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Members of the Dobbie family lived in Budleigh Salterton towards the end of the 19th century and again in Littleham in the first half of the 20th century. Many of the family served in India and the first Dobbie to retire to the area from India was Colonel (later Major General) George Staple Dobbie.

George Staple Dobbie was born in Essex in 1819 one of 11 children of Captain   William Hugh Dobbie RN and Agatha Goodrich. Like many members of the Dobbie family he was destined for a career in India and to that end he and his brother Robert were trained at Addiscombe. He went to India as a cadet in the East India Company Army and joined the 44th regiment of Madras Native Infantry as an Ensign in February 1836 and in 1839 he was involved in the Kurnool campaign. This expedition was sent because attempts were being made to start a Holy War against the Raj, and the Nawab of Kurnool was said to be storing weapons which was contrary to a previous treaty. A force of about 6,000 men was sent to prevent an uprising. George served as a Lieutenant with the Sappers and Miners who had been expecting to be involved in a lengthy siege of the fort at Kurnool. As it transpired the fort surrendered without resistance to a group of Madras Native Infantry and a small group of Sappers. The Army List says that George was with the Sappers at the surrender of the fort. The Madras Presidency was a relatively quiet posting during his service; during the Indian Mutiny in 1857 all of the Madras Regiments stayed loyal to the British. Kurnool therefore seems to have been the only armed conflict in which he engaged as no other war service was recorded for him at the time of his retirement.

In her account of the Dobbie Family (1) Sybil Dobbie describes how George and his brother Robert became fervent Evangelical Christians under the influence of Rev. Samuel Hebitch of the German Evangelical Basel Mission near Madras. Sybil recounts that Hebitch’s work altered for good the lives of the Dobbie brothers and their descendants for three or four generations.

In June 1843 in St. Andrew’s Church Calcutta George married Annie Buchan Thomson the daughter of an English doctor, and a year later their first son George Staple Dobbie was born in the cantonment at Pallavaram (in Madras), then a year later, their eldest daughter Annie arrived.

The East India Register of 1850 tells us that the 44th were stationed at Palamcotta (in Tamil Nadu) from January 1848 and that in 1850 George was on furlough. He was promoted to Captain in February 1851 and in July of the same year a son William Herbert Dobbie was born in Calcutta. There followed the birth of three daughters, Regina in 1853, Beatrix in 1854 and Catherine in 1856. On Catherine’s birth certificate George’s occupation was recorded as Captain in the 44th regiment but he was also described as second assistant civil engineer which suggested he had been given some training in the subject, possibly before going to India because, as mentioned above, he was with the Corps of Sappers in 1839 at Kurnoul. He also served in 1855 as an Executive Officer in the Public Works Department (2). 1859 saw another son Herbert Hugh Dobbie born in the hill station of Ootacumund, and in October George was promoted to Major.

In 1862 his Regiment was disbanded and Dobbie was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and transferred to the 14th Madras Native Infantry. The same year a son Archibald arrived and in 1863 his final son Charles Francis Dobbie was born. The couple had a daughter Emily in 1864 but she died the same year. The last daughter Ada Bridger Dobbie was born in 1866. In Coonoor the same year the eldest daughter Annie married Kenlis Fergus Stevenson (a widower with one daughter). Kenlis was a Lieutenant in George’s Regiment.

George became Commandant of the 14th Madras Native Infantry in November 1865 and in January 1867 he was promoted to Colonel. The 1870 Army List shows that he was on furlough in Europe at that time and that his Regiment was stationed at Manipore (sic); (Manipur was a sovereign state in north east India – now in Bangladesh). In January 1871 the Regiment moved to Rangoon in Burma and he must have been back with them because in December his daughter Regina was married in Rangoon to John Sturrock a civil servant in the Madras Board of Revenue.

