Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/438

 Savandrug, and climbed to the breach and entered with the storming party on 21 Dec.

On 6 Feb. 1792 Caldwell was engaged in the night attack under Cornwallis on Tippu's entrenched camp in front of Seringapatam, and served through the siege of that place, which immediately followed, until 22 Feb., when he was wounded in the trenches. After the capitulation and treaty of peace with Tippu on 19 March he returned to Madras.

In 1794 Caldwell went to the Northern Circars with Michael Topping, who came to India as an astronomer and was employed on the public works, to investigate and report upon proposals for the improvement of that part of the country. He constructed various public works until 1799, when he took part under General Harris in the final campaign against Tippu. He was present at the action of Malavali on 27 March and at the second siege of Seringapatam in April, when he commanded the third brigade of engineers. He led the ladder party in the successful assault on 4 May. He was twice wounded, once in the trenches, and again with the forlorn hope at the top of the breach, when he was shot and rolled down into the ditch. For his services he was most favourably mentioned in despatches, received the medal for Seringapatam, and a pension for his wounds.

On his recovery he resumed his civil duties, and was engaged for the next ten years on public works of importance. At the end of August 1810 he sailed with Sir [q. v.] in the frigate Ceylon as chief engineer in the expedition against Mauritius. On 18 Sept. they fell in with the French man-of-war Venus, off St. Denis, Bourbon, and after a smart action, in which both vessels were dismasted, the Ceylon was compelled to strike to the French sloop Victor which came to the assistance of the Venus. The following morning, however, Commodore Rowley, arriving in the Boadicea, retook the Ceylon and also picked up the Venus. The expedition assembled at Rodriguez in November, and on the 29th landed at Mauritius. Next day the French were defeated, and on 2 Dec. the island surrendered. Caldwell was thanked in general orders and favourably mentioned in despatches for his 'most able and assiduous exertions.'

He returned to Madras in January 1811, and in March was appointed to the engineer charge of the centre division of the Madras army. In 1812 he repaired and reconstructed the fortress of Seringapatam. In 1813 he was appointed special surveyor of fortresses. In 1815 his services were acknowledged by a companionship of the order of the Bath, military division. In 1816 he was appointed acting chief engineer of Madras and a commissioner for the restoration of the French settlements on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. Eight years later he became lieutenant-colonel-commandant of his corps. After fifty years of distinguished war and peace service, he retired from the active list in 1837 and was made a K.C.B. on 10 March. On his return home the same year he lived chiefly at his house, 19 Place Vendome, Paris, until his wife's death, when he bought Beechlands, Ryde, Isle of Wight, and passed his time partly there and at his London house in Portland Place.

Caldwell was made a G.C.B. in 1848. He died at Beechlands, Isle of Wight, on 28 June 1863. In the earlier part of his life he was a very clever artist in water-colour, and left many Indian landscapes of merit. A brief memoir of his services is given in Vibart's 'Military History of the Madras Engineers' (vol. ii.), and the frontispiece of the volume is a reproduction of a crayon likeness of Caldwell in the possession of Miss Pears of Richmond Green, Surrey, daughter of Sir [q. v.] Caldwell married, in India in 1796, Jeanne Baptiste, widow of Captain Charles Johnston of the Madras army, and daughter of Jean Maillard of Dole, Franche-Comt6. By her he had a son, Arthur James (1799-1843), major in the 2nd queen's dragoon guards, who left no issue, and a daughter, Elizabeth Maria (1797-1870), who married, in 1815, Edward Richard (1791-1823), Madras civil service, third son of Sir Richard Sullivan of Thames Ditton (first baronet), and had issue.



CALDWELL, ROBERT (1814–1891), coadjutor bishop of Madras, born on 7 May 1814 near Antrim, was the son of Scottish parents. In his tenth year his parents. removed to Glasgow. In his sixteenth year he was taken to Dublin by an elder brother then living there, that he might study art. While in Dublin he came under religious impressions which led eventually to his becoming a missionary. He returned to Glasgow in 1833, and in the following year was accepted by the London Missionary Society, which sent him to Glasgow University to prosecute his studies. While studying there he imbibed a love of comparative philology,