Edward Bosc Sladen

Who is Edward Bosc Sladen?

Sir Edward Bosc Sladen was a British army officer who worked in India.

Son of an East India Company employee, Dr. Ramsey Sladen and his second wide Emma who was the daughter of a Colonel Paul Bosc, Edward was born in Madras. He went to school at Oswestry school at Shropsire and joined the East India Company on 14 April 1849. He was posted in the 1st Madras fusiliers as a second lieutenant in September 1850. He saw action in the second Burmese war at Pegu in December 1852 and again in January 1853. He then became an assistant commissioner in Tenasserim and was severely wounded in 1856-57 while fighting insurgent Karens and Shans in the Yun-za-lin district. He then moved back to mainland India and joined in the recapture of Lucknow from Indian soldiers in March 1858. He also took part in the Oudh campaign with Sir James Hope Grant and Sir Alfred Hastings Horsford.

He then joined the Indian staff corps after the Madras fusiliers became a queen's regiment. In 1866 he was made chief commissioner in Mandalay. In one incident he saved the Europeans in the region from insurgents. In 1868 he headed a political mission to the Chinese frontier. This expedition started on 13 January from Mandalay through Bhamo to Moulmein and then to Yunnan and returned only in September. The mission collected a lot of information on the route. This was published as the Official Narrative of the Expedition to China via Bhamo. He also wrote on the geography of the region in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.