Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 24 - Boileau

by David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

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Boileau. — A large number of members of this family and of their connections have served their country in the Army and Navy. Major General Boileau (the head of the family) has already been mentioned. Major-General Samuel Brandram Boileau of the 22nd Foot is deceased. The late Major General Henry Alexander Edmonstone Boileau of the Royal Bengal Engineers (born 1807, died 1866), was the youngest son of Thomas Boileau, sixth son of Simeon; this officer’s name is on a tablet in the pediment of the porch of the Free Church Institution at Nagpore, in India, as the beneficent designer of the building; his next elder brother^[1] is Major-General John Theophilus Boileau.

John Theophilus Boileau, seventh son of Simeon, had a son, the late George Wilson Boileau, Esq., father of Colonel George Wilson Boileau. This gallant officer is Honorary Colonel of the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment, and is Lieut-Colonel of the late Bengal Infantry on retired full pay. He saw good service in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny, 1857-8, when he was present at the actions near Benares and at Guggah, commanded in the action at Mundooree, was present at the capture and second siege of Fort Atrowlea. He commanded the Fort of Jounpore, and the Oudh military police at the assault and capture of Birwah. He was thanked by Government, was twice mentioned in the despatches, and received a medal and the brevet rank of Major.

Colonel Francis William Boileau, born 11th April 1835, is also a distinguished Indian officer. He joined the 16th Bengal Native Infantry in 1855, and was a Lieutenant in 1856. He took part in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny at the actions of Ilissar, Biswah, and Kentee; in the first he was severely wounded, and was wounded in the last action. He was thanked by Government, and received a medal. He became a Captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, in 1867, and served in 1868 in the Abyssinian Expedition under Lord Napier of Magdala, for which he received a medal. He was promoted to the rank of Major in 1875, and he was in the Afghan War of 1878-9, serving in both the Bazar Valley Expeditions, for which he received a medal and promotion to the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel, He is now in service as Lieut.-Colonel of the Bengal Staff Corps, and has the rank of Colonel in the army, dated 2nd March 1885.

I observe also the names of Captain Lewis Maltby Boileau, born 14th August 1849, serving in the Bengal Staff Corps, who received the Afghan Medal 1878-9; and of Captain Thomas Smalley Boileau of the same corps, born 8th June 1851, who served in the Naga Hills Expedition 1878-9, and was mentioned in the despatches and received a medal with clasps.

This must suffice as to the Boileau representatives of the Huguenot refugee. As to other descendants, Anne Charlotte Boileau, eldest married daughter of Simeon, was married to Peter Fried, whose daughter, Henrietta, became Mrs. M‘Leod; and the grandson of the latter is Major-General James John M‘Leod Innes, who is decorated with the Victoria Cross. Bonne Boileau, another daughter of Simeon was the wife of Lestock Wilson, and her daughter, Alicia Magdalene (died 1834), was married, in 1812, to the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, K.C.B. (born 1774, died 1857).

Simeon Boileau.				=		Magdalen Desbrisay.
Anne Charlotte Boileau.				=		Peter Friell.
Henrietta Caroline Lestock Friell.				=		General Duncan M‘Leod.
Sir Donald Friell M‘Leod, K.S.I., C.B., born 1S10. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh and at Haileybury, served in the Civil Service of India for above forty years, and retired with the reputation of being “one of the most experienced and highly esteemed Indian statesmen of the day.” Was successively Magistrate of Benares and Commissioner of the Trans Sutlej States. In 1854 he became Financial Commissioner of the Punjaub. He received the Decoration of C.B. in 1857, after the suppression of the Indian Mutiny, during which he had acted with eminent ability and with a serene and resolute bearing. On Sir John Lawrence’s recommendation, he became Lieut.-Governor of the Punjaub in 1865, and received the Decoration of K.S.I. (Knight-Commander of the Star of India). He returned home in 1871, and died in London on 28th November 1872.							Jane Alicia M‘Leod, Mrs. Innes.
	Major-General James John M‘Leod Innes, born 5th February 1830, promoted 2Sth November 1885. He served at the suppression of the Indian Mutiny as Lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers, and on 24th December 1858 received the Victoria Cross for an act of gallantry and self-devotion, declared by Lord Clyde to be unsurpassed among the many heroic deeds of that war:— “At the action of Sultanpore [23rd February 1858], far in advance of the leading skirmishers, he was the first to secure a gun which the enemy were abandoning. Retiring from this they rallied round another gun farther back, from which the shot would in another instant have ploughed through an advancing column; when Lieutenant Innes rode up unsupported, shot the gunner about to apply the match, and, remaining undaunted at his post— the mark for a hundred matchlock men sheltered in some adjoining huts— kept the artillery men at bay until assistance reached him.” [Letter from Maj.-Gen. Sir Thomas Harte Franks, K.C.B.]

1. Here we may name the only married sister, Elizabeth Magdalene, Mrs. John Samuel Bosanquet. The eldest brother was the late Thomas Ebenezer John Boileau, Esq., whose daughter, Ellen Leah, is the wife of Reginald John Graham, Esq. of Edmond Castle, near Carlisle, and Mother of Thomas Henry Boileau Graham and other children.