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Could This Be A Fake?
| Rollo Gillespie | |
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Major-General Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie
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| Born | 1766 Comber, County Down, Ireland |
| Died | 1814 (aged 48) Kalunga, Dehradun, Nepal, (today part of India) |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Years of service | 1783–1814 |
| Rank | Major-General |
| Battles/wars | French Revolutionary Wars Gurkha War |
Major-General Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie KCB (21 January 1766 – 31 October 1814[1]) was an officer in the British army.
Contents
Early life[edit]
Robert Rollo Gillespie was born and grew up in Comber, County Down, in what is now Northern Ireland.[2] He was educated at Kensington and near Newmarket[1] After turning down the opportunity of going to Cambridge university he joined the 3rd Irish Horse during 1783[1] as a Cornet.
In 1786 he was involved in a duel in which he killed the opposing duellist. Fleeing to a friend’s house in Narraghmore and then to Scotland, he returned voluntarily to stand trial in 1788. The verdict was ‘justifiable homicide’ and Gillespie was acquitted.[1] Later he earned the title “Strongest Man of Comber” after performing many feats of strength.
Active service[edit]
In 1792 he transferred to the 20th Light Dragoons with the rank of lieutenant and soon embarked with his new regiment for Jamaica. However, his ship was shipwrecked at the Portuguese islands of Madeira forcing Gillespie to come ashore by a small boat and he then contracted yellow fever[1] in his first night on the island. After recovery, he rejoined his regiment and fought against the forces of the French Republic in the Caribbean at Tiburon Peninsula, Port-au-Prince, Fort Bizotten and Fort de l’Hôpital.
Being made Adjutant-General of St. Domingo, he was at home alone when eight men broke into his house to burgle it. Armed only with his sword, he killed six of them while the other two fled.[3]
India, Java, Sumatra, Nepal[edit]
In 1804 he was honourably acquitted[1] by a court martial of suspected involvement in a fraud scandal – he had permitted the regimental surgeons, in the interests of their patients, to exceed the regulation allowances. At his court martial it was pointed out that these regulations did not necessarily apply to a regiment which was paid not by the British government, but by the local government of Jamaica, which already had passed his accounts; many of its members and of his senior officers wrote letters to the court martial highly commending him and his care for his regiment.[4]
He then transferred to India, traveling initially to Hamburg where, though both were in disguise and had no political principles in common, he was warned by Napper Tandy to flee to Danish territory in Altona.[5] He continued overland through Germany, Austria, and Serbia, to the Euxine where he felt obliged to force his ship’s captain at gunpoint to take him to Constantinople as agreed, rather than a corsair port for murder or slavery.[6] He passed through Greece without recorded incidents, and took ship for Aleppo. He narrowly saved his own life, and his servant’s, in the desert by curing the chief of a band of Arabs, who were planning to murder and rob him.[7] He stayed for some time in Baghdad, where he was presented with a valuable Arabian horse by the Ottoman governor. From Basra he took ship for Bombay, then travelled overland to Madras. He was soon appointed to the command of the 19th Dragoons at Arcot, some 16 miles from Vellore.[4]
A few days after taking up his new post, Gillespie was warned of the Vellore Mutiny of 1806. He immediately collected about twenty dragoons, with galloper guns, and he set out ahead of a relief force within a quarter of an hour of the alarm being raised. Dashing ahead of his men, he arrived at Vellore within two hours, to find the surviving British troops within minutes of extinction by some hundreds of mutineers. About sixty men of the 69th, commanded by a sergeant (who recognized Gillespie from the West Indies) and by two assistant surgeons, were holding the ramparts but were out of ammunition. Gillespie was unable to gain entry through the gate (which was controlled by the mutineers), so the sergeant lowered a chain of soldier’s belts to allow Gillespie to climb the wall onto the battlements.[8] To gain time for the rest of his men to arrive Gillespie led the 69th in a bayonet-charge along the ramparts, engaging in close combat with the enemy. With the rest of the 19th arrived Gillespie ordered them to blow in the gates with their galloper guns and then made a second charge with the 69th, clearing the space just inside the gate to permit the cavalry to deploy. The 19th and Madras Cavalry then charged and slaughtered any enemy who stood in their way; about a hundred fugitives, captured within the fort, were summarily executed. Gillespie arrested the sons of Tipu Sultan, who were suspected of fomenting the mutiny, and sent them under guard to Madras. The mutiny was thus suppressed.[9]
