Philip Melvill (East India Company officer)

Philip Melvill (26 October 1795 – 4 October 1882) was a British Bengal Army officer who went on to be Military Secretary to the East India Company.

Philip Melvill
Born	26 October 1795[1] Topsham, Devon, England[2][3]
Died	4 October 1882 (aged 86) Lostwithiel, Cornwall
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Bengal Army

Military career

Born the fourth son of Captain Philip Melvill,[4] Melvill was commissioned into the Bengal Army in 1815.[5] His elder brothers included Sir James Cosmo Melvill and Henry Melvill. Sir Philip Melvill was his younger brother.[6]

He was appointed Military Secretary to the East India Company in 1837[5] remaining there until 1858.[7]

He retired when the East India Company was nationalized in 1857 to Ethy near Lostwithiel in Cornwall where he died.[4]

Family

Melvill's eldest son, Philip Sandys Melvill, became Agent to the Viceroy and Governor-General of India at Baroda.[4][8] His younger son, Teignmouth Melvill, won the Victoria Cross during the Anglo-Zulu War.[4]

References

1. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538–1975
2. 1871 England Census
3. 1881 England Census
4. The Roll of Honour of the Melvill Family
5. Cambridge South Asian Archive
6. "Memoirs of the Late Philip Melvill, Esq. Lieut. Gov. of Pendennis Castle, Cornwall : With an Appendix Containing Extracts From His Diaries and Letters Selected by a Friend...together with Two Letters and a Sermon, Occasioned by His Death". London: Hatchard. 1812.
7. The military in British India: the development of British Land Forces in South Asia, 1600-1947 By T. A. Heathcote, Page 265 Manchester University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7190-3570-8
8. "No. 24303". The London Gazette. 7 March 1876. p. 1787.