Abraham Boulger VC
A Kilcullen man born here in 1835 was one of the first Irish recipients of the Victoria Cross, and the first Kildare man to receive the award. Yesterday was the 107th anniversary of his death.
Boulger was then a Lance Corporal in the British Army and serving in Lucknow, India, at the time of the war known as the Indian Mutiny.
His regiment was the 84th (later The York and Lancaster), and Boulger was one of a party which fought for the relief of the British Residency in Lucknow. He shot an Indian 'Sepoy' gunner who was in the act of firing a 68-pounder at the British troops. In the subsequent defence of the Residency he was severely wounded.
Later, as a Sergeant Major, he participated with his unit in the suppressing of the revolt against the Khedive of Egypt in 1882. When he retired in 1887, it was with the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
According to research carried out by our own Des Travers, Boulger was a Protestant who subsequently married a substantial landowners daughter in Moyvoughly, West Meath. He seems to have become a Catholic for that reason as the landowner was Catholic. He is buried in a Catholic graveyard and Des has in his possession a photo of Boulger's headstone with his details clearly written on it.
Information is meagre about Abraham's own parents, except that it is believed his mother's family name was Wardrope (a Scottish surname that means 'keeper of the garments of a feudal household'). Abraham had three brothers, Isaac, Jacob and William, the last recorded as also having been born in Kilcullen.
William also joined the 84th, where he reached the rank of Colour Sergeant and in 1861 was Acting Barrack Master of Milton Barracks, Gravesend, Kent. With his wife Catherine, whom he married in Kilcullen in 1825, he had two children, Isaac and William, both born in India.
While back to England after the Lucknow episode, Abraham was married in 1859 in Manchester, to a woman named Margaret Farrell from Longford (thanks to Helen Hall from Australia for telling us the surname). They had three children, including a daughter Elizabeth, and a son Abraham Joseph who lived in Colchester, Essex.
Brian Byrne.