In 1811 he commanded forces in the Invasion of Java[1] and took the city of Batavia. He was subsequently appointed Commander of the Forces in British-occupied Java and in 1812 he deposed the Sultan of Palembang in Sumatra, and took the royal Javanese city of Yogyakarta. On his return to India he speared a tiger that escaped from a cage and prowled on Bangalore racecourse.[10]
Two years later, at the beginning of the Anglo-Nepalese War, he led a column to attack a Nepalese hill fort at Khalanga, in the Battle of Nalapani, repulsing a Gurkha counter-attack. Gillespie then tried to follow them back into the fort with a dismounted party of the 8th Dragoons. Although this failed, Gillespie renewed the attack with companies of the 53rd Foot. Thirty yards from the fort he shouted the words, “One shot more for the honour of Down” and charged with the men when a Nepalese sharpshooter shot him through the heart and he died within seconds of falling. With his death the attack faltered causing the next senior officer to call a retreat.[1]
He was posthumously knighted with a K.C.B. on 1 January 1815.[1]
Memorial[edit]
A large statue of Major General Sir Rollo Gillespie was constructed under the oversight of John Fraser, the first County Surveyor of Down, and was unveiled on 24 June 1845 (St. John’s Day) in the Town Square of Comber. Fifty lodges of the Masonic Order were present, in what is believed to be the biggest Masonic gathering in Irish history. It was calculated that 25,000 to 30,000 people crowded into the town to witness the ceremony and celebrate the life of “The Strongest Man In Comber”. The column is 55 feet high. At the foot of the column are many Masonic symbols and his famous last words “One shot more for the honour of Down”.
The Gillespie Memorial
References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i Dictionary of Indian Biography; Charles E Buckland p166 (1906)
- Jump up^ Sandford, Ernest (1976). Discover Northern Ireland. NI Tourist Board. p. 197. ISBN 0 9500222 7 6.
- Jump up^ A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Pages 38-39. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- ^ Jump up to:a b A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Pages 65-83. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- Jump up^ A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Page 87. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- Jump up^ A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Page 91. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- Jump up^ A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Pages 93-95. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- Jump up^ A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Page 102. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- Jump up^ A memoir of major-general sir R. Rollo Gillespie by Major Sir William Thorn. 1816. Printed for T. Egerton, at the Military Library, Whitehall. Page 106. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ
- Jump up^ Thornton, Leslie Heber (1925). Campaigners Grave & Gay: Studies of Four Soldiers of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The University Press. p. 105.
Further reading[edit]
- A Memoir of Major-General Sir R. R. Gillespie
- Hernon, Ian. (2001) Blood in the Sand: More Forgotten Wars of the 19th Century, The History Press.
Categories
LEVER GUN ’LOPE
GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD GUN, GOOD GOATS!
Tank sighting-in the vintage 1886 at Bobby Tyler’s backyard range.
Watching the wide, heavy antlered buck antelope was amusing as he was keeping his harem of roughly a dozen in a tight pack. If one ventured too far, he’d make a wide circle, much like a border collie and herd her back within the group. He liked them packed tight and under his watchful eye. He wasn’t about to share them with anyone.
Bobby and I had spotted him two evenings ago while scouting. His cartoonish, abnormally wide heavy horns were a dead giveaway, making him easy to recognize. He was a perfect buck for me, as I relish nature’s freakish critters. They were roughly 600 yards away.
