George Abbas Kooli D'Arcy
Joseph D'Arcy's eldest son, carried on these pages for a month as two index entries. He governed the Gambia and then the Falkland Islands, and a Victoria Cross was won at his shoulder.
For a month this archive knew him as two index entries: «military records for 1840 and 1841», and a death in Devon in 1885. He was the eldest son of Joseph D'Arcy and the grandson of Robert, and he governed two colonies on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Everything below came out of free, official sources that had been open the whole time — and was found by searching, instead of his surname, the one word in his name that nothing else in print shares.
Forty-eight years, from a corrected name to a colony
A Gazette memorandum that exists only to correct the War Office: «The Christian names of Ensign D'Arcy, of the 94th Regiment of Foot, are George Abbas Kooli.» He was eighteen.
London Gazette, 27 April 1837, issue 19488, p.1079
«Ensign and Adjutant George Abbas Kooli D'Arcy to have the rank of Lieutenant.»
London Gazette, 26 September 1839, issue 19773, p.1824
«Adj. Geo. Abbas Kooli [D']Arcy» in both monthly volumes. These are the «military records for 1840 and 1841» this archive carried for a month as a bare phrase and had never identified.
The Army List, 1840, January–June and July–December
«Lieutenant George Abbas Kooli D'Arcy to be Captain, vice Davenport.» Printed independently in a trade paper the following month.
London Gazette, issue 20664, p.4260; The Military Magazine, December 1846
He was also aide-de-camp and assistant private secretary to five successive governors of Bombay, and to Sir Willoughby Cotton commanding the Bombay army. His brother Robert West married at Bombay in January 1846.
The Colonial Office List for 1877
«Captain George Abbas Kooli d'Arcy, from the 94th Foot, to be Major, by purchase.» Fifteen years in one regiment, then a West India corps.
London Gazette, issue 21336, p.1890
«Major George Abbas Kooli D'Arcy to be Lieutenant-Colonel, by purchase, vice Murray, who retires.» Gazetted in London on the 7th and in Edinburgh on the 11th.
London Gazette, issue 21569, p.2119
He left the army, and was a colonial governor within the year.
The Colonial Office List for 1877
«Colonel George Abbas Kooli D'Arcy to be Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty's Settlements in the River Gambia» — gazetted in the same sentence as the new Governor of Hong Kong.
London Gazette, 17 June 1859, issue 22275, p.2361
He commanded the Gambia militia artillery in the field. He had already organised an expedition against the robber-king of Baddiboo, for which he received the thanks of the Secretary of State.
The Colonial Office List for 1877
At forty-eight hours' notice he embarked against a Marabout invasion and carried an entrenched position. Two officers were killed at his side.
The Colonial Office List for 1877
The European merchants gave him an address and a sword of honour worth £120, «for devoted bravery at the storming of Tubabecolong, and to mark their appreciation of his administration of the government».
The Colonial Office List for 1877
«W. F. C. Robinson, 1866. Colonel D'Arcy, 1870. T. F. Callaghan, 1876» — the Colonial Office's own list of Falkland governors. Two colonies and an ocean between them.
The Colonial Office List for 1877
He is absent from the Colonial Office Lists for 1883 and 1889, both read entire, which is what retirement looks like.
The Colonial Office List for 1883 and 1889
As «George Abbas-Kooli D'Arcy». The death rests on the GRO index alone; no obituary has been found.
GRO index of deaths
A Victoria Cross was won following him through a stockade
At Tubabecolong in 1866 the Colonial Office List records that two officers were killed at his side — Lieutenants Kelly and Jenkins of the 4th West India Regiment — with four soldiers, two volunteers, four of the native contingent and sixty-one of all ranks badly wounded. And then one sentence: «Private Samuel Hodge, who followed Colonel D'Arcy through the stockade, received the Victoria Cross.» Hodge was among the first black soldiers to receive it. He is not this archive's to tell, and he is here because the record puts him at this man's shoulder.
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