Maj. Harry Blaikie BROWNLOW ¹

  General Notes:

Born 1861, in India, son of Capt. Henry Richmond Brownlow and Jane "Jeannie" Blaikie (daughter of Sir Thomas Blaikie, Lord Provost of Aberdeen). Like his father, Harry joined the Royal Artillery as a young officer. He was a 2nd Lieutenant by 1881, was promoted to First Lieutenant in 1888, and to Second Captain by 1889. On May 31, 1889 he was seconded to the Punjab Field Force, and ordered to India. Arriving at Abbotabad, he immediately became friendly with the Gaselees. Lt-Col. Alfred Gaselee, an officer with the India Staff Corps, and later in command of the 5th Gurkhas, had married Alice Jane Baxter in Calcutta, on Jan. 26, 1882, and they were as happily married as any couple could be under the circumstances. This all changed when the dashing Captain Brownlow arrived on the scene. He was at the Gaselee bungalow all the time, sipping Darjeeling tea, smoking cigars and engaging in social intercourse with a passionate intensity. Colonel Gaselee tended to look upon him as a son, perhaps as a younger brother, and never suspected what might be lurking in the forefront of young Brownlow's mind. Early in 1891 Gaselee and Harry left Abbotabad with the Black Mountain Expedition, attached to the Hazara Field Force, and were away for some time, although they both came home for leave occasionally. Harry commanded the No. 2 Mountain Battery (the Derajat Battery) during this expedition. With the knowledge and consent of the Colonel, Harry began writing to Alice Gaselee on a regular basis. Gaselee felt that Harry, as a young man, lonely and unattached in India, would benefit spiritually from such a correspondence. His wife showed him all the letters, and they were quite proper. In July 1891 Harry went on leave, alone, returning to Abbotabad. With the Colonel's knowledge, the young Artillery Captain visited the lonely Mrs Gaselee, and (without the Colonel's knowledge) demonstrated to the Memsahib his extraordinary prowess with a cannon. She became pregnant, and wrote her husband to that effect. The Colonel found this odd, as there had never been any children before, at least none that he could remember. Yet, even then, he was not suspicous. In the October Harry was commended in action (presumably in the field). On April 7, 1892 Alice gave birth, but the child died the following month.
In Sept. 1892 Gaselee went away again, and by this time Alice was living in a bungalow at Thundiani, just outside Abbotabad, with Harry Blaikie Brownlow occupying another bungalow just down the street. Gaselee's brain finally started to kick in when Alice stopped showing him Harry's letters, and when she started to get depressed. But, being a British Indian colonel, he couldn't sustain an emotional thought for more than two seconds, and decided to put it all down to Alice losing the baby. At the very beginning of 1893 Harry left for Britain, and on Jan. 9, 1893 Alice finally told her husband the truth, and that she thought the late baby had had an element of Brownlow blood. The Colonel was in turn astonished, confounded, indignant, and outraged, and he left her, there and then, after getting her to write a confession. On Jan. 21, 1893 he sent her back to England in disgrace, while he planned his trip to the divorce court. Two days before, on Jan. 19, 1893, he dashed off a very aggressive letter to Harry in England, blasting him as a cad, and demanding that he take Alice as his wife, as he (the Colonel) had no more use for her. Harry didn't do the right thing, of course, but it's pleasing to note that Gaselee did. On Dec. 1, 1893, in London, the judge granted him a divorce. Harry was cited as the villain. Gaselee married again, in 1895, to another girl named Alice, and went on to great and illustrious things in the Army. He bcame General Sir Alfred Gaselee, the hero of the Boxer Rebellion, and died in 1918. His second wife died in 1940. Meanwhile, young Brownlow was returned to normal duty from the seconded list on Jan. 17, 1894. In 1897 the Mansion House Relief Fund was set up to help people starving in India as a result of the great famine, and Harry generously contributed a pound. In 1892 he was promoted to First Captain, and on Jan. 11, 1899 to Major, living at the Royal Garrison at Sheerness, Kent. He retired on Jan. 6, 1909 and became a reserve officer. On Oct. 10, 1914, just after World War One broke out, he was activated from the reserve of officers as a Third Grade General Staff Officer. He married Maude in 1915. In 1923 Harry had to put her away in an asylum in Peckham, where she died in 1930. She and Harry Brownlow both repose in Niche 3903 within the East Columbarium at Golders Green Cemetery

Harry married Maude Gertrude Annesley WEBSTER-WEDDERBURN, daughter of Maj. George Gordon Gerard WEBSTER-WEDDERBURN and Caroline DIXON, on 2 Oct 1915. (Maude Gertrude Annesley WEBSTER-WEDDERBURN was born on 11 Jan 1871 in Newccastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, England and died on 6 Nov 1930 in Camberwell House, Camberwell, Surrey, England.)

  Marriage Notes:

The Times, Monday, Oct 4, 1915 MARRIAGE
BROWNLOW : RIDER - On the 2nd Oct., Major H. B. Brownlow, late R.A., to MAUDE ANNESLEY, youngest daughter of the late Major George Webster-Wedderburn, 7th Royal Fusiliers, and widow of W. H. Rider.