Sir Barry Close Baronet | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by Martin Archer Shee, at the Manchester city gallery. | |
| Born | 3 December 1756 Armagh, County Armagh, Ireland |
| Died | 12 April 1813 (aged 56) London, Middlesex , United Kingdom |
| Buried | |
| Commands | 20th Madras Infantry |
| Battles / wars | defence of Tellicherry; Siege of Seringapatam (1792); |
Sir Barry Close, 1st Baronet (3 December 1756 – 12 April 1813) was an army general in the East India Company and a political officer.
Barry Close was born at Elm Park in Armagh, the third son of Maxwell Close and his wife Mary. The family had moved from Yorkshire to Ireland during the reign of Charles I. Barry joined the Madras army as a fifteen-year-old cadet in 1771 after his early schooling in Ireland. He was commissioned an ensign with the Madras infantry in 1773 and rose to become an adjutant of the 20th battalion in 1777. He saw action in the defence of Tellicherry against Hyder Ali and his General Sirdar Khan in 1780. Close's treatment of the sepoys and his leadership prevented his battalion from mutinying unlike several others. He gained a reputation as a linguist and chose to conduct all business with the sepoys in their own language. [2]
Close demonstrated his diplomatic talent when he served under James Stuart, commander-in-chief of the Madras army who was dismissed by Lord Macartney for not attacking the French. By handling this situation he rose in reputation and after becoming a captain on 18 December 1783, he was appointed to negotiate with Tipu Sultan. He served as deputy adjutant-general of the Madras army during the Siege of Seringapatam. [3] Following this he was appointed adjutant-general and gazetted a lieutenant-colonel on 29 November 1797. Close founded the Madras military fund and promoted the formation of a permanent police committee to improve the law and order of Madras. [2] He was then posted to deal with the Mysore rulers drafting treaties with them. Close was made he first resident in the court of Mysore. He was also to negotiate with the nawab of Arcot and was later posted resident at the Peshwa court in Poona. His knowledge of Persian and several Indian languages helped him in these assignments. While in Poona in August 1805 he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the 20th Madras native infantry. He intervened to solve a mutiny in Madras by British officers by talking to the sepoys in their language exhorting them not to follow the dissenting officers. [2]
Close was promoted to major-general in 1810 while he was on leave in Britain. Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was then the President of the Board of Control, exerted his influence to have Close created a baronet by the prince regent on 12 December 1812. [4] The title became extinct on Close's death in London on 12 April 1813, and he was buried at St Marylebone Parish Church, Middlesex. [2] [3]
The town of Closepet near Mysore was named after him although it was later renamed Ramanagara. [2] [5]
The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the British East India Company. It occurred on 23 September 1803 near Assaye in western India. An outnumbered Indian and British force, under the command of Major General Arthur Wellesley, defeated the combined Maratha army of Daulatrao Scindia and the Bhonsle Raja of Berar. The battle was Wellesley's first major victory and the one he later described as his finest accomplishment on the battlefield, even more so than his more famous victories in the Peninsular War, and his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Central India Campaign was one of the last series of actions in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The British Army and Bombay Army overcame a disunited collection of states in a single rapid campaign, although determined rebels continued a guerrilla campaign until the spring of 1859.
The Indian Army, also called the British Indian Army, was involved in World War I as part of the British Empire. More than one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom more than 60,000 died during the war.
Colonel Mark Wilks was a Madras Army officer, historian and colonial administrator who worked in southern India principally in the princely state of Mysore. He was the acting Resident at the Wodeyar Court.
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 into law of the Government of India Act 1858. At this latter point control of the East India Company's Bengal Presidency passed to the British Government. The first locally recruited battalion was raised by the East India Company in 1757 and by the start of 1857 there were 74 regiments of Bengal Native Infantry in the Bengal Army. Following the Mutiny the Presidency armies came under the direct control of the United Kingdom Government and there was a widespread reorganisation of the Bengal Army that saw the Bengal Native Infantry regiments reduced to 45.
The Bombay Army was the army of the Bombay Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India.
The Madras Army was the army of the Presidency of Madras, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The Madras Army was originally intended to be composed only of Rajputs, Mussalmans, and the three Telugu castes the Kammas, the Razus and the Velamas.
The 72nd Punjabis were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They could trace their origins to 1759, when they were raised as the 16th Battalion Coast Sepoys.
Litellus Burrell was a British major-general in the East India Company's service.
General Sir John Doyle, 1st Baronet GCB, KCH was a British Army officer, who served with distinction in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
The Vellore mutiny, or Vellore Revolution, occurred on 10 July 1806 and was the first instance of a large-scale and violent mutiny by Indian sepoys against the East India Company, predating the Indian Rebellion of 1857 by half a century. The revolt, which took place in the Indian city of Vellore, lasted one full day, during which mutineers seized the Vellore Fort and killed or wounded 200 British troops. The mutiny was subdued by cavalry and artillery from Arcot. Total deaths amongst the mutineers were approximately 350; with summary executions of about 100 during the suppression of the outbreak, followed by the formal court-martial of smaller numbers.
Lieutenant-General Sir James Campbell, 1st Baronet was a British Army officer, politician and colonial administrator. He was Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Ionian Islands, Adjutant-General to the British Forces and Heritable Usher of the White Rod for Scotland. He is buried at Westminster Abbey.
Colonel John Vaughan (1778–1830) was a senior British officer in the service of the Honourable East India Company’s Army. Through his military career he saw active service on the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Second Anglo-Maratha War and Third Anglo-Maratha War.
Major-General Sir Henry Worsley, was a British Army officer who served for most of his career in British India.
Patrick Alexander Agnew of Dalreagle (1765–1813) was the first Military Governor of British Ceylon in Trincomalee. He was appointed in August 1795 and was governor until 1 March 1796. He was succeeded by James Stuart. In 1811 he became major general of the East India Company.
The Nizam's Contingent, later Hyderabad Contingent, was a British-officered army of the Nizam of Hyderabad.
Sir Henry Oakes (1756–1827), 2nd baronet was a lieutenant-general in the East India Company's service.
General Sir Patrick "Peter" Edmonstone Craigie, was a senior officer in the British Army.
The Monghyr Mutiny occurred among European officers of the East India Company stationed in Bengal in 1766. The mutiny arose after the East India Company's governor of Bengal, Robert Clive, implemented an order to reduce the batta field allowance paid to its army officers. The batta had been doubled while the troops were in the service of the Nawab of Bengal Mir Jafar. Clive's order came into effect on 1 January 1766 and brought the allowances into line with those paid by the company in the rest of India. At this time the company army in Bengal was divided into three brigades under the command of Sir Robert Fletcher, Richard Smith and Robert Barker.
Sir David Ogilby (?1755-1834) was an Irish-born officer in the East India Company's Madras Army who was knighted for his service in the Anglo-Mysore Wars.
