The John Chidzey Collection

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1887-89 (Lt. Colonel F. Cochran, 1st Bn Hamps. R.) good very fine
£400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Chidzey Collection.

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Francis Cochran was born in June 1843 and was educated at Edinburgh Academy and Wimbledon School. He entered Sandhurst in 1860 and was commissioned in the 37th Regiment on 8 July 1862. Remaining with the regiment throughout his military career, he obtained his company by purchase in May 1886. He entered India in 1866 and there enjoyed big game shooting and fishing. An accomplished shot, he won many prizes at the meetings of the Northern India Rifle Association. He returned to England in the early 1870’s, again winning several shooting trophies. After two years at Staff College, 1876-77, he was employed at the Intelligence Branch of the War Office, and afterwards employed as Garrison Instructor, first at York, then at Edinburgh, for five years. Whilst at Edinburgh he wrote, Handy Text Book on Military Law. In 1888 after succeeding to the command of the regiment, he served in Burma. He later published a pamphlet, The Hampshire Men in Burma in 1889 which described the operations.

In 1895, in the course of a speech, Lord Wolseley said of him: ‘If Burma is now comparatively quiet, it is thanks to men like Colonel Cochran, who took a distinguished part in settling the Northern part of Burma, and in putting down dacoiting - a very difficult operation, because that species of occupation seems to be the instinct of the people.’

Cochrane again served in India, 1891-94, before being appointed to the command of the district of Galway and thence, by Wolsely’s command, to Wimbledon where he remained until 1899. In late 1899 he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate, a post he held until 1902 when he retired due to old age. Colonel Cochran died on 6 February 1914.

With copied obituary from The Hampshire Regimental Journal and other research.