Death strikes close, and Lachlan misses the Peninsula fun
On the sad side, Jane died in 1796. Tuberculosis, apparently. Lachlan was grief stricken. Yes he was. Honest, True dinks. We know we're probably being grossly unfair, but haven't you figured out yet that being unfair is in our nature!
But the tragedy of this poor young woman's death was somewhat alleviated by Lachie being paid £6,000 upon her death by her family, rather a sizeable fortune. On top of the pay swindle. By the way, there are umpteen different ways of calculating comparative money values over time. They all vary immensely, and are pretty inaccurate over all. But, to give a very, very, very rough comparative value to £6,000 in 1796, the inflation measure puts it at around £600,000, or very roughly $A1.3 million in 2015.
But Lachlan's truth is in the fact he seems to have had something of a breakdown after Jane's death, and continued to mourn for years, wearing a black armband until he was asked to enter the field again. This was not something he had to do, and was commented on by a number of his colleagues and their concerned wives.
Macquarie now obtained a bit of military glory by taking part in the kicking out of the Dutch from Cochin, in southern India, and the large island now known as Sri Lanka. Not that the opposition in Sri Lanka was up to much, primarily because the Dutch East India company went broke and couldn't pay its staff or soldiers, and apart from some Malay troops not many of them showed any desire to give their lives away for free.
Macquarie's greatest triumph was commanding the troops that took the settlement of Galle. But that just involved marching through the gates and accepting the surrender of a tearful Dutchman, with whom Lachlan later boarded, and who became his friend.
Arthur Wellesley, the future Lord Wellington, was in the later 1790s proving he was indeed one of those rarities, a great general. But Lachlan played no part in Wellesley's successes. Indeed, when Wellesley was making his pick of soldiers and officers to take back to Europe with him, he very specifically by-passed Macquarie, noting his unsuitability. Certainly, Lachlan had little battle experience and appears to have been an inveterate pisspot, and perhaps rumours were around about his way of performing his role as paymaster. But, sadly, we don't know what prompted Wellesley's decision. Interestingly, this isn't the last time we know of Wellesley playing a role in Macquarie's life.
But the tragedy of this poor young woman's death was somewhat alleviated by Lachie being paid £6,000 upon her death by her family, rather a sizeable fortune. On top of the pay swindle. By the way, there are umpteen different ways of calculating comparative money values over time. They all vary immensely, and are pretty inaccurate over all. But, to give a very, very, very rough comparative value to £6,000 in 1796, the inflation measure puts it at around £600,000, or very roughly $A1.3 million in 2015.
But Lachlan's truth is in the fact he seems to have had something of a breakdown after Jane's death, and continued to mourn for years, wearing a black armband until he was asked to enter the field again. This was not something he had to do, and was commented on by a number of his colleagues and their concerned wives.
Macquarie now obtained a bit of military glory by taking part in the kicking out of the Dutch from Cochin, in southern India, and the large island now known as Sri Lanka. Not that the opposition in Sri Lanka was up to much, primarily because the Dutch East India company went broke and couldn't pay its staff or soldiers, and apart from some Malay troops not many of them showed any desire to give their lives away for free.
Macquarie's greatest triumph was commanding the troops that took the settlement of Galle. But that just involved marching through the gates and accepting the surrender of a tearful Dutchman, with whom Lachlan later boarded, and who became his friend.
Arthur Wellesley, the future Lord Wellington, was in the later 1790s proving he was indeed one of those rarities, a great general. But Lachlan played no part in Wellesley's successes. Indeed, when Wellesley was making his pick of soldiers and officers to take back to Europe with him, he very specifically by-passed Macquarie, noting his unsuitability. Certainly, Lachlan had little battle experience and appears to have been an inveterate pisspot, and perhaps rumours were around about his way of performing his role as paymaster. But, sadly, we don't know what prompted Wellesley's decision. Interestingly, this isn't the last time we know of Wellesley playing a role in Macquarie's life.