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Charles Chester Dandridge can be found in the 1881 census living in what was probably a rented house in Upper West Terrace. The house isn’t named but would appear to be Beaconsfield (now demolished). He had recently retired from the Indian Army and was accompanied by his daughter Katherine and youngest son George. His wife was away from home.
Charles was born in Rettendon in Essex around 1825 and joined the East India Company Army in 1845. He was attached to the 49th and then the 34th Native Infantry. He had risen to the rank of Major General in the Bengal Army by 1876 (1). Dandridge served with the Army of the Punjab in 1848-49. He was present throughout the siege of the city of Multan and at the subsequent storm and capture (2).
He married his first wife Isabella Knowles in Bengal in 1850 (3) and Katherine was born in Simla in 1853. It looks as if may have been a difficult childbirth and I suspect his wife died soon afterwards because in the 1901 census Katherine is described as “feeble minded” which might have been the result of a difficult delivery.
The fact that his first wife had died was evidenced by the fact that when his son Charles Edward was born in Simla in 1859 his mother was Emily Margaret Dandridge. Emily had two further children, Sarah in 1860 (3) and George born circa 1862, both in Bengal. In 1871 Emily, Katherine, Charles and George were back in England visiting Eliza Obbard and her family in Cheltenham (the Obbards had Indian military connections).
Budleigh Salterton seems to have been a popular retirement place for Indian Army officers in the 19th century, probably because they would have known each other from their service days. Some stayed but others passed through fairly quickly and Charles Dandridge was one such. By 1891 he was living with Emily and Katherine near Bognor and had moved to South Hayling in Hampshire by 1901 where he died in 1908.
His son Charles Edward went up to Corpus Christi College in Cambridge in 1880 and became vicar of Linslade in Buckinghamshire. The youngest son George also entered Holy Orders and was Vicar of St. Mark's Portsmouth in 1901.
Complied and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010
(1)Hart’s Army Lists
(2)Fibis.org
(3)FamilySearch.com
84 BS-B-00021 biography any