Captain Samuel Read (d. 1857)
/Captain Samuel Read, of the 83rd-Regiment, is commemorated in a memorial in the North Nave Aisle.
To the Memory of
Captain Samuel Read of the 83rd. Regiment
who was killed on the 23rd October 1857 in the 36th year of his age, whilegallantly leading his company to the attack of an insurgent enemy strongly posted at Jeerun, near Neemuch, East Indies.
His brother officers have raised this tablet in token of their sincere regard for a brave soldier and an esteemed comrade.
Captain Samuel Read was born in Woolwich on 3 April 1821. He was commissioned Ensign without purchase in 24th Foot on 31 October 1842, promoted Lieutenant without purchase 28 February 1844, transferred to 83rd Foot 22 December 1848, and promoted Captain 83rd Foot without purchase 16 May 1856. He served in India 1843 - 47, 1849 - 53 and in 1856 until he was killed in action at Jeerun, on 23 October 1857.* He was a qualified French speaker and from 1854 to 56 was employed on the Recruiting Staff in York District.
He was entitled to the Indian Mutiny Medal with the clasp "Central India."
* The Regimental History of the Royal Ulster Rifles says this of the action in which Captain Read was killed.
"In October the Mandiswar insurgents seized a fortified village named Jeerum, which also possessed an old fort.
British reinforcements (Fusiliers) on the march, from a contemporary engraving.
Mail-cart in northern India: a British officer on his way to join the army, from a contemporary engraving.
This place was situated some ten miles from Neemuch. On the morning of the 23rd of October a party started from Neemuch to turn the rebels out of Jeerum. Captain Tucker of the 2nd Bombay Cavalry was in command, and he had six officers and 120 of his own men, two officers and fifty men of the 83rd Regiment, and some of the 12th Bombay Infantry. Captain Tucker opened fire with guns, and then sent the infantry to attack; but the enemy sallied out in great num-bers, and drove the infantry back, killing Captain Read and wounding two privates af the 83rd Regiment and captured a mortar. Captain Tucker at once charged with the cavalry, and the infantry re-captured the mortar and the rebels were driven back into the village, Captain Tucker being killed in the charge. The place was too strongly fortified to be taken by assault, but the enemy fled during the night and the village was occupied next morning, and its fortifications blown up."
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
