An interesting Second Burma war medal awarded to a Chinaman, Lieutenant John E. Milton, alias Fatqua Ho Chee, 9th Madras Native Infantry

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Pegu (Lieutt. John E. Milton, 9th Regt. M.N.I.) extremely fine £1200-1500

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, one of the British officials of the Honourable East India Company, serving in what later became the Treaty Port of Foo Chow, in China, was a certain John Elphinstone. In the pursuit of his duties he became friendly with a Mandarin of the Manchu dynasty, named Ho Foo, who had a son called Ho Chee.

Subsequently Ho Chee became a Christian and took the name John Milton Ho Chee. When Elphinstone retired from the service, he brought the Chinaman with him to England as his personal secretary. The merchant purchased Ford Manor, near East Grinstead in Sussex. Ho Chee settled in the nearby village of Dormansland where he built a house called ‘Normans’. He married Charlotte Lowdell, daughter of a well known local family and, on 12 June 1828, they had a son, baptised John Elphinstone Fatqua Ho Chee, followed by Jane in 1830, James in 1832, and Letitia in 1835.

The elder Ho Chee became a respected member of the local community and when his patron Elphinstone died in 1845, he left Ford Manor to the Chinaman in appreciation of his services. The Manor was sold in 1856 and the Ho Chee family continued to live at ‘Normans’, where John senior died in March 1869. In the year following Ho Chee’s death, his widow built two semi-detached Alms Houses near the crossroads of Dormansland, which were presented to the Vicar and Churchwardens of Lingfield in gratitude for the way her husband had been welcomed and treated by the people of the district. The houses still stand today and continue to fulfill their original purpose, known as the Charlotte Hochee Almshouses, a bust of Ho Chee being mounted in the porch of the buildings.

In 1844 John junior was nominated, at Elphinstone’s recommendation, to be a Cadet in the Honourable East India Company’s service. His cadet’s certificate, signed by his father, John Milton Hochee, bore the name John Elphinstone Milton, perhaps in an effort to disguise his true parentage. He attended the company’s Addiscombe College from 1845 to December 1846, and was admitted to the service as Ensign. He arrived in Madras in April 1847, where he was posted to the 9th Regiment of Native Infantry. He was promoted to Lieutenant in February 1852 and the following year went with his regiment as part of the expedition into Burma to punish the ruler for repeated treaty violations.

The 9th M.N.I., together with the 35th M.N.I and a wing of the 80th Foot, formed the left column of the attack on Rangoon on 11 April 1852, and participated in the taking of the Great Pagoda, which had been heavily fortified. The regiment had 3 men killed and 2 officers and 18 men wounded. Lieutenant Milton retired from the service in August 1855, and died at his home in Wimpole Street, London, on 22 April 1883. The announcement of his death in The Times, 24 April 1883, read: ‘John Elphinstone Fatqua Hochee, commonly known as John Elphinstone Milton, eldest son of the late John and Charlotte Hochee, of Nortons, Lingfield, Surrey, aged 54’.

Sold with further research, including several photographs of the family tomb with inscriptions to Charlotte Hochee, widow of John Hochee; to John Elphinstone F. Hochee, their eldest son; and to Ann, their third daughter. Also photographs of the almshouses and bust of John Hochee.