BackMajor Powlett Lane Biography
We are very grateful for this biography that has been kindly submitted by Tim Bender, a military historian in the USA.
Charles Powlett Lane
Bengal Cavalry and H.M. 21st Hussars. (Captain Lane is listed as being No 15 in the back row)
Charles Powlett was born on the 8th of February 1826, and baptized on the 9th of May at St George's in Bloomsbury, London. He was the son of Charles Lane, Esq. of Badgemore, Oxon (1793-1878), and his wife Emily Maria (died 21 July 1877), of Montague Street, London. His father was a Barrister at Law, and a Justice of the Peace. His mother was the second daughter of John Thornhill, Esq., an East India Company Director.
Charles had eight siblings, to wit:
Charles received a classical and mathematical education at Eton public school, under tutors the Rev. Thomas J. Nowsell of Kennington, Surrey and the Rev. Frederick Jeffery of Sway, Hampshire, and at the East India Company’s college, Haileybury, where he was unsuccessful in securing an appointment to the EIC's Civil Service.
Charles was then nominated as a Cadet for the Bengal Cavalry by EIC Director William Butterworth Bayley, at the recommendation of Charles’ father, who was then described as “of Badgemore, Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Oxford”.
Charles passed the Military Committee at East India House, London on the 2nd of January, 1846. He embarked for India at Southampton on the steamer “Great Liverpool” on the 20th of January, 1846.
Charles was commissioned as a Cornet (an obsolete cavalry rank roughly equivalent to the current rank of Second Lieutenant) as of 20 January 1846, the date he sailed for India. He arrived at Calcutta on the 11th of March, 1846 and was ordered to do duty with the 9th Bengal Light Cavalry on the 1st of April, 1846. He was subsequently posted to the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry on the 23rd of December, 1846.
Cornet Lane served with his regiment in the 2nd Sikh War, a military campaign for the control of the area in the North of India known as the Punjab (now a part of Pakistan). The 6th Bengal Light Cavalry formed part of the 2nd Brigade of Cavalry and was granted the Battle Honours “Chillianwallah” and “Goojerat” for the regiment’s services during the Punjab campaign. Cornet Lane received the Punjab medal with clasps for Chillianwalla and Goojerat.
Cornet Lane passed the course to act as an interpreter at the College of Fort William on the 1st of September, 1852, and was appointed Interpreter and Quartermaster to the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry on the 25th of September, 1852. He was appointed to be in charge of the Native Staff Office at Nowgong on the 30th of December, 1853, and was appointed to be in charge of the Military Chest at Nowgong on the 4th of February, 1854.
Charles was promoted to Captain on 23 November 1856. He was granted a furlough to the UK on private affairs commencing on the 10th of March, 1857, the first time he had returned to England since being appointed to the EIC army in 1846. The Coventry Herald reported that on the 2nd of November, 1857, Captain Charles Powlett Lane of the Bengal Cavalry, eldest son of Charles Lane, Esq. of Badgemore, married Caroline Lucy, born 1828, the second daughter of the late George Lucy of Charlecote Park, in a ceremony performed by her uncle, the Rev. John Lucy at Charlecote Park.
Returning to duty in India, Charles arrived at Calcutta on the 7th of December, 1857. During his absence from India, on May 10th, 1857, troopers of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry stationed at Meerut in Northern India had risen against their officers, igniting the firestorm which was to become the Great Indian Mutiny. By the time Captain Lane arrived in Calcutta in December, the Dehli had been laid siege to and finally retaken by the British and the Residency at Lucknow had been relieved, however, the Indian Mutiny was far from over.
During Captain Lane’s absence from India, his regiment, the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry, which had been stationed in Jalandhar in Northern India, like so many other Bengal regiments, mutinied against their British Officers. On the evening of the 7th of June, 1857, the sowars (native cavalry soldiers) rose in open mutiny, murdering any British officer they came upon. The 6th Bengal Light Cavalry for all practical purposes ceased to exist following this mutiny, and was formally disbanded at the end of the Mutiny.
Captain Lane, upon his arrival in India, was ordered to act in military command of the 2nd Brigade (Junga Doje’s Brigade) of the Gurkha Force of Maharajah Jung Bahadur of Nepaul. These forces were not part of the East India Company’s Army, but their services were offered to the Government of India to assist in the suppression of the Mutiny by their ally the Maharajah, who continued to maintain at least titular control of his troops. The Gurkha Force did good service, assisting in the final capture of the city of Lucknow. Besides serving at the final capture of Lucknow, Captain Lane also participated in the capture of Pellalpore.
Charles Lane received the Indian Mutiny Medal with clasp Lucknow, and was Mentioned in Despatches. As a reward for his services during the Mutiny, Captain Lane was promoted Brevet Major on the 20th of July, 1858.
Following the conclusion of the Indian Mutiny, Captain Lane transferred to the Left Wing of the newly formed 3rd Bengal European Light Cavalry, which had been formed principally from the former officers of the disbanded 4th BLC and 6th BLC, and which was then stationed at Lahore, India. Charles was granted a furlough to the UK for eighteen months starting on the 10th of April, 1859.
Captain Lane transferred to the British Army upon the British Crown assuming control of the government of India and the military forces of the East India Company in 1860. The 21st Hussars (later to be called the 21st Lancers and now part of the Queen’s Royal Lancers) was formed from the 3rd Bengal European Light Cavalry and Captain Lane transferred into this new regiment.
(Captain Lane is 4th from the left in the back row)
Charles Lane continued to serve with the 21st Hussars the remainder of his military career. He was promoted Lt. Colonel on the 25th of March, 1868. The 21st Hussars remained in India until 1873, when the regiment returned to England. Charles was promoted Colonel on 1 October 1877, becoming Colonel Commanding, H.M. 21st Hussars. He was promoted Major General on the 1st of May 1878, and retired on full pay the same year.
Charles and his first wife, Caroline Lane (nee Lucy) had one child, Alymer Powlett, born 10 July 1860. Lucy passed away on the 6th of March, 1864, presumably in India where Charles was serving at the time.
On the 14th of September, 1869, Charles Lane married Bertha d'Albiac du Boulay, the daughter of John Housemayne du Boulay and his wife Mary Farr (nee Yeatman) at Sturminster, Dorset. Charles and Bertha had two children. A son, Reginald Powlett Lane, was born in 1871, in India, and another son, Marwood Elton Lane, was born in 1874 in London. Following his retirement from the military, the couple resided at their home, “Glendon”, in Corfe Mullen where Charles served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Dorset.
Major General Charles Powlett Lane died on the 17th of November, 1910 at Widworthy, Broadstone, Dorset, at the age of 84. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Hubert’s on the 21st of November. His wife, Bertha Lane, died in January of 1939, and is buried with her husband.
Alymer Powlett Lane, Charles’ son by his first wife Lucy, was educated at Eaton and died unmarried and without issue in 1929.
Reginald Powlett Lane was educated at Wellington and died at Salisbury, Rhodesia on 31 December 1904.
His younger brother, Marwood Elton Lane, who was educated at Harrow and was a tea planter at Hallowella, Norwood, Ceylon, died 20 May 1945. He was married to Violet Millie Lane, who died circa October, 1947.