Scope of the East Indies, HEICS and related issues

[Rhonda]

I found the initials H.E.I.C.S. in a book, that some-one here kindly gave me a link to, but I have no idea what they represent. Can anybody help me please? Belongs to Lt-Col William Innes who, to my knowledge was in the 79th Regiment of Foot. Previously in 15th Bengal Native.

Cheers
Rhonda

[Jim Murray]

HEIC is the Honorable East India Company. I don't know what the "S" stands for. What was the context?
Jim

[Rhonda]

Not sure Jim,I think it was in a google book on the same site I found it in. But thank you very much for your reply. I'm trying to fill in a new found rellie with a side of the family she knew nothing about and I wanted to include this information.

Cheers
Rhonda

[Mark]

I've seen HEICS before and I think it relates to the Honorable East India Company Ship(s) and therefore could be maritime related.

However I've also seen HEICS relate to Hornorable East India Company Service although I'm not sure exactly what this means - other than service within the HEIC.

Other initials I've seen include:

- EIC = East India Company
- HEICo = Honorable East India Company
- HEICCS = Honorable East India Company Civil Service

Mark

[clarkej]

Hello again everyone,

I've noticed on my Great Grandfathers Army record foreign service list he was down as being in the "East Indies" from 18th January 1882 until 27th November 1882 and I'm wondering where this was.

Its further down its quite clear he was in India later on in his career so I'm thinking "East Indies" is elsewhere say Malaya or Singapore.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Jason

[DavidB]

Hi Jason,
And his regiment was...??

[clarkej]

Hi David,

This is the annoying thing as He was in the Corp of Armourer's so I have trouble trying to pin him down.

The Record is not a good copy but the Researcher that did an overview when they obtained his papers annotated:-

Armourer Sargeant - assigned to the 1st Bat. Somerset Light Infantry 22/03/82 - 23/08/82
- Rejoined the Corps of Armourers 24/08/82 - 27/11/82
- assigned to the 2nd Bat. Royal Irish Regt.

It could well be he was on the way to the East Indies and was possibly recalled but I'm not sure because I think I read the Somerset Light Infantry were in Ireland. I know from the Regimental history the Royal Irish were in Egypt where the Armoury Sgt died which is a plausible reason why my ancestor joined them afterwards. His next posting on the entry is Egypt 28/11/82.

As I say, I'm just trying to work out where he was on the entry for Foreign Service "East Indies 18/01/82 ~ 27/11/82" its very confusing.

Thanks again.

[ED, in Los Angeles]

Ther really was no colony or territory called British East Indies. I can find no stamps or coins from that period under British East Indies. It means the territory in the area of the Dutch East Indies. The Singapore/Malaya area was called "The Straights Settlements" and British stamps and coins were were issued. It could also mean Burma or British Borneo or Sarawak or Papua. That's a large exotic area. The Straights Settlements was a bunch of small states.

Yeah clarkj...this could be very entertaining and informative if we could find out where your your great grandfather was actually stationed in this land of Malay pirates and clove ciggarretts...exotic edged weopons and barong panau rigged sailing craft.

See:
"Standart Catalog Of World Coins 1881-1900"-Colin R. Bruce, Senior editor
My Stamp Collection
Colonial map, South East Asia 1914"-Internet Image
"The International Atlas"-Rand McNally Publication

EDIT: That's "Straits Settlements" not Straights Settlements". Kant spell.

[DavidB]

Armourer Sargeant - assigned to the 1st Bat. Somerset Light Infantry 22/03/82 - 23/08/82

On the face of it, that doesn't make much sense taken with the East Indies reference. As you say, the 1st Btn was in Ireland at the time, and so if he was attached to the 1st Btn that's where you'd expect him to be. The 2nd Btn was out in Madras at the time though, and that would fit, so maybe there's some wrong information there.

East Indies was a very general geographic term of the time, (in much the same mould as the term Middle East today for example).
Where it started and ended depended on interpretation. But in terms of records such as you've described it can encompass anywhere from the Arabian Peninsula (eg Aden) eastwards to Singapore and beyond. It certainly included the Indian subcontinent (think of the Honourable East India Company, where East India in actual fact refers to the East Indies as a whole).

[acanthus]

Hi Jason,

It may well be the case that the term was used in a very general sense (also taking into account the East India Company and its armies in India), and I give a quote from the records of a British officer's who was married in India in 1848; the specific section of the record states the following:

"...married at Sukkar, Upper Scinde, East Indies on the 15th day of January....

If his regiment was stationed in India (Madras), then I would guess? that was where he was.

[Liz]

This is just to confirm that at various times, the remit of the HEIC and then the 'India' Office ranged from the Cape of Good Hope and East Africa east through to Japan and Indonesia but not Australia or New Zealand. For more info, see this post: http://www.victorianwars.com/viewtopic.php?f=82&t=310.

[Peter]

This 1811 publication subsumes a discussion of “West Indies” under the heading of “East Indies”:

Indies.jpg (41.19 KiB) Viewed 1048 times

Charles James, The Regimental Companion: containing the pay, allowances and relative duties of every officer in the British service, Volume 3, London, Printed for T. Egerton by C. Roworth, 1811, p 1. Google eBook. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Ybk_AAAAYAAJ