Septimus Harding Becher
(1817-1908)
General SEPTIMUS HARDING BECHER (my great great grandfather, seen left in a photo in my possession), the seventh son of George Becher and Harriet Geldart Barclay, was born 15th July 1817 at Fort William, Calcutta. Details of his early education are unknown but aged 15 he entered Addiscombe Military Seminary near Croydon as a Cadet on 1st August 1832 and on leaving on 13th June 1834 he went out to India arriving there 11th December 1834 and was appointed Ensign with the 63rd Battalion Native Infantry (N.I.) on 11th June 1834, he later transferred to the 61st N.I.
His other commissions were: Lieutenant 3rd October 1840; Captain 61st N.I. 1st December 1846; Major 18th February 1861; Lt. Col. 18th February 1863; Colonel 18th February 1866; Major General 1st October 1877; Lt General 18th December 1880; General 22nd January 1889.
He was appointed Acting Adjutant of the Kumaon Local Battalion on 16th March 1839 and again on 19th September 1840 and he served with the Public Works Department at Kumaon from11th February 1841. He was appointed Adjutant of the 61st N.I. 14th January 1842 till 13th February 1847 after which he was on furlough for two years. He was appointed Brigade Major at Barrackpore in October 1850 and 2nd Assistant Adjutant General of the Army on 18th November 1862 and was upgraded to 1st on 6th May 1856. He did special duty with the Military Finance Department from 23rd May 1862.
'Early in 1857 rumours of the Mutiny were in the air'. So wrote H.G. Rawlinson in his introduction to Augusta Emily Becher's book 'Personal Reminiscences of India and Europe'.
On 13th April 1857 Septimus wrote to Captain E. M. Martineau, then the Depot Commander at Ambala:
'…We make a mistake in supposing that because we dress, arm and drill Hindustani soldiers as Europeans, they become one bit European in their feelings and ideas. I see them on parade for say two hours daily, but what do I know of them for the other 22 ? What do they talk about in their lines ? What do they plot ?...'
'I know at the present moment an unusual agitation is pervading the ranks of the entire army, but what will it exactly result in, I am afraid to say. I can detect the near approach of the storm.'
'…Everywhere, far and near, the army under some maddening impulse, are looking out with strained expectation for something, some unseen invisible agency has caused one uncommon electric thrill to run thru' all.
'I don't think they know themselves what they will do, or that they have any plan of action except of resistance to invasion of their religion and their faith. …If a flare-up from any cause takes place at one station, it will spread and become universal.'
Rawlinson goes on to describe how: 'In Simla, there was panic. The ugly rumours that the bazaar was being looted and the Gurkhas had broken out, and the hurried exit to Dagshai. “Sep” was detained on staff duties in the hills, eating his heart out, and month after month rolled by, sometimes with no news at all, and at others with stories, greatly distorted, of the horrible atrocities being committed everywhere.'
In a review of 'Personal Reminiscences of India and Europe' in The Times Literary Supplement of 14th August 1930 it was recalled that:
'When the Mutiny broke out he was left in charge of the office at Simla while the Adjutant General, Col. Charles Chester, joined the besieging forces before Delhi, with the future Sir Henry Norman as his assistant. Chester was killed in action on June 8, 1857. Becher was senior in service to Norman, and had he abandoned his office at Simla, hastened to Delhi and urged his claims to the succession, he would probably have received the office which fell to Norman. All his family were eager for Becher to join the Delhi force at once. His elder brother, Arthur, telegraphed for him to come. His sister-in-law at Kasauli had ponies in readiness. But he insisted on waiting for orders, and 'les absents ont toujours tort'. The commanders-in-chief under whom he served had gone home or died. He was therefore at this time of swift promotion left to eat his heart out at Simla, twice passed over, and at last relegated to Calcutta. He perhaps would have done better had he never quitted his regiment or gained the coveted staff rank.'
**Augusta Emily Becher's fascinating posthumous 1930 book, Personal Reminiscences of India and Europe, is a very rewarding work and can be read here.
