Published in Windlesora 35
© WLHG 2019
Amongst the veterans gathered to meet Lord Roberts on 6 November 1903, was Robert Stobie who is reported as having served with 9th Lancers and 20th Hussars.
Robert was no stranger to military life. He was born in 1833 to James and Margaret Stobie and baptised on 8 December at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Dover in Kent. His father James had served with the Royal Artillery until he was medically discharged to pension in 1827, suffering from chronic rheumatism. In both the 1841 and 1851 censuses, Robert, with his parents, and siblings, is living at the District Cavalry Barracks in Duddeston, Aston in Warwickshire.
According to Robert’s records, he was recruited at the Cavalry Depot in Maidstone, Kent, on 28 February 1854, at two o’clock, by Garrison Sergeant Major Hughes. He received five pounds, fifteen shillings and sixpence bounty. His attestation took place on 1 March 1854, he is listed as being 19 years old, a shoemaker by trade, and described as having a dark complexion, black hair and hazel eyes. The documents also show that a Justice of the Peace read the 40th and 46th sections of the Articles of War to Robert, and then signed his enlistment document accordingly.
Robert was with 9th Lancers from 1 March 1854 until 28 February 1859 when he transferred as a Private to the 2nd Bengal European Cavalry. From 1858, there was some rather hasty recruitment in Britain for men to replace the Bengal Cavalry regiments which had joined the mutiny. Putting ‘European’ in the title of the new regiment would indicate that its ranks consisted of white troops and not sowars (Indian cavalry men). Having five years’ experience of soldiering with 9th Lancers and transferred into a newly form and recruited regiment, Robert’s promotion to Sergeant-Major after ten days is not therefore as surprising as it would first appear. He remained at that rank until 18 February 1861, the year when the Honourable East India Company’s regiments were transferred to the Crown and therefore to the British Army. Robert’s 2nd Bengal European Cavalry became 20th Hussars, and he was given the rank of Sergeant on transfer
His time with 2nd Bengal European Cavalry, spanned the Indian Mutiny, and Robert experienced and witnessed some of the most horrific fighting and actions of that period. The clasps to his Indian Mutiny Medal tell the tale, Delhi, Relief of Lucknow, and Lucknow. There was great anger and outrage at home over news such as that of the siege of Delhi and the Cawnpore massacre. (1)
From July 1862 onward, his so far trouble-free 8-year career starts a downward spiral. Robert is tried, reduced in rank to Private, and imprisoned between 18 July and 28 August 1862. All appears good and he is promoted to Corporal in July 1864. Just over a year later, in September 1865, he is court martialled again. The trial took place between 7 and 12 September, and he is reduced to Private again, the rank at which he remains until July 1866 when he requests his discharge ‘in consequence of … termination of his limited engagement’. He has served some 12 years, and Robert’s discharge papers make interesting reading.
With regard to character and conduct of 193 Private Robert Stobie the Board have to report that, upon reference to the Defaulter’s Book and by the Parole testimony that has been given, it appears that conduct is bad and he is not in possession of any Good Conduct Badges…Name entered in Defaulter’s Book 4 times… Tried by Court Martial twice
His final medical examination tells readers that he is 65 inches tall, his chest measures 35.5 inches, and he weighs 125lbs (just under 9 stone). We also know that his ‘muscular development is poor’, pulse is ’92 beats’, and his respiration is ’21 beats’.
He had several stays in hospital between 1860 and 1865. The first when he was stationed at Meerut in 1859, when he was suffering from hepatitis. He had two bouts of tonsillitis, one in 1862 while stationed at Muttra, the second in 1864 while stationed at Sealkote. Sadly, he was kept in hospital three times in 1865.
The first, in April, gave a diagnosis of Ebriositas (he was drunk), for which he was prescribed a sedative. The doctor listed the cause as ‘intemperance”. The cause of his second stay in July, is difficult to decipher, but he was prescribed a purgative. The cause this time was ‘climate and constitution’. Robert’s final stay in hospital came on 27 November after he had fallen from his horse. He suffered contusions and was kept in hospital for 16 days.
At some point in his military career, he married a girl called Bridget who came from Ireland. It is possible she was either the daughter or widow of another soldier. Records have not yet been found to confirm. What we do know is that in 1871, Robert has gone back to his original trade and is working as a Shoemaker, and living with him, on Albert Road in Aldershot, are his wife Bridget, and their 7-year-old daughter, Isabella. Bridget dies in Windsor in January 1881. and on the census for that year just Robert and Isabella are listed, and they are living on Helena Road.
Ten years later, the picture is very different. Robert remarried in 1885, his new wife being Emily Louisa Brandon, and there are five children listed as sons and daughters. Alfred is 16 and Elsie is 13, they are both Emily’s children and are with her in 1881. By 1891, the family has moved to Anne Court, and Robert and Emily having produced three more children, Henry 9, Ellen 5, and Florence 2. All the children were born in Windsor except Ellen; her birthplace is Charlton in Kent. We jump to 1911, (they are currently ‘missing’ from the 1901 census) the family are living at 74 Victoria Cottages, and 2 more children have arrived in the twenty-year gap – Edith aged 17 and Robert aged 14. Robert Senior is still making his living as a Boot and Shoemaker.
Robert would appear to have settled down in civilian life. There are no records of disorderly behaviour, arrests, or court appearances. He appears to have been a member of the Liberal Club Veterans’ Benefit Society and, despite his age, he stepped up when the call went out for men to join the newly formed Windsor Division of the National Reserve.
In October 1911, at a meeting of the Trustees of the Laud and Randue Charities, several grants and awards were made, one of which was a sum of money set aside for the apprenticeship of of four local boys, including Robert’s son, his namesake, Robert George Stobie Robert died in 1915, aged 82.
Carol Dixon-Smith
Notes
- Details of these campaigns are in Windlesora 34.
Sources
WO 97: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Soldiers Service Documents WO 100 Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls, 1793-1949
Census Returns 1841-1911
1861 Worldwide Army Index
National Army Museum http://www.nam.ac.uk