15[BBB]: Indian Army/RE. Col.
Cadet at Addiscombe Military Seminary, 1837-38, passing out first of his term, and was presented by the Court of Directors of the EIC with a telescope as a mark of appreciation of his conduct while at the Seminary.

2 Lt, Madras Engrs 1838; Lt 1845; Capt 1853; Bvt Major 1854; Subs Major, Bvt Lt Col, 1858; Subs Lt Col, Col, 1863.

Arrived in India 1840, and was posted to C Coy Madras S & M, at Belgaum, S India, and moved with it to Sind. He went on up to Quetta with a party of 46 men, the smallest body of troops that had ever passed through the Bolan Pass, 60 miles long, by deliberate marches; but he lost the whole of his baggage in the pass owing to floods. The company was next employed on the Quetta-Kelat road, 100 miles long and at a height of 6000-12000 feet. The Sind war then broke out, and the company received special commendations for its services in the march to Imamgurh, and in the battles of Meanee and Hyderabad.

Archibald then went on two years' sick leave to Europe at the beginning of 1844. While in Dublin, he married George Wilson i's dau, Georgina Elizabeth, but she died after giving birth to a girl, who also died a few months later. He then went back to Madras, and spent the next ten years in the PWD in that Presidency, with its HQ in Cuddalore.

In 1849 he married again, his second wife being Lucy, dau of Edward Smalley, Madras CS, and they had six children: Edward Huds, Thomas Smalley, Adeline Lucy, Catherine Harriet, Maria de Chal and Alice Mary. At one time Edward Smalley was Collector at Nellore, and was followed 100 years later in that office by Cecil Brackenbury, ICS, husband of his grand-daughter Ethel Boileau, occupying the same bungalow.

In March 1857, a small war having blown up with Persia, Archibald was sent with B Coy, Madras S&M, to Bushire on the Persian Gulf. The unit reached Bombay on its return, and learning of the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, at once volunteered for service against the rebels. The part played by B Coy in the Central India campaign is described in the relevant section of the Chronicles.

Archibald, now a Superintending Engineer, was in the following years one of those concerned with road development in S India, amd there are some grounds for believing that it was better done than in the north. From 1861 to 1863 he was Deputy CE, Central Circle, Madras Presidency, in charge of one-third of the Presidency's engineering works. Promoted subs Col in 1863, he would then normally have retired in 1871, but the Govt, having regard to his professional merits, proposed to waive the rule for two years. Being now an officer of the Royal (Madras) Engineers, he went on to an RE staff appt in Dublin for that year. During this period he renewed his acquaintance with John Peter iv, of which more is recorded in the Chronicles.

On his return to India he was appointed Superintending Engineer, PWD, 4 Div, at Madras. His health being unsatisfactory he spent six months in Australia in 1867, and the next year had to take two years furlough to Europe. He then became SE 5 Div, with HQ at Cuddalore , a port south of Madras. He died there very suddenly in 1871, while only 51 years old.

[BBB]: She died in childbirth and the child died soon after.

[BBC]29 gives the marriage date as 1850. The list of children from [BBB] agrees exactly with the list given in [BBC]. Isn’t that nice?