Early Life
Olpherts was born on 8 March 1822 at Dartry near Armagh, son of William Olpherts of Dartry House, County Armagh. He was educated at Dungannon School, and in 1837 received a nomination to the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe. He passed out in the artillery, and joined the headquarters of the Bengal Artillery at Dum Dum in December 1839.
On the outbreak of disturbances in the Tenasserim province of Burma, Olpherts was detached to Moulmein in October 1841 with four guns. Returning at the end of nine months, he was again ordered on field service to quell an insurrection in the neighbourhood of Saugor, and was thanked in the despatch of the officer commanding the artillery for his conduct in action with the insurgents at Jhirna Ghaut on 12 November 1842.
Having passed as interpreter in the native languages, Olpherts was given the command of the 16th Bengal Light Field Battery, and joined Sir Hugh Gough's expedition against Gwalior. Olpherts's battery was posted on the wing of the army commanded by General Grey, Lieutenant (Sir) Henry Tombs, V.C., being his subaltern. He was heavily engaged at Punniar on 29 December 1843, and was mentioned in despatches.
For his services in the Gwalior campaign Olpherts received the bronze decoration. Being specially selected by the governor-general, Lord Ellenborough, to raise and command a battery of horse artillery for the Bundelcund legion, he was at once detached with the newly raised battery to join Sir Charles Napier's army in Sindh. His march across India, a distance of 1260 miles, elicited Napier's highest praise. In 1846 Olpherts took part in the operations at Kot Kangra during the first Sikh war, when his conduct attracted the attention of (Sir) Henry Lawrence, and he was appointed to raise a battery of artillery from among the disbanded men of the Sikh army. He was then hurried off to the Deccan in command of a battery of artillery in the service of the Nizam of Hyderabad, but was soon recalled to a similar post in the Gwalior contingent. In 1851 Olpherts applied to be posted to a battery at Peshawur, where he was under the command of Sir Colin Campbell and took part in the expedition against the frontier tribes. For this service he afterwards received the India General Service Medal sanctioned in 1869 for frontier wars. In the following year (1852) Olpherts took furlough to England, and was appointed an orderly officer at the Military College of Addiscombe.
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