Quatermaster-General, for though I fully recognised the advantages of a political career, I preferred being more closely associated with the army, and I had seen enough of staff work to satisfy myself that it would suit me. So the few words spoken t me by Colonel Becher made me supremely happy.'
He was present with the army headquarters at the siege of Delhi in 1857 and was severely wounded. He was Mentioned in Despatches for services in operations Eusufzai Frontier the same year.
On 22nd September 1857 he sent a report from Neemuch to Captain Nixon in which he wrote:
'All going wonderfully well at Delhi. The King and Begum Zeenut Mahall, are close prisoners. The Princes Meerzab Moghul, Aba Buker, and Kheysur Sultan were brought in from Hamayan’s Tomb, and shot at Delhi Gate. Their bodies were exhibited at the Cutwallie where so many of our poor countrymen were murdered. A pursuing column under Colonel Greathed of 1,600 infantry, 18 guns, and 600 cavalry, has been organized. Delhi, a perfect picture of desolation, and a vast amount of property was left. On night of 21st, the Queen’s health was proposed by the conqueror of Delhi and drunk with loud cheers in the Dewan Khana of the Palace. The cheers were taken up by the gallant Goorkas, and the old building rang with cheers.'
He received for his services a medal with clasp, and in 1858 was created a Commander of the Bath. He was promoted to Major-General in 1861 and commanded the Sirhind Division, Punjab, from 1865 to 1869, and was created a KCB on 24th May 1873.
He married Frances 'Fan' Anne Ford on 4th September 1841 at Simla. She was born in 1824 in Ceylon the daughter of Captain Matthew William Ford and Dorothy Harriet Cracroft. She died 21st August 1888 at Beaconsfield House, Malvern, Worcestershire.
After retirement he and his wife went to live in Winchester and he became very involved and concerned about the well being of those around him, especially soldiers. One of his interests was the establishment of Recreation Rooms for Soldiers in the High Street. He was also a Governor of the Royals Hants County Hospital and was still serving on its Managing Committee up to a year before his death.
About 1884, while they were living at Faith's Meade, their house in Winchester, Arthur Mitford Becher wrote to Sir Ernest Bennett the author of Apparitions and Haunted Houses, originally published in 1939:
'I am not at all a nervous or superstitious person, but I bear the character of a “ghost-seer” in my family, as I have seen other, to us, uncanny visions, but not of sufficiently clear details to narrate for the purpose of your enquiry.'
The salient details as described by Sir Ernest were that 'about March 1867, he went to the hill station of Kussowlie accompanied by his son and A.D.C., to examine a house he had secured for his family to reside in during the approaching hot season. They both slept in the house that night. During the night the general awoke suddenly, and saw the figure of a native woman standing near his bed, and close to an open door which led into a bathroom. He called out “Who are you ?” and jumped out of bed, when the figure retreated into the bathroom, and in following it the General found the outer door locked and the figure disappeared.'
'He went to bed again, and in the morning he wrote in pencil on a doorpost, “Saw a ghost”, but he did not mention the circumstance to his wife.'
'A few days after, the general and his family took possession of the house for the season, and Lady Becher used the room the General had slept in for her dressing-room. About 7pm on the first evening of their arrival, Lady Becher was dressing for dinner, and on going to a wardrobe (near the bathroom door) to take out a dress, she saw, standing close by and within the bathroom, a native women, and, for the moment, thinking it was her own ayah, asked her “What she wanted?” as Lady Becher never allowed a servant in her room while dressing. The figure then disappeared by the same door as on the former occasion, which, as before, was found locked. Lady Becher was not much alarmed, but felt that something unusual had occurred, and at dinner mentioned the event to the General and his son, when the General repeated what had occurred to him on the former occasion.
That same night, their youngest son, a boy about eight years of age, was sleeping in the same room as his father and mother, his bed facing an open door leading into the dressing-room and bathroom before mentioned, and in the middle of the night the boy started up in his bed in a frightened attitude, and called out “What do you want, ayah, what do you want?” in Hindustani, evidently seeing a female figure in the dressing-room near his bed. His mother quieted him, and he fell asleep, and the figure was not seen by the parents on that occasion, nor was it ever seen again, though they lived for months in the house. But it confirmed their feeling that the same woman had appeared to all three, and on enquiry from other occupants, they learned it was a frequent apparition on the first night or so of the house being occupied. A native Hill, or Cashmere, woman, very fair and handsome, had been murdered a few years before in a hut below the house, and immediately under the door leading into the bath and dressing-room, through which, on all three occasions, the figure had entered and disappeared. The General's son sleeping in another room never saw it.'
At some point in his later years he was prescribed a Cough Medicine by a 'celebrated physician' and he found it 'so efficacious and satisfactory in every way that he recommended it largely to his friends, and laid the foundations of its present large sale.' So claimed advertisements boldly headed Sir Arthur Becher's Marvellous Cough Mixture, that ran regularly in the local press until several years after his death. The medicine was sold in a bottle for 2/6d by L. Arden, Pharmaceutical and Dispensing Chemist, 100 High Street, Winchester, and was good for 'Coughs, Colds, Asthma and Bronchitis'
Sir Arthur Mitford Becher KCB died on 5th October 1887 at Winchester, Hampshire.
