Why would a grocer..........

[valgeo]

go to India from London at the time of the Indian Mutiny, where sadly he was killed on the road between Fulletepore and Cawnpore in 1858? (Taken from probate records)

Charles Skipp Osborne who was the third husband of my GG Grandmother Frances Holford nee Weston.
Both were born in Stroud in Gloucestershire where he worked as a bookbinder.
He married Frances in London in 1839. In the 1841 census he was listed as a book printer. During the next ten years he changed occupations to become a grocer. By the 1851 census he employed a lad to help in the shop, a governess for the five children he had with Frances, also a house servant.

Charles doesn't seem to have joined the Army so why would a grocer go to India? Did he perhaps have a contract with the government to supply provisions, and if so is there anywhere I can find out more about this?

We have seen the Probate information and also his Will but neither really enlighten us as to why he was there.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what records I can access to find out please, remembering that I am in Australia so can't just whizz down to London to check any records in National Archives.
thankyou......

[Megan Roberts]

I suspect that you only ever be able to speculate as to why he went to India, but I think that you are probably on the right lines suggesting that it was a business reason.

The only other thought that I had was that possibly he had relatives out there that he was going to help return to the UK? Children or grandchildren?

All of the India Office (the colonial office) records are kept at the British Library - https://www.bl.uk/.

[Kiltpin]

Hello valgeo,

Most of my relatives were born in India, working for the railways, the "Company", or as civil servants.

Ancestry will give you a reference for a death, but I have found Find My Past will have the actual scan of the document available. The register of burial will usually give occupation and cause of death. That will tell you what he was doing at the time of death.

Regards

Kiltpin

[valgeo]

Megan thank you for the suggestion that he may have had family out there, I hadn't considered that.
I will check out the British Library website to see what else I can discover.

Kiltpin I haven't been able to find a death for him on either ancestry or FMP, I imagined that it would be recorded somewhere but not sure where else to look. I would have assumed that he would have been buried in India so are there any records available for that do you know.?

[geneius]

Turned this interesting link up

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t

Looks like your man was caught up in a Mutiny!

These are 2 notable dates in the Indian Mutiny, note they are either side of the date of death of your ancestor

1858
June 17th Battle of Kotah-ki-Serai, death of Rani of Jhansi
June 19th Battle of Gwalior

There are 3 Charles OSBORN entry on FMP also listed on FIBIS The Indian Mutiny Medal Roll (British Forces) 1857-1859. with scant details

https://discovery.nationalarchives.go...0-216b494f44cf

[valgeo]

Many thanks for those websites geneius - I was interested to see that Charles Skipp Osborne's employee stole money from him whilst working in the shop in 1850 and had to front the Old Bailey.

I keep thinking what a truly horrendous experience it must have been to be right in the middle of a mutiny and so many innocent people killed

I also found some passport applications for Charles Osborne in 1854 although it would be difficult to tell if any of them were for him.