Guide to the papers of Captain Charles Swanston (as filmed by the AJCP)
M445
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Online Items
Statement of the services of Captain Charles Swanston of the 2nd Battalion, 12th regiment, Madras N.I., Uxbridge, 1891 (File 1)
The pamphlet provides a summary of Swanston's service in the Madras Army from 1805 until his retirement in 1833. In particular, it deals with his involvement in the Third Anglo-Mahratta War in 1817-1818. The latter part of the work consists largely of letters commending Swanston and discussing his claims for promotion. The correspondents include the Duke of York, Major-General Henry Warde, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Hislop, Major-General Sir John Malcolm, Brigadier-General Lionel Smith, Colonel J. Cunningham, and Mountstuart Elphinstone, the Resident at Poona. (printed, 33pp)
Rough diary of a journey from Scutari to Baghdad performed on horseback in 1814, Uxbridge, 1893 (File 2)
Swanston left England in May 1814 to return to India. He carried despatches for the Governor-General of India reporting the defeat of Napoleon and the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Swanston accompanied Henry Ellis, the British envoy to the Shah of Persia, to Constantinople. He left Scutari on 3 July 1814 and, accompanied by four Tartars and two guides, he rode for 48 days through Asia Minor and the upper desert to Mosul and Baghdad. From there he sailed to Basra and Bombay, which he reached on 10 October 1814. (printed, 16pp)