His other commissions were: Lieutenant 3rd October 1840; Captain 61st N.I. 1st December 1846; Major 18th February 1861; Lt. Col. 18th February 1863; Colonel 18th February 1866; Major General 1st October 1877; Lt General 18th December 1880; General 22nd January 1889.
He was appointed Acting Adjutant of the Kumaon Local Battalion on 16th March 1839 and again on 19th September 1840 and he served with the Public Works Department at Kumaon from11th February 1841. He was appointed Adjutant of the 61st N.I. 14th January 1842 till 13th February 1847 after which he was on furlough for two years. He was appointed Brigade Major at Barrackpore in October 1850 and 2nd Assistant Adjutant General of the Army on 18th November 1862 and was upgraded to 1st on 6th May 1856. He did special duty with the Military Finance Department from 23rd May 1862.
'Early in 1857 rumours of the Mutiny were in the air'. So wrote H.G. Rawlinson in his introduction to Augusta Emily Becher's book 'Personal Reminiscences of India and Europe'.
On 13th April 1857 Septimus wrote to Captain E. M. Martineau, then the Depot Commander at Ambala:
'…We make a mistake in supposing that because we dress, arm and drill Hindustani soldiers as Europeans, they become one bit European in their feelings and ideas. I see them on parade for say two hours daily, but what do I know of them for the other 22 ? What do they talk about in their lines ? What do they plot ?...'
'I know at the present moment an unusual agitation is pervading the ranks of the entire army, but what will it exactly result in, I am afraid to say. I can detect the near approach of the storm.'
'…Everywhere, far and near, the army under some maddening impulse, are looking out with strained expectation for something, some unseen invisible agency has caused one uncommon electric thrill to run thru' all.
'I don't think they know themselves what they will do, or that they have any plan of action except of resistance to invasion of their religion and their faith. …If a flare-up from any cause takes place at one station, it will spread and become universal.'
Rawlinson goes on to describe how: 'In Simla, there was panic. The ugly rumours that the bazaar was being looted and the Gurkhas had broken out, and the hurried exit to Dagshai. “Sep” was detained on staff duties in the hills, eating his heart out, and month after month rolled by, sometimes with no news at all, and at others with stories, greatly distorted, of the horrible atrocities being committed everywhere.'
In a review of 'Personal Reminiscences of India and Europe' in The Times Literary Supplement of 14th August 1930 it was recalled that:
'When the Mutiny broke out he was left in charge of the office at Simla while the Adjutant General, Col. Charles Chester, joined the besieging forces before Delhi, with the future Sir Henry Norman as his assistant. Chester was killed in action on June 8, 1857. Becher was senior in service to Norman, and had he abandoned his office at Simla, hastened to Delhi and urged his claims to the succession, he would probably have received the office which fell to Norman. All his family were eager for Becher to join the Delhi force at once. His elder brother, Arthur, telegraphed for him to come. His sister-in-law at Kasauli had ponies in readiness. But he insisted on waiting for orders, and 'les absents ont toujours tort'. The commanders-in-chief under whom he served had gone home or died. He was therefore at this time of swift promotion left to eat his heart out at Simla, twice passed over, and at last relegated to Calcutta. He perhaps would have done better had he never quitted his regiment or gained the coveted staff rank.'
**Augusta Emily Becher's fascinating posthumous 1930 book, Personal Reminiscences of India and Europe, is a very rewarding work and can be read here.
He married Augusta 'Gussie' Emily Prinsep on 15th May 1849 at the Holy Trinity Church, Chelsea. She was born 1st October 1830 aboard the East Indiaman, The Duke of Lancaster, off the Cape and was baptised at St Clement Danes, Strand, the daughter of Augustus Prinsep, who died aboard the same ship nine days after she was born, and Elizabeth Ackworth Ommaney.
Sep, as he was affectionately known as, first met his wife-to-be at a Prinsep family ball in Bath on Valentine's Day 1849 when he was a Captain and after she had met his mother Harriet (by then Harriet Geldart Vincent, née Barclay) who was then living nearby at Brougham Villa, Hampton Park, near Bath.
