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Quarter Master General, Deputy Quartermaster General and Deputy Commissary General, were Majors, whereas I was only a Captain, though at that time of 13 years' standing, and when these appointments were submitted to the Council in Calcutta the misfortune of my inferior rank operated against my confirmation to the post and I was then offered the Deputy Judge Advocateship which I respectfully declined in consequence of its being expected that the brevet of 1841 would have been granted in 1840, in which case being on the staff of Major General Oglander I would have been his Military Secretary.
But the delay of the Brevet and the death of Major General Oglander led to my joining my Regiment with which I was present at the taking of Chusan on the 25th of July 1840. There I filled the post of British Commissioner and Chief Magistrate until the delivery of the Island to the Chinese in February following.
In May 1841 I was appointed Chief Magistrate of Heng Kong(?) and when the Cameronians were engaged in operations against Canton under Lord (then Sir Hugh) Gough I solicited ten days' leave of absence from my civil duties here in order that I might join my Regiment on Service. This favour however was denied by Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary as shown in the enclosure herewith transmitted.
After the Chinese War, when honours and promotions were most properly awarded to many, I had...