General Robert Napier Raikes in 1889 became General of the Remount responsible for the provision of horses throughout the Indian army.
He was born 15 October 1813 in Drayton the son of Robert Napier Raikes the vicar of Gayton and rector of Hellesdon all in Norfolk, England; and the grandson of Robert Raikes, the promoter of Sunday schools. He was at Addiscombe Military Seminary in 1828 as a cadet. He entered the Indian Army as a cadet in the Bengal Staff Corps on 19 November 1829 sailing from Portsmouth 29 November, arriving Calcutta 14 May 1829. He then travelled across country, only reaching his regiment at Cawnpore on 7 November. Apparently his men carried the old flint-lock musket, of which Wellington's maxim was "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." He first returned home "on furlough" 35 years later.
Captain 1844. He married Harriet Beckett in 1854, and as a Major from 1854 in the 67th Bengal Native Infantry, they had three infant daughters die in Agra during the 1857 Indian Mutiny. Additionally, they had four sons and two daughters. Adjutant to the native Grenadiers, and later adjutant to the First Gwalior Cavalry.
Read more about Robert Napier Raikes: Indian Mutiny Harmony
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“As we try to change, we will discover within us a fierce struggle between our loyalty to that battle-scarred victim of his own childhood, our father, and the father we want to be. We must meet our childhood father at close range: get to know him, learn to forgive him, and somehow, go beyond him.”
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