Despite some discussion by her family as to whether he was suitable or not and despite her mother's second husband, Samuel Beechcroft, trying to bind him to a settlement of £2000 with life interest in his favour because his son, Robert, had also thought she might marry him. Although he did not have that sun he agreed to the settlement. Later, when Septimus went to get the Marriage Licence he discovered that because her father had not left her a “testamentary guardian” (a person named in a Will to act as Guardian), and since her mother had married again therefore forfeiting her right of control over her even though Augusta was still under twenty-one, no one in fact, had the right to withhold consent to her marriage.
Left: Augusta Emily Becher's portrait, by Camille Silvy, the original of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, was taken on 8th August 1862.
Sep, as he was affectionately known as, first met his wife-to-be at a Prinsep family ball in Bath on Valentine's Day 1849 when he was a Captain and after she had met his mother Harriet (by then Harriet Geldart Vincent, née Barclay) who was then living nearby at Brougham Villa, Hampton Park, near Bath.
Despite some discussion by her family as to whether he was suitable or not and despite her mother's second husband, Samuel Beechcroft, trying to bind him to a settlement of £2000 with life interest in his favour because his son, Robert, had also thought she might marry him. Although he did not have that sun he agreed to the settlement. Later, when Septimus went to get the Marriage Licence he discovered that because her father had not left her a “testamentary guardian” (a person named in a Will to act as Guardian), and since her mother had married again therefore forfeiting her right of control over her even though Augusta was still under twenty-one, no one in fact, had the right to withhold consent to her marriage.
Left: Augusta Emily Becher's portrait, by Camille Silvy, the original of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, was taken on 8th August 1862.
Less than a month after their marriage, on 12th June, they travelled to Portsmouth and had to be rowed out to board the troopship Ellenborough and after some 120 days after weighing anchor they arrived in India in late October 1849.
By 1881 they were back in England and living at 19 Upper Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells along with their children and their Governess.
In the photograph of a family picnic taken near Tunbridge Wells about 1886, left, Augusta, or 'Gussie' as she was called in the family, is seen on the near right. at the rear centre is her daughter, Elizabeth 'Bessie' Charlotte Sophia Peters, nee Becher, born 1851, with her husband, rear left, James Lovell Peters. Another of Augusta's daughters, Margaret Becher, born 1875, is on the far left. The two children to her left are Peters and the two others are school friends.
At the time of the 1901 Census the family were living at 10 Queensborough Terrace, Paddington with their daughter Margaret and three servants.
On 12th October 1902 ‘just before my 72nd Birthday’ Augusta Emily Becher added ‘a few lines’ to her Personal Reminiscences which she had completed in 1884.
A sequel or envoie - for old age creeps on apace and memory is not good enough to enable me to narrate as formerly. Though perhaps the facts of having been in Dresden through the Franco-Prussian War and at Naples during the great Eruption of Vesuvius in 1872 might allow of lovely reminiscence. The dear Daughter and close companion whom I still miss almost daily, died at Wimbledon on 24th October (our Margaret’s birthday) in 1891 after a year’s anxiety and sad illness. My dearest ambition, my beloved and talented Harry, drowned in that awful River Tahan - just in sight of the haunted Mount Gunong which he went, to place by the Royal Geographical Society in September 1893. It was to have been the last of his work before settling at home. My dear Jack, sweetest and most unselfish - with the ball at his feet after many years of hard struggle and about to marry Muriel Blain died at her parent’s house, Drummoyne near Sydney, on 21st December 1898, of Bright’s disease and pneumonia supervening. So, all save Phil of the five I took to Dresden, have gone, and Rob in Burma and Margaret only, with us remain. Margaret, handsome, bright, clever and popular, but by nature not much of a home bird - we are really too old for such a young spirit.
Lately Philip brought his second wife on a visit to us, from Spokane, where at least he has attained to a large and solid business and great comfort in this marriage, as Annie is a real mother to his five children. I am happy in both daughters-in-law. Flora, Rob’s wife, is a dear companion to me.
