Jason Clarke Antiques has dated this piece to the 1860s.
The telescope retains its original lens cap, leather barrel covering, dust-slide for the eyetube and engraving to the first draw to the esteemed makers, Troughton & Simms, London.
The other side of first draw is further engraved with the following dedication, “GLC Merewether, Bombay Engineers from Thomas C Manderson, Bengal Engineers.”
George Lane Cockburn (GLC) Merewether was perhaps the most successful of the pair. Born to the Very Reverend John Merewether in 1836, he attended Marlbourough College from 1848 to 1854 and then proceeded to the East India Company’s Military Seminary at Addiscombe from 1854 to 1856. He arrived as a second lieutenant in India just prior to the Indian Mutiny and had made lieutenant by the time he was involved in the Siege of Dwarka. During this period he served with both the Rajpootana and Okamundel Field Forces as a Field Engineer and received a medal for his participation. During the 1860’s he was heavily involved in the deepening of the harbour at Karachi for which he took a leading role owing to the ill health of WH Price who was in charge of the works. He also took part in the Abysinnian Campaign of 1867 – 1868 for which he received a second medal and also achieved the rank of Captain.
Following the completion of the Karachi harbour works, Merewether returned to Bombay in 1870 to take charge of the cities defences and also became heavily involved in the teaching and examination of engineering students through the University of Bombay. His promotion to Major occurred in 1873 and by the end of the decade he had risen to become the Assistant Director, General Public Works Stores for India at the India Office. Little information is available but there is also a suggestion in the records that Mereweather was both divorced and made bankrupt during this period.
Personal issues aside, a new position as Chairman of the Bombay Harbour Port Trust coincided with a promotion to Lieutentant Colonel in 1881 and then to full Colonel in 1885, a position which he seems to have held until his retirement in the late 1880’s whereafter his influence remained. In the early 1890’s a new dry dock was created in Bombay which was given his namesake and a road in the city still exists bearing his name. He eventually died in Brighton in 1910.
Thomas Claridge Manderson also trained through the East India Company’s Miltary Seminary, Born in 1839 just three years junior to Merewether, he attended Addiscombe between 1855 and 1858 and was posted to Chatham in 1858 with the rank of Lieutenant. There is little immediate evidence of his early career but he arrived in India from Chatham during The Indian Mutiny and joined The Bengal Engineers where in 1870 he became Captain and Major in 1877. His rise in the ranks was perhaps a little slower than his friend Merewether but he was made Lieutenant-Colonel in 1886 and finally made Colonel in 1890.
Manderson must have been equally talented as he is also listed as being a Superintending Engineer First Class and also Inspector General of Lahore. He eventually retired and died in 1901 in Barnstaple, Devon.
Finding the link between these two East India Company Engineers has been a task which has so far evaded me but both officers had distinguished service careers.
They were amongst the last students to have studied at the East India Company’s military Seminary at Addiscombe House and are very likely to have known one another during this period due to the small numbers of Engineers versus infantry and gunnery students. Manderson is listed as being at Chatham in 1858 at which point
Jason Clarke Antiques has dated this piece to the 1860s.
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Victorian Telescope by Troughton & Simms with East India Company Engineers Dedication
