Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/445

 to the chief justiceship of the court and was knighted. In 1870 he succeeded Sir Barnes Peacock [q. v.] as chief justice of the high court of Calcutta. In 1875 Couch was appointed president of the commission of inquiry into the charge brought against the Gaekwar of Baroda of conspiring to poison Colonel (afterwards Sir) Robert Phayre [q. v. Suppl. I]. The Gaekwar was defended by Serjeant Ballantine [q. v. Suppl. I]. Couch and the other English commissioners found the Gaekwar guilty of instigating the crime, but the native commissioners gave in effect a verdict of 'not proven.' In the same year Couch resigned the chief justiceship. Returning to England, he was made a member of the privy council, and in January 1881 he was appointed to the judicial committee as one of the two members enjoying judicial experience in India or the colonies (Act 3 & 4 Will. IV c. 41). In that capacity Couch did valuable work for twenty years. He was not a brilliant judge, but his judgements were invariably clear and his grasp of principles enabled him to deal efficiently even with appeals from South Africa and other parts of the empire where the prevailing system of law is not English. He was elected a bencher of his inn in March 1881. He died at his residence, 25 Linden Gardens, London, W., on 29 Nov. 1905, and was buried at Paddington cemetery.

Couch married on 1 Feb. 1845 Anne (d. 1898), eldest daughter of Richard Thomas Beck of Combs, Suffolk, and had one son, Richard Edward, also a barrister of the Middle Temple, who predeceased him.

 COUPER, GEORGE EBENEZER WILSON, second baronet (1824–1908), Anglo-Indian administrator, born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 29 April 1824, was eldest of six children of Sir George Couper, first baronet (1788-1861), then military secretary to Sir James Kempt [q. v.], the governor there, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Wilson [q. v.], judge of common pleas. The father was subsequently comptroller of the household and equerry to the duchess of Kent. The second son, Major-general George Kempt Couper (1827-1901), served in the Indian staff corps, and the fifth son, Henry Edward, captain 70th regiment (1835-1876), saw service in the mutiny.

After education at Sherborne and at Coombe, Surrey, Couper entered, in 1839, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Passing out with distinction in 1842, he was gazetted to the 15th regiment as ensign. But receiving nomination to a 'writership' in India, he went to the East India College, Haileybury, early in 1844, and joined the Bengal civil service at the close of 1846. After being stationed at Dinajpur, Eastern Bengal, he was included in the first commission sent to the Punjab upon its annexation in 1849. When only twenty-five he was assistant commissioner at Jehlam, with the powers of a collector.

Dalhousie, the 'oldest and dearest friend' of Couper's father, took a keen interest in him, and the governor-general's 'Private Letters' to the elder Couper (1910) make frequent reference to the young man's progress. In 1853 Couper went to headquarters as under-secretary to the government of India, first in the home and finance, and then in the foreign departments. On the annexation of Oudh in February 1856 he was appointed secretary at Lucknow to the chief commissioner, Sir James Outram [q. v.], whose place was taken in March 1857 by Sir Henry Lawrence [q. v.]. Through the mutiny he was with Lawrence in all encounters with the rebels up to and including the battle of Chinhut on 30 June, when his horse was wounded. He was A.D.C. as well as chief secretary to Lawrence until his death at the residency on 4 July, then to Sir John Inglis [q. v.], and finally, after the relief, to Outram. During the siege of Lucknow Couper showed tireless energy, courage, and sagacity, which were liberally acknowledged in the despatches of his chiefs (cf. History;  Narrative of Events in Oudh;  Physician and Friend). He was the author, save for the mentions of himself, of Inglis's celebrated despatch of 26 Sept. 1857, which he reprinted with selections from his own speeches on the mutiny, for private circulation, with characteristic omission of Inglis's references to himself (1896). He also wrote the letterpress to Captain Mecham's 'Illustrations of the Siege of Lucknow' (1858). He received the medal with two clasps, and was made C.B. (civil division) in May 1860. The governor-general, Canning, declined Outram's emphatic recommendation of Couper as his successor in the chief commissionership of Oudh (6 Jan. 1858) on the ground that Couper had been only twelve years in the service. After furlough home he went to Allahabad, in 1859, as chief secretary of the north-west provinces 