Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

James Metcalfe CB (1817 – 8 March 1888) was an

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...

military officer in the Bengal Army.

Biography

Metcalfe was born in India, an illegitimate son of Charles Metcalfe and a Punjabi Sikh mother whom his father had met whilst envoy to the court of Ranjit Singh at

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

Sita Anantha Raman 2009 ''Women in India: a social and cultural history, volume 2.'' Praeger, p. 87. He had three full brothers.Hall, D. G. “Sir Charles Metcalfe: Governor of Jamaica, Sept., 1839 to May, 1842.” Caribbean Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 2, 1953, pp. 90–100. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40652570. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021. He was educated at the East India Company Military Seminary at

Addiscombe Addiscombe is an area of south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. It is located south of Charing Cross, and is situated north of Coombe and Selsdon, east of Croydon town centre, south of Woodside, and west of Shirley. E ...

in Surrey. He returned to India in 1836 as a commissioned second lieutenant in the

Bengal Native Infantry The regiments of Bengal Native Infantry, alongside the regiments of Bengal European Infantry, were the regular infantry components of the East India Company's Bengal Army from the raising of the first Native battalion in 1757 to the passing int ...

part of the Bengal Army."Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021. He became adjutant of his regiment in 1839 until 1846. On the death of his father in 1846 he inherited a fortune of £50,000."Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021. Between 1848 and 1853 he served as aide-de-camp to The Marquess of Dalhousie during his term as

Governor-General of India The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...

."Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021. During the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

he was appointed interpreter to the

Commander-in-Chief in India During the period of the Company rule in India and the British Raj, the Commander-in-Chief, India (often "Commander-in-Chief ''in'' or ''of'' India") was the supreme commander of the British Indian Army. The Commander-in-Chief and most of his ...

General Sir Colin Campbell as well as aide-de-camp and commandant to the headquarters."Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021. After the rebellion he was made a Companion of the Order of Bath and promoted to lieutenant-colonel. He retired from service in 1861. He later migrated to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, where he died on 8 March 1888."Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021.

Personal life

In 1852 he married José Eliza, daughter of Evelyn Meadows Gordon of the Bengal civil service."Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Metcalfe, James." Wikisource . Wikisource , 26 Dec. 2020. Web. 14 Feb. 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metcalfe, James 1811 births 1888 deaths Graduates of Addiscombe Military Seminary British East India Company Army officers Companions of the Order of the Bath British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857# Anglo-Indian people