Memoir of the Services of the Bengal Artillery: From the Formation of the Corps to the Present Time, with Some Account of Its Internal OrganizationBuckle, E. (Edmond)
History
Memoir of the Services of the Bengal Artillery: From the Formation of the Corps to the Present Time, with Some Account of Its Internal Organization
Buckle, E. (Edmond)
India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947; India -- History, Military; India. Army. Bengal Artillery
He was buried in the great burial-ground of Calcutta, and a handsome
pillar of the Corinthian order raised to his memory at Dum-Dum.
The inscription given below is cut on a tablet let into the base of the
pillar:—
COLONEL PEARSE’S MONUMENT.
[Illustration:
TO THE MEMORY OF
THOMAS DEANE PEARSE,
COLONEL COMMANDANT OF ARTILLERY,
THIS COLUMN IS
ERECTED BY THE OFFICERS OF THE BRIGADE
IN TESTIMONY OF THEIR RESPECT,
MDCCXC.]
In Colonel Pearse the regiment lost a commandant devoted to its welfare;
of a high order of talent, fitted, in no common degree, for command,
fond of his profession, and anxious for distinction in it, his whole
energies were directed to the performance of his duties; his intercourse
with his officers and men was marked by an earnest desire for their
happiness and comfort, and an endeavour to raise the tone of manners and
habits to be found existing in both ranks. Although a personal friend of
Warren Hastings, his influence never seems to have been used for any
private end; the good of the service was emphatically his guide; from
his duty he never swerved, and in it he was influenced always by
high-souled and chivalrous feelings. That he would have won for himself
high honours, had an opportunity been afforded, who can doubt who has
carefully considered his conduct when in command of the detachment to
the coast; and that he had not opportunity must be in part attributed to
the prejudice or jealousy of Coote.
For twenty years he commanded the regiment, and under his eye it grew
from infancy to maturity, and passed through many trials, yet always
winning for itself thanks and praises; to his exertions in instructing
all parties in the details of their duties, it owed its excellence, and
long as the regiment may last, and high as its fame may rise, the name
of Pearse ought always to be gratefully associated with it.
The command of the artillery brigade now devolved upon
Lieutenant-Colonel G. Deare (who joined the corps as a 2nd lieutenant
when Pearse commanded it); he was at this time at Cawnpoor, commanding a
battalion, and the duties of the brigade were carried on till he could
join by “the brigade-major, Captain Grace, referring for advice to
Lieutenant-Colonel C. R. Deare, commissary of stores, and brother to the
commandant.”
There being a paucity of artillery officers, such officers as chose to
volunteer from the line and were approved of by the commandant of
artillery were appointed. The following, this year, joined the corps
from the infantry:—Lieutenants Drummond, Jones, H. Green, Clements
Brown, Winbolt, Matthews, and Hopper; others joined in a similar manner
previously, but their names have not been ascertained, though from a
correspondence three years afterwards, we find Lieutenants Macalister
and R. Browne were among them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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