Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Central India (Capt. R. T. N. Tubbs, 9th By. N.I.) toned, extremely fine £400-£500

Robert Tubbs Nightingale Tubbs was born on 16 March 1823, son of Robert Tubbs of Cheltenham, and Cavendish Square, and Sophia. He was educated at Eton College, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 9 February 1843, aged 19 years. Ensign, 9th Bombay Native Infantry, 3 May 1845; Lieutenant, 31 December 1846; Captain, 20 May 1858; Invalided, 1 June 1860, and retired 31 December 1862; Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel, Cinque Ports Artillery Volunteers, 23 July 1879; Colonel Commandant, Cinque Ports Artillery Volunteers, 1883.

‘Captain R. T. N. Tubbs, 9th Bombay Native Infantry. Central India. Sent 19 August 1864.’ (Indian Mutiny medal roll L/MIL/5/83 Folio 26 refers).

Tubbs receives mention in Howells & Italy, by J. L. Woodress, on William Dean Howells, an American author and literary critic who made the acquaintance of Tubbs in Italy:

‘The ocean voyage itself, while not part of the Italian backdrop, is taken from the authors own crossing in the 1860’s, and the ship life aboard the “Aroostook”, even though a sailing vessel, is much like the daily round of activity Howells remembered from the “City of Glasgow”. The characterisation of the satirised Englishman in the uncle, Henshaw Erwin, is worth a brief comment, for he may have been suggested by one of Howells’ early friends in Italy, a Captain Tubbs, formerly of the East India Company service, with whom the consul held joint ownership of a gondola. The Indian background and the singular gondola-rowing of the fictitious Erwin suggest the parallel with this Englishman Howells had known.’

Lieutenant-Colonel Tubbs died at St Leonards, near Hastings on 26 July 1891. Sold with a copied photograph of Tubbs with his wife from the Howells family photograph album at Harvard, which is accompanied by the following caption: ‘Captain and Mrs Tubbs. English friends from Hotel Vittoria days. He was most amusing. Was in the East India Company’s service. Half owned a gondola with me.’