Townsend, E. I E. Townsend, Townsend I. Not identified. The third item ["Indian Recruits and Indian English", XVI, 319–22. Oct. 3, 1857] is not a joint writing of the two contributors whose names are attached to it [Townsend and A. H. A. Hamilton]; it consists of two separate sections (unrelated except by the fact that both are motivated by the Indian "Mutiny"), placed under the joint heading obviously by the editorial office. The first section – the longer – has no subtitle; the second has the subtitle "Indian English." The order of names attached to the item indicates that the first section is by Townsend, the second by Hamilton. The payment allotment – two guineas to Townsend, one guinea to Hamilton – confirms this ascription.

      The first section of that article and the other articles [attributed to Townsend] are clearly by one writer (prob. not the [unidentified] Townsend, [see separate entry], who contributed two German items). The articles indicate the writer to be an educated man, an English officer of long service in India, thoroughly familiar with the country and its people, critical of British military regulations and policy there. In his first contribution the writer states that "years ago" he was brigade-major in a unit of irregular cavalry stationed in the vicinity of Poona, under command of a brigadier whom he names as "Daintry." Daintry's order that the men shave off their beards resulted in the mutiny of the troops and their killing of Daintry. The matter was "hushed up," states the writer, the mutinous regiment being disbanded and its name "blotted out of the Company's books." The writer's vague reference to the date of the mutiny makes it impossible to identify it with any mutiny recorded in military histories; but there is no reason to regard the account as other than factual (cf. the Vellore mutiny, 1806). The writer's reference (in "Indian Irregulars" [XVI, 244–46. Sept,. 12, 1857]) to his seeing a Sikh cut down "not far from where Lord Gough was standing" in an engagement during "one of the SutIej affairs" indicates that he was in India during the first Anglo-Sikh War, 1845–46, or during the second Anglo-Sikh War, 1848–49. His reference to news that "may be wafted to us from India" indicates that he was not in India at the time of writing for H.W.
      Payment for two of the contributions made by cheque.
      The Townsends with initial "E" listed in the East-India Register from the 1820s to and including the 1850s are the following, each of whom served in the Military Division, Bengal Presidency, beginning his service in the 1820s: Edward Townsend, conductor, Dept. of Public Works, 2nd Division, thereafter warrant officer; Edward Nelson Townsend, captain, 31st Regt. Native Infantry; Edward Richard Townsend, assistant surgeon.
      In the Office Book, Capper is recorded as author of "Indian Hill Stations" [XVII, 316–19. March 20, 1858]; his name is marked out and substituted by that of Townsend.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971