There were six children: the first five are listed below, to reach the sixth - Andrew Cracroft Becher and his descendants - please click here.
1. Lt Col. ARTHUR 'ARTY' WILLIAM REDDIE BECHER was born 6th December 1842 at Allahabad. He accepted an Honorary HEIC Cadetship and was appointed as a Cornet with the Bengal Cavalry on 20th December 1859.
His commissions and appointments were: Lieutenant 1st January 1862; Appointed Adjutant 18th May 1869; Captain 18th December 1871; Major 20th December 1879; Lt Col and Squadron Commander 16th Bengal Cavalry 20th December 1885. Equerry to the Duke of Connaught 1886-91 and Extra Equerry from 1891; Retired in 1889.
He served on the North East Frontier of India and took part in the Bhutan expedition of 1864-5 including the storming of Chamoochee when he was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the medal with clasp. He later took part in the Hazara campaign on the North West Frontier in 1868 (Clasp) and in the 2nd Afghan War of 1878-80 when he was again Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the medal. He was also awarded the India General Service Medal 1854-95 with two clasps and the Jubilee Medal 1887. After his retirement he lived at Taplow, Buckinghamshire. He was also a keen cricketer and played for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1872.
He married Katherine Ann Crocker on 3rd November 1866 at Barrackpore, India. She was born 22th June 1846 at Ilchester, Somerset the daughter of Henry George Crocker and Jane Hope. She died 14th February 1926 at Maida Vale, London. He died on 25th March 1926 only five weeks after his wife.
There were three children:
1. Lt. Col. George Arthur Becher DSO was born 15th March 1869 at Rawalpindi. He was educated at Stubbington House Boarding School, Titchfield, Hampshire under Montague H. Foster, Principal.
He entered Wellington College (Hill House) Lent 1883, played Cricket for the school, as seen in the photo of the XI, left, taken in 1887, where he is shown sitting cross-legged at the front.
He entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1888 and was commissioned into the 1st Battalion Norfolk Regiment the following year. In 1892 he attended the Imperial Service College, Windsor.
His commissions were: 2nd Lieutenant 21st October 1891; Lieutenant Indian Staff Corps 14th March 1892; Captain Indian Army 27th April 1900; Major 22nd April 1907; Lt. Col. 27th April 1915.
He took part in operations on the Samana and in the Kurram Valley near the North West Frontier of India during August and September 1897 and in the Tirah campaign of 1897-8 and the Relief of Gulistan and received the medal with three clasps. He also took part in operation Somaliland, East Africa 1903-4 as a Special Services Officer for which he was awarded the medal with clasp. He commanded the 8th Bengal Lancers in operations in Mesopotamia from 1916-18 during which time he was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) which was gazetted on 30th August 1918. He also received the 1914-18 Star, the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Allied Victory Medal 1914-20. He retired 8th February 1920.
He married Doris Margaret Wood, née Bainbridge, in 1920 at Easthampstead, Berkshire. She was born 12th November 1878 in Berhampore, India the daughter of Anthony John Rickards Bainbridge and Annie Mary Burns. She died 23rd March 1947 at Sunninghill, Berkshire.
After his retirement in 1920 and over the following thirty-five years he went on a series of solo tourist voyages travelling First Class to destinations such as New York, Montreal and Durban.
He visited his old school, Wellington College, in 1922, and gave what the school year book said was one of the best lectures of the year in the Old Hall, which was quite full, titled 'Big Game Hunting.'
He died on 7th May 1965 at Twyford Abbey, Ealing, London and was buried at Hitchin New Cemetery, Hertfordshire. There were no children.
1. Lt. Col. George Arthur Becher DSO was born 15th March 1869 at Rawalpindi. He was educated at Stubbington House Boarding School, Titchfield, Hampshire under Montague H. Foster, Principal.
He entered Wellington College (Hill House) Lent 1883, played Cricket for the school, as seen in the photo of the XI, left, taken in 1887, where he is shown sitting cross-legged at the front.
He entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst in 1888 and was commissioned into the 1st Battalion Norfolk Regiment the following year. In 1892 he attended the Imperial Service College, Windsor.
His commissions were: 2nd Lieutenant 21st October 1891; Lieutenant Indian Staff Corps 14th March 1892; Captain Indian Army 27th April 1900; Major 22nd April 1907; Lt. Col. 27th April 1915.
He took part in operations on the Samana and in the Kurram Valley near the North West Frontier of India during August and September 1897 and in the Tirah campaign of 1897-8 and the Relief of Gulistan and received the medal with three clasps. He also took part in operation Somaliland, East Africa 1903-4 as a Special Services Officer for which he was awarded the medal with clasp. He commanded the 8th Bengal Lancers in operations in Mesopotamia from 1916-18 during which time he was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) which was gazetted on 30th August 1918. He also received the 1914-18 Star, the British War Medal 1914-20 and the Allied Victory Medal 1914-20. He retired 8th February 1920.
