Captain R C d’Esterre Spottiswoode

Robert Collinson d’Esterre Spottiswoode was born in India on 24 Dec 1841, the son of Major General Arthur Spottiswoode and Jessy Eliza Loveday. He saw little of his parents while growing up in India and was sent off to School in Edinburgh. He was sent back to India as a cadet at the age of 16, during the Indian Mutiny. He saw fighting as a cornet in the 3rd Bengal European Cavalry. Whilst travelling to Allahabad in 1858 with a detachment of recruits there was an engagement with mutineers at Sasseram near Benares. He never claimed his medal for the Mutiny, “The presence of so many warriors who had served at the siege of Delhi and the relief of Lucknow so impressed me that I kept my mouth shut on the subject of a medal.”
He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 Jun 1858 but soon afterwards the regiment was disbanded and absorbed into the British army as the 21st Hussars in 1861-2. He was promoted to captain on 9 April 1870 and served in the Afghan War of 1878-80. It was his squadron that suffered so many casualties in the disastrous night crossing of the Kabul river on 31 Mar 1879. He was promoted to major on 1 July 1881 and in April 1882 appointed ADC to Lt-General Charles Cureton who commanded in Oudh. He next served as a staff officer in the Sudan and was then posted to Russia to learn the language. He was a lieutenant-colonel in Sep 1887 and a colonel in Oct 1889 working on the staff in Cork. Having spent most of his life in India it is somewhat sad to read in his Reminiscences that he only began to live when he was in Ireland, mostly because of his love of hunting. He retired in Sep 1890 and was married in 1885 to Anne Elizabeth Turnbull. They had no children. He was obviously a hardy individual, taking a cold bath every morning at 8 am up until he was well beyond 90. Colonel Spottiswoode died in Ireland at the age of 94, on 21 March 1936.

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