After studying them for 15 minutes, Bobby Tyler, head honcho of Tyler Gun Works said, “Well, we got about a 50/50 chance of getting him — if we try.” We were here to hunt, so that’s what we did. A plan was hatched and the stalk began. Bobby was driving his Polaris Ranger and I was riding shotgun. Jason Cloessner of Lipsey’s Inc., was in the backseat with son Evan, who scored a dandy buck a few hours earlier. It’s always nice having witnesses when things go right …
John Purcell’s Winchester Model 1886 next to a sack of ammo belonging
to Jeff Quinn. Tank felt their spirits were smiling as he used their gear!
The Gun
The rifle I was using was not your typical antelope gun by any means. It was a vintage 1905 Winchester 1886 .45-70 from the estate of John Purcell. John was a fellow member of The Shootists, as are Bobby and Jason. When John died last year, Bobby handled the gun end of his estate and planned on keeping the old rifle to honor him.
For some reason, Bobby wanted me to hunt the first day using John’s rifle. We sighted it in the day before using a sack full of commercially loaded ammunition Bobby obtained when handling Jeff Quinn’s estate. Jeff was also a fellow Shootist.
Jeff Quinn’s .45-70 ammo and Tank’s empties from the hunt, with a Kim Ralston knife in the background.
The Load
A card in the large ammo sack stated the load was a 405-grain soft point slug loaded over 55.5 grains of AA2320, sparked with a Winchester large rifle primer. Velocity was 1,978 FPS. Purcell had mounted a Williams peep sight on the rifle. Using his setting, the ammo was dead-on when testing it on Bobby’s 150-yard range. To say I felt confident with the load/rifle combination would be correct. Now if we could only get close enough on a nice ’lope.
From left to right, Jason, Tank and Bobby holding the .45-70 Model 1886 Winchester formerly owned by John Purcell. Who hunts speed goats with a buffalo gun? Tank, that’s who!
The Chase!
After studying the herd, Bobby decided to swing wide to get downwind for the final stalk. The wary prairie goats knew something was up and bolted! Bobby hit the gas as we streaked across the open prairie. Hanging on for dear life, I thought I was going to be ejected fighting the forces of the bucking UTV. I wasn’t worried so much about my welfare, but I was for the classic 1886 I was holding onto.
After a game of cat and mouse, the herd finally settled, thinking they have given us the slip. We were out of their sight, thanks to a series of large dirt mounds pushed up to prevent flooding from road runoff during heavy rainstorms. As we carefully crested the hill in a crawl, the sharp-eyed speed-goats spotted us again. We were only 65 yards away from them. The wide horned buck was in the lead and angling away on the run.
While thumbing the hammer back, I brought the rifle to my shoulder, finding the buck in the peep sight. I swung the front sight slightly ahead of him and pressed the trigger. After a few steps he stopped. The shot was farther back than I wanted, but as Elmer Keith would say, it “sickened him enough to not want to run.” A second shot exited his off-shoulder, dumping him instantly. I had my lever gun ’lope!
It was especially nice sharing the hunt, stalk and shots with Bobby, Jason and Evan. It was also nice to have used a rifle and ammo belonging to fellow Shootists. It keeps the spirit of the hunt and memories of those who’ve moved on, alive, making it special indeed. If this kind of hunt doesn’t stir the soul, nothing will.
The Deal
After the hunt, I knew I wanted the rifle, but I didn’t want to offend Bobby or put him in an awkward position. After mulling it over for a few days, we talked about it. “Bobby, would you ever consider selling John’s rifle?” “Only to you, Tank. The way I see it, I’ll be getting it back in 20–30 years and it will mean more to me then, knowing you used it during that time.”
We both laughed at the awkward, harsh, but honest statement. Yup, that’s about right and how the cycle of life — and guns — goes. I’ve got one story to tell about the old Winchester and hopefully some more will follow. The gun reminds me of ol’ John Purcell and a crazy antelope hunt with friends.
Who in their right mind hunts antelope with a 117-year-old iron-sighted Winchester .45-70? Not many, but it’s all part of the story …