Catalogue description Cadet Papers (1789-1860) and Cadet Registers (1775-1860)

This record is held by British Library: Asian and African Studies

Details of IOR/L/MIL/9/107-269
Reference: IOR/L/MIL/9/107-269
Title: Cadet Papers (1789-1860) and Cadet Registers (1775-1860)
Description:

The series is divided into two separate sub-series, namely the Cadet Papers (1789-1860) L/MIL/9/107-254 and the Cadet Registers (1775-1860) L/MIL/9/255-269.

 

The Cadet Papers consist of application forms and petitions, birth or baptism certificates produced to satisfy age regulations, testimonials, and related corespondence and memoranda, forwarded to East India House when a cadet's appointment was under consideration - baptism certificates are lacking in some of the early papers but appear regularly from c1795 onwards. The Cadet Registers comprise mainly annual lists of cadets giving brief details - information usually to be found includes Presidency, date of appointment, name of nominating Director, and ship on which embarked.

 

The lists below cover all the Cadet Papers but only those entries in the Cadet Registers where an officer either has no Cadet Papers or where the information in the Registers supplements what is found in the Papers. Assistant Surgeons, whose names are also to be found in Cadet Registers, are not included in the list. The list gives the full name of each cadet followed by the relevant volume and folio numbers.

Date: 1775-1860
Related material:

1) Records of the Military Seminary Committee and of the Political and Military Committee, 1809-1859, L/MIL/1/9-80

 

2) Lists of rank of Cadets and regulations regarding them, 1794-1862, L/MIL/9/270-291

 

3) Records of Addiscombe Military Seminary, 1809-1862, L/MIL/9/333-357

 

4) Account books of Addiscombe Military Seminary 1828-1861, L/AG/45/2/1-3

 

Personal name index: modern index of the EIC Cadet Papers (1789-1860) and of selected entries in the Cadet Registers (1775-1860), Z/L/MIL/9/1

Held by: British Library: Asian and African Studies, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Physical description: 163 volumes
Access conditions:

No restrictions

Publication note:

See 'A guide to the records of the East India College, Haileybury, and other institutions', Anthony Farrington (London 1976), pp 113-23 [OIR 026.954].

 

See also 'Addiscombe, its heroes and men of note', Henry Meredith Vibart (London 1894) [OIR 335.007].

Administrative / biographical background:

Officer cadets for the East India Company's Armies (Bengal, Madras, Bombay) were generally appointed in the UK upon the nomination of a member of the Court of Directors, also (after 1784) of the Board of Control. From the 1750s to the 1780s some cadets, known as 'country cadets' were appointed locally in India - the names of these country cadets are not generally to be found in the Cadet Registers. Before the commencement of the Cadet Registers in 1775 recourse must be had to the brief records of appointment in the Minutes of the Court of Directors [B] and the series Dispatches to India [E/4]. Cadets were 'recommended' to their patron by a mutual friend or acquaintance and after nomination were obliged to forward to East India House a formal application, a certificate of age and relevant testimonials. Final approval of their appointment was given after they had appeared before the Committee of Correspondence (until 1809), the Military Seminary Committee (1809-1834) or the Political and Military Committee (after 1834)

 

In 1809 the East India Company's Military Seminary was 'established at Addiscombe near Croydon to provide general and technical education for EIC officer cadets - attendance was compulsory for artillery and engineer cadets, optional for cavalry and infantry cadets - if an officer attended Addiscombe a brief record of his attendance will appear in his cadet papers. In 1859 following the demise of the East India Company the Seminary became the Royal India Military College, with entrance through competitive examination. It continued to supply cadets for the Indian Army until 1861 when it was closed down - henceforth cadets for the Indian Army entered via the military academies at Sandhurst and Woolwich.

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