Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The interesting Indian Mutiny Medal awarded to Henry Dubois, late Lieutenant in the King of Oudh's Cavalry who was dismissed to pension on the Company's annexation of Oudh in 1856; despite this he supported the British and served throughout the siege of Lucknow.

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (Henry Dubois.) fitted with silver ribbon buckle, small edge bruise, otherwise toned, good very fine £2,000-£2,600

Henry Charles Duboist (note spelling) and his twin sister Ellen were born at Agra on 10 September 1819, son and daughter of Charles Duboist, assistant to a Mr Bathurst, and his wife Sarah née Luckstedt. Charles Duboist was variously a writer, accountant and by 1831 was the Bandmaster to the King of Oudh. The Dubois family were of Huguenot descent who had come to India in the 18th century to escape the persecutions of their Protestant faith in Europe and had found employment in the non-regulated states of India.

The Kingdom of Oudh was made a British Protectorate in May 1816 and had served the British faithfully. However, successive British Residents at Lucknow became increasingly alarmed at the King's profligate expenditure, chaotic administration and hedonistic lifestyle of the Court. After several warnings Lord Dalhousie annexed the province on 7 February 1856, using an egregious political device called the Doctrine of Lapse.

The India Political Consultations 13–20 June 1856, No. 178–334, list all the remaining officers belonging to the King of Oudh's army. A letter from Captain Fletcher Hayes, of the military office, advised the British authorities that the European and East Indian officers had served the late King for long periods with zeal and great ability and were now facing unemployment. Hayes requested liberal consideration should be given to granting these officers pensions and gratuities. The Consultations show that Lieutenant Dubois had served 26 and a half years and made no application for further employment. Dubois joined the cavalry in 1836 and served 20 years, indicating that he had held other employment prior to joining the cavalry, possibly as a bandsman where his father was the Bandmaster. Henry Dubois retired with a settlement of one third pay or Rupees 50 per month. While low it was well known that the King showered gifts and monies on all his army officers with sums that dwarfed their salaries. The Oudh army had fought no wars since the Mahratta uprisings and were used solely for ceremonial duties and to collect revenue which invariably was pocketed by the army.

The annexation caused the redundancy of over 66,000 troops, made up of 52 regiments of infantry, cavalry and artillery. Some 30,000 were accommodated in the new Oudh and police battalions but over 31,000 were dismissed. Disagreements about pay followed and the seeds of a rebellion were firmly implanted into the minds of the many soldiers who suffered the humiliation of dismissal. Furthermore over 14,000 civilian contractors attended to the King's army and it is therefore unsurprising that they did not welcome annexation and the Company's arrival. Among those dismissed was a regiment of African infantry known as the Black Regiment. They were the sons of slaves brought to India by Arab traders and became favourites of the King. One of its number was to have a devastating effect on the defenders in the Residency and was given the soubriquet “Bob the Nailer” because of his accuracy with the musket.

Henry married Caroline Hare in 1842, daughter of Thomas Hare, and by the annexation he had raised six children, two of whom were deceased. He also legally adopted a George Masik (probably Maseyk) in 1845. The church record describes him as a “man” with unknown parents. In 1855 Caroline died leaving Henry with 4 offspring. He remarried in January 1856, Amelia, a Eurasian and daughter of Lieutenant Alexander Campagnac, a strong Huguenot dissenter, also of the Oudh service and his wife Taj.

The outbreak of the Mutiny split the loyalties of the ex King of Oudh’s officers. Henry Dubois and the Campagnac family made the conscious decision to side with the British. Many of their friends took the decision to support the mutineers. One case in point was the Rotten family. Captain Rotten, dressed in “local garb” was seen urging on the rebels at the battle of Chinhut and spent the whole of the siege in the home of his concubine in Lucknow. He even had the audacity to claim Rupees 28,000 for losses suffered!

Henry Dubois entered the Residency accompanied by Sarah, his mother, and wife Amelia although surprisingly his four children from Caroline were left in Lucknow town with their adopted brother Mr Maseyk. The odds of survival in the Residency looked bleak so Dubois, who would have had high standing in the Lucknow community, took the calculated decision that his children would be far safer with friends in the Lucknow environs. The children did indeed survive.

Henry Dubois, like so many other defenders, is not mentioned in any of the main narratives of the Lucknow siege but would have taken an active part. One of his in-laws was severely wounded when going on a sortie outside the Residency and another young ex Oudh man and two Sepoys managed to secure a breach at the Innes Post earning great respect for their bravery.

On the relief of Lucknow in November 1857 the non-combatants together with the women and children of the former garrison were escorted to Allahabad where Amelia immediately gave birth to George Napoleon on 10 December 1857. Henry and Amelia continued living in Allahabad where further children followed. In October 1870 wife Amelia together with children Grace and Arthur Edwin were baptised into the Church of Scotland, a Reformed Church in the Calvinist tradition. Sometime between 1870 and 1875 the family moved to Calcutta. No death of Henry Charles Dubois is recorded but it is reasonable to assume that Amelia and her children moved to Calcutta on the death of Henry to be close to her own family. Amelia died in Calcutta on 4 July 1897, aged 67, of malaria and cirrhosis of the liver.

IOR/P/203/36 shows that Dubois made a claim for losses during the mutiny of Rupees 16,000. The claims were divided into lists of either “accepted”, “doubtful” or “inadmissible” with Dubois' claim considered “doubtful”. He was given a succour payment of Rupees 1,000 later reduced to Rupees 200 and eventually received Rupees 15,000 as a full settlement. Dubois would have acquired a large number of assets while working for the King. Certainly one of his in-laws, Charles Campagnac, had amassed a large property portfolio which had been destroyed. Other claims were so outrageous that one was rejected as being that of an “opulent speculator”.

The factual accounts of the House of Oudh in the books Engaging Scoundrels and The Last King of India by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones are enlightening as to the financial affairs of the Royal Oudh Court. Those officers and Vakils in authority just “filled their boots” with little regard to the King. Dubois was probably somewhere in the middle hence the British accountants rather sceptical view of his claims.

Sold with a file of comprehensive research including a digital disc of the 56 pages of transcripts of a court case in which Charles Duboist, the King's Bandmaster, accuses a Mr Hunt of murdering his daughter Ellen, Henry's twin sister, by beating her to death. Ellen, aged just 12, had married a Mr Derusett. On his death she remarried Mr Hunt. A fascinating account of how Ellen was nothing but the chattel of an abusive husband.