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Michael Alexander Rowlandson and Michael George Dobbie Rowlandson were father and son and both lived in Budleigh Salterton (1). 

Michael A. Rowlandson was born in November 1841 at St. Thomas’s Mount  in Madras, India the son of Brevet Captain (later Colonel) G Rowlandson of the Madras Artillery(2).  He became an Ensign in the East India Company Army in 1858 and joined the 41st Native Infantry.  He was promoted to Lieutenant in June 1860 and joined the Madras Staff Corp later in the year.  As was the rule he gradually progressed, to Captain in 1870, to Major in 1878, to Lieutenant Colonel in 1884, and to Colonel in 1888 (3).  For some unknown service he was awarded the Turkish Osmanieh Medal, 4th Class (4). 

In 1874 he married Beatrice Elizabeth Dobbie, the fifth daughter of Colonel GS Dobbie of the Madras Army (2).  They had at least two sons (vide infra), and a daughter, Beatrice Isabel, born in Bombay c.1884.  Michael and Beatrice returned to England and he is recorded as a member of the Hospital Management Committee starting in 1900 and then serving to at least 1908 (5).   

He was living at 2 West Terrace in 1902 but had moved to “Addiston” (now Went House), near the hospital, by 1906 (1).  Beatrice died in 1904 and is buried in Budleigh Salterton Cemetery.  Colonel Rowlandson was in the same house at the time of the 1911 census living with his unmarried daughter, Beatrice, and a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.  He died in 1921 and is buried with his wife. 

Michael George Dobbie Rowlandson was the first son of Colonel M A Rowlandson; he was born in August 1878.  He went to Charterhouse School leaving in 1896 (6), and then went on to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.  He joined the Gordon Highlanders in 1898, and transferred to the 30th Punjabi Infantry in 1899 and to the 38th Dogra Infantry in 1900.  He served in the Mahsud Waziri Blockade on the North West Frontier in 1900 and the Lakka Khal Expedition in 1909 (6).  He was promoted to Captain in 1907 and to Brigade Major of the 38th Dogras in December 1915 (7). 

During WWI he served in Mesopotamia, Persia and North Russia receiving all the appropriate medals.  He was awarded the DSO, the Russian Order of St. Anne and St. Vladimir, and was Mentioned in Despatches.  He continued in the Indian Army until 1928 being involved in the 3rd Afghan War in 1919 and the Waziristan Expedition in 1920 (8).  

He had married Violet May Hatchard Smith in 1906 and they had at least two children, Michael Alan Wethered Rowlandson born at her parents’ home in Epsom in 1909, and Jack born in Quetta India in late 1910 (9).  At the 1911 census Violet and the two boys were living at “Glen” in Budleigh Salterton, the father was presumably in India.  

Violet May Hatchard Smith was the sister of William Hatchard Smith who had architecture practices in London and Budleigh Salterton.  He designed over fifty houses in the local area and these included number 21 East Budleigh Road “Wildflowers” for his sister and her husband.  It was built some time before 1923 (10).  

Their eldest son Michael Alan Wethered Rowlandson also had a military career and joined the Royal Artillery but there is a mystery about his war service during the 1939-45 war.  It would appear that he was seconded to the secret SOE (Special Operations Executive) because there is a Lieutenant Colonel M.A.W. Rowlandson mentioned in an American thesis (11), who is described as SOE's Planning Chief.  Amongst other activities he was involved with instructing and co-ordinating local resistance groups during the Market Garden Operation (“The Bridge Too Far”).  

The slightly odd thing is that according to the London Gazette he was promoted to Major in 1946 but he had been awarded an O.B.E by then so he must have rendered an important service during the war.  I am inclined to the view that he may have been given a brevet rank in SOE in order not to be out-ranked by his American counterpart as I think it highly unlikely that there would have been two people called Rowlandson with M.A.W as initials. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010 

(1)     Town Directories

(2)     Families in British India. Fibis.com

(3)     Hart’s Army List 1888

(4)     London Gazette Supplement November 17, 1882

(5)     Budleigh Salterton Hospital Minutes

(6)     Charterhouse School Register 1872-1910

(7)     London Gazette

(8)     Who’s Who

(9)     1911 Census

(10)Folder at Fairlynch Museum

(11)"Coordination of Activities Behind the Enemy Lines With the Actions of Allied Military Forces Invading North West Europe." From: THE ROLE OF JEDBURGH TEAMS IN OPERATION MARKET GARDEN. A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILTARY ART AND SCIENCE by ROBERT G GUTJAHR, MAJ, USA B.S., United States Military Academy, 1978

104 BS-B-00036 Biography any