He married Doris Margaret Wood, née Bainbridge, in 1920 at Easthampstead, Berkshire. She was born 12th November 1878 in Berhampore, India the daughter of Anthony John Rickards Bainbridge and Annie Mary Burns. She died 23rd March 1947 at Sunninghill, Berkshire.
After his retirement in 1920 and over the following thirty-five years he went on a series of solo tourist voyages travelling First Class to destinations such as New York, Montreal and Durban.
He visited his old school, Wellington College, in 1922, and gave what the school year book said was one of the best lectures of the year in the Old Hall, which was quite full, titled 'Big Game Hunting.'
He died on 7th May 1965 at Twyford Abbey, Ealing, London and was buried at Hitchin New Cemetery, Hertfordshire. There were no children.
2. Dame Ethel Hope Becher GBE, RRC and Bar was born on 15th December 1867 at Umballa, India and was educated privately. She trained as a nurse at the London Hospital under the then Matron, Eva Luckes, between 1893 and 1899 and then enlisted as a Reserve Nurse and served in the South African War 1899-1902 for which she was awarded the Royal Red Cross – the first ever recipient of the award - and the Queen's and King's Medals and Mentioned in Despatches. Between 1903 and 1910 she was the Principal Matron of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service and from 1910-19 she was Matron-in-Chief at the War Office.
In 1916 she was appointed to the Committee on Supply Nurses and the following year was appointed Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. She was about to retire when war broke out but the authorities persuaded her to reconsider her decision. Throughout the war years her work involved constant anxiety. She had to find the nurses for every military hospital both at home and abroad whether in Salonica, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Italy, the
Mediterranean or Flanders.
On 9th November 1922 she and six nursing co-signatories wrote to The Times appealing for donations of clothing and blankets which duly published their letter the next day:
We should like to appeal to the women who served with His Majesty's Forces during the war - nurses, V.A.D. members, officers, and women of other ranks of the Women's Naval Service, Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, the Women's Legion [Motor Transport Section], the Women's Forage Corps, and the Women's Royal Air Force - to send warm clothes for the refugees from Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace.
The clothes needed are old coats, skirts, jerseys, stockings, underclothes, men's and children's clothing of every description, also knitting wool, warm cloth, flannel and blankets. They should be addressed:- Nansen's Relief Appeal, c/o the All British Appeal, 71 Southwark Bridge Road, SW. The need is urgent. As a result of the recent disturbances in the Near East 600,000 refugees, 80 per cent of whom are women, children and old men, have been laded in Greece and the surrounding islands in a state of complete destitution.
In Salonika, those who are housed at all are living in old, partly demolished army huts, or in old British dugouts. In Greece the refugees may be found on the quays, in warehouses, factories or any available buildings. They have no clothes other than those they stand up in [many of them having escaped from burning houses in their night things] no blankets and inadequate food. At one of the centres nearby one hundred babies were born during the morning on which the refugees arrived: neither milk nor clothing was available, and the frightened and exhausted mothers had been travelling for days.
The League of Nations, together with international and national voluntary organisations are doing all they can to assist the local authorities and the necessary machinery for the distribution of materials is therefore in existence.
These facts have been brought to our notice by Dame Rachel Crowdy, who served with us during the war and who has personal knowledge of our common service, with the recollections of devastated villages and weary refugees, will bring home to ex-service women the plight of these unfortunates.
Signed
Ethel Becher
Margaret Ampthill
Katherine Furse
Florence Simpson
Edith Londonderry
E.F. Athole-Stewart
H.C.I. Gwynne-Vaughan.
112 Beaufort Street, Chelsea
November 9.
After retirement Dame Ethel lived in Woking and London; she did not marry and died on 10th May 1948 in Surrey. Her set of medals were donated to and are viewable at the National Army Museum, Chelsea. Her Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service medal is pictured above.
3. Edyth Margaret Becher was born 4th February 1876 at Bareilly, India. She married Harry Coleman, a Woollen Merchant, on 16th July 1896 at St Joseph's Catholic Church, Maidenhead. He was born in 1863 at Kensington the son of John Coleman and Luisa Stratford and died 15th August 1927. She died in 1955 at Henley, Oxfordshire. There were two daughters.
* * *
2. ADA FRANCES BECHER was born in 1844 at Cape Town and died aboard the Soorma on 28th November 1847 and was buried at Benares.
3. FREDERICK PONSONBY BECHER was born on 14th July 1847 at Lahore and died there on 22nd July 1848.
4. EDYTH MARY BECHER was born 4th May 1850 at Simla. She married Frank Sugden, a Landowner/Farmer, on 18th December 1894 at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, Paddington, London. He was born 28th October 1852 the son of the Hon. Rev. Frank Sugden and Henrietta Maria Saltmarshe. Edyth died 24th January 1904 at Oaklands, Kingsdown, Sevenoaks, Kent. He married again after her death and died 19th August 1927 in London. There were no children.
5. LEILA GOUGH BECHER was born on 27th September 1854 at Simla and died in 12th December 1855 of bronchitis and was buried at Loodiana.