Military commissions for medical writer Sir James Annesley East Indies 1833
ANNESLEY, James (1774-1847). Two commissions relating to his service on the Madras Medical Board, East India Company. Simlah and Fort St George, 1833 and 1836.
Two printed documents completed in manuscript. The first 250 x 400 mm, with old folds, some age toning and marking, and areas of surface residue to the reverse; original pendant red wax armorial seal retained on its pink ribbon, cracked with some loss. The second 220 x 300 mm with old folds, scattered spotting and marking, retaining its embossed paper seal. Very good overall.
An associated pair of documents recording the advancement of the Irish military surgeon and medical author James Annesley within the East India Company's medical establishment.
The first, issued at Simlah on 25 September 1833, grants Annesley, Member of the Medical Board, the corresponding rank of Colonel in the King's Army in the East Indies, with seniority from 15 January 1833. Signed by Sir Edward Barnes as Commander-in-Chief and countersigned by his Military Secretary, C. H. Churchill, with a contemporary receipt endorsement to the reverse. The second, issued at Fort St George on 23 February 1836 under the governorship of Sir Frederick Adam, identifies Annesley as Third Member of the Medical Board and appoints him Second Member.
Born in County Down, Annesley trained in Dublin and London before entering the East India Company's Madras medical service in 1799. He saw active service in southern India and accompanied the Java expedition of 1811, taking charge of a military hospital accommodating some 1,400-1,500 patients. His subsequent care of Indian troops returning from overseas earned public commendation for his professional ability and humane attention. During the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1817-1818 he served as Superintending Surgeon to the army's advanced divisions, later taking charge of the General Hospital at Madras.
His extensive clinical experience informed Sketches of the Most Prevalent Diseases of India (1825), incorporating a treatise on epidemic cholera, and Researches into the Causes, Nature and Treatment of the More Prevalent Diseases of India, and of Warm Climates Generally (1828). He also compiled a substantial digest of Madras medical reports covering 1786-1829. He joined the Medical Board in 1833, retired in 1838 and was knighted in 1844.
Sir Edward Barnes (1776-1838) served under Wellington in the Peninsula and as Adjutant-General at Waterloo, where he was severely wounded. He subsequently became Governor of Ceylon and Commander-in-Chief in India. A rare commission document for a pioneering medical writer on tropical diseases, signed by a senior military officer and Waterloo veteran.