The Dorset History Centre is fortunate to hold the Pleydell-Railston of Whatcombe Archive. This family archive contains the journals, note-books and letters of Captain Robert Carter Oakley, who was born in Wimborne in 1795, and who served with the 20th Regiment of Foot. His journals paint a vibrant picture of a 19th century soldier’s life.
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Captain Oakley served with the 20th Regiment in Ireland, Spain and France between 1811 and 1816 during which time he kept a detailed journal. Following the end of the war with France the 20th Regiment was stationed on the Island of St Helena guarding the defeated Napoleon.
In 1828 Oakley was sent to India to re-join the regiment. He kept a beautifully illustrated journal of his voyage on board the East India Company’s ship ‘Duchess of Athol’. Sailing from Deal on 19 February Captain Oakley records somewhat mournfully that at noon on the 23 February they sailed past Portland where he was able to “take a last view of my native hills”.
The 93 day voyage was full of incident; in the night of 20 March “little Tweedale, a midshipman of the Bombay Marine” was lost over-board; on 10 May, “Caught a shark this afternoon … measuring about seven feet in length”. This reminded Captain Oakley of a shark’s backbone he had once seen measuring
“upwards of 11 feet and in the stomach of which were found a man’s head and part of the sleeve of a coat with an artillery button attached to it …”
The journal includes this series of illustrations of a shark, a ‘sucking fish’ and a young shark giving the measurement of each. The journal and the illustrations are a reminder of the dangers of crossing the oceans at this time when sailors were lost overboard and any unfortunate sailors or passengers who died on board were ‘buried at sea’. Travel over these distances was a long and dangerous business.
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After some three months Captain Oakley arrived in Bombay (Mumbai) on 1 June 1828 and made his way inland to Poona (Pune). On the journey Captain Oakley made several excursions to local temples which he described and sketched…
“Whilst I was sketching a troop of huge monkies of brownish yellow colour passed over the front of the temple”.
This stay in India was short-lived and by November he was on his way back to Britain on board the ‘Elphinstone’.
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Oakley arrived home on 13 March 1829 spending his first night back in England sleeping in the same room at the same hotel as he used for his last night back in February 1828. He remained in England, at the regimental depot at Chatham, Kent, until 1833 when he once again returned to India. While in England however Robert had married Lydia Ann Cummins, of Bodmin, Cornwall. Lydia travelled to India with her new husband together with their new born son. A daughter soon followed, but sadly both the daughter and Robert died in 1835. They are both buried in Belguam, India.
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Dorset History Centre has a full pack of resources based around Captain Oakley aimed at Key Stage 2 or Upper Key Stage 1 pupils. These can be viewed and downloaded via our website.