Lovell, (James Lovell Peters, my great grandfather), after three years, married Emily Attwell, dear Bessie’s friend and great admirer and she has been the making of the two elders who greatly needed a woman’s companionship. At the present, Francis (Peters), a very big fine young man, has been some four years in Indian Police and doing splendidly. Sylva (Peters) is entering Lady Somerville College, Oxford and Gerard (Peters) at Dover College.
We old people will not, we hope, move from our semi-detached Hazeldell during our lives, or Sep’s, for should he go first I must live more modestly. But my life is as precarious as his, for though 85 he is marvellously well and young in many ways. I am in some ways better than a few years ago, and I repeat, I do not wish to live to be senile and incapable of amusing myself. Margaret is happy here but I wish it may be that I could see her a happy wife and mother before I die.
But I wait, perhaps for me also it may be - ‘Those also serve who only stand and wait.'
On 15th July 1908, The Daily Telegraph announced that - This is the ninety-first birthday of General Septimus Harding Becher, a gallant veteran who was born on July 15, 1817, just two years after the battle of Waterloo. Entering the Indian Army at the age of 17, his active military career covered close upon half a century, including what was probably the most eventual period in England's modern history; yet with conflicts raging in the Punjaub, in the Crimea, in India, and elsewhere, General Becher escaped, much against his own inclination, seeing any war service. Obtaining the rank of Major in 1859, he became Colonel in 1866, Major-General eleven years later, Lieutenant-General in 1880, and was placed on the Supernumerary List in 1881, receiving his present rank in 1889.
Septimus Harding Becher died on 23rd November 1908 at 'Abingdon', Seffrons Road, Eastbourne aged 91.
Augusta Emily, pictured above in Eastbourne in another photo from my collection, died 14th May 1909 while she was at the Coburg Hotel, Bayswater, London but she had been staying with her son Robert Arnold Becher at 'Trayles', Lindfield, Sussex.
There were 10 children in the order set out below of whom four died very young and little is known about Margaret. To find the others, just click on a name.
1. George Edward Becher (1850 Lucknow - died 1851 at Ambal of Dysentery)
2. Elizabeth 'Bessie' Charlotte Sophia Becher (1850-1891)
3. William Augustus Becher (1854- died aged 10 months in 1855, Simla)
4. Harry Macdonald Becher (1855-1893)
5. Philip Tudor Becher (1856-1940)
6. Helen Becher (1860 Barrackpore - died aged 9 months in 1861, Calcutta)
7. John Jack Septimus Becher (1864-1898)
8. Augusta 'Kitty' Laura Becher (1865 Barrackpore - 1871 near Naples)
9. Robert Arnold Becher (1873-1938)Robert Arnold Becher (1873-1938)
10. Margaret Becher was born 24th October 1875 at White Lodge, Barnes.
She was one of the original pupils at Roedean School, near Brighton from Michaelmas 1885 to Lent 1888. Roedean began as Wimbledon House School at 25 Lewes Crescent, Kemptown, Brighton in October 1885 with two teachers and ten pupils. By the 1891 Census she was staying with her sister Elizabeth Sophie Charlotte Peters, née Becher, (wife of James Lovell Peters) at 3 Prospect Terrace, Ventnor, Isle of Wight plus her niece Sylvia Peters, and nephew Gerard Peters (my grandfather). She died unmarried on 11th September 1969 at Hastings, East Sussex. She was photographed at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, left.
She was one of the original pupils at Roedean School, near Brighton from Michaelmas 1885 to Lent 1888. Roedean began as Wimbledon House School at 25 Lewes Crescent, Kemptown, Brighton in October 1885 with two teachers and ten pupils. By the 1891 Census she was staying with her sister Elizabeth Sophie Charlotte Peters, née Becher, (wife of James Lovell Peters) at 3 Prospect Terrace, Ventnor, Isle of Wight plus her niece Sylvia Peters, and nephew Gerard Peters (my grandfather). She died unmarried on 11th September 1969 at Hastings, East Sussex. She was photographed at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, left.