Sybil Dobbie records that George “seems to have been a hard, not to say ruthless Victorian father to his enormous family. Each of his daughters had been firmly married off, with little option in the matter, to the first suitable young man who had appeared (though these marriages all seem to have been remarkably happy), and his sons had been given some start in life and then left completely to shift for themselves”. The Dobbie children were sent home in twos and threes to grow up and be educated in England. Two of George’s sons were sent to Charterhouse School, Herbert Hugh in 1872 and Charles Francis in 1876; Herbert would eventually retire to Littleham after a career in the Madras Civil Service and Charles joined the Madras Infantry. According to Sybil Dobbie the boys (and other relatives) spent their holidays in Budleigh, and newspaper accounts show that they entered several events during the Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club Amateur Athletics Sports Day in 1875 & 76. At the 1876 event Col. Dobbie was said to have “performed the duties of starter with great tact!”.

It seems likely that George Dobbie was living in Budleigh Salterton possibly from 1874, although he hadn’t officially retired. The evidence for this relates to his Evangelical Christian activities because at this time there seems to have been a religious resurgence in Budleigh and surrounding areas. A series of heavily attended revival meetings were held in the Public Rooms involving religious exercises and addresses and a Colonel Dobbie was one of the principle speakers. However the newspaper report in the Western Times of January 1875 records him as Col. Dobbie RA (Royal Artillery) and two of the other speakers were also recorded as RA. I cannot find a Colonel Dobbie in the Army List in the Royal Artillery, only George in the Madras Infantry, so it may be an error. There is another earlier account of a meeting in the Free Church in Woodbury during June 1875 in which “Col. Dobbie of Budleigh Salterton” gave a gospel address, so it seems likely it was George. According to Sybil, George also became involved with the Plymouth Brethren and began meetings in Budleigh. The Brethren were still holding meetings in the Public Rooms in 1905 (3).

As stated earlier, when the Dobbies definitely took up residence in Budleigh is unclear. They do not appear in the 1873 Kelly’s Directory but George is recorded in the next available Directory in 1878 (the Harrods Directory) as living at Archbrook in Budleigh Salterton and was at the same address for the 1881 census but, as indicated above, it seems highly likely he was in residence earlier than 1878. Budleigh was a popular place for retirees from India but an additional reason for their choice of home may have been the fact that George’s brother William Hugh Dobbie, a retired naval Captain, was living initially at Lympstone (in 1871) and then had moved to 4 Bicton Terrace, Exmouth by 1881. At the time of his death in 1889 William Hugh had advanced to the rank of retired Vice-Admiral.

Disaster struck George’s family in May 1875 when their eldest son George Staple Dobbie, who was working for the Mysore Revenue Survey, died as the result of wounds inflicted by a tiger(4).

George was promoted to Major General in October 1877 and when he reached the age of 62 in July 1881 he was placed on the unemployed supernumerary list as per Indian Military Regulations. He was promoted to Lieutenant General in April 1882. Sometime during the early 1880s the family moved to Ilfracombe. This would have been before September 1884 because a Mr Davis was by then resident at Archbrook.

George Dobbie died in Ilfracombe in March 1886 and Annie in 1889.

George’s son William Herbert Dobbie CIE, who had stayed with his father in Budleigh during school holidays, spent his working life in the Finance Department of the Madras Civil Service retiring as an Accountant General in 1907 (5). He had grown up surrounded by cousins, and in 1875 he married his first cousin Margaret Agatha Dobbie at East Budleigh Church. Their son, Lieutenant General Sir William George Shedden Dobbie, had a very distinguished career as a British Army veteran of the Second Boer War and the First and Second World Wars (1). His last posting was as Governor of Malta up until 1942.

William Herbert and Margaret lived in Littleham/Exmouth at Mayfield in Salterton Road (near Elvis Road) from 1932 till his death in 1940. His widow later moved to 4 Elvis Road.

Researched and Written by Roger Lendon, © August 2017

(1) Faith & Fortitude: The Life & Work of General Sir William Dobbie. By Sybil Dobbie 1979. 
(2) Baillie-Ki-Paltan: Being a History of the 2nd Battalion, Madras Pioneers ...  By Lieutenant-Colonel H. F. Murland.
(3) A Pictural and Descriptive Guide to Exeter and the South Devon. Publisher Ward 1905.
(4) Inscription within Holy Trinity Church, Bangalore.
(5) The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915) by C. Hayavadana Rao

BS-B-00078 Biography