| 2nd Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion, 13th Regiment of Foot - 11 May, 1878 Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion, 13th Regiment of Foot - 26 February, 1880 Captain, 2nd Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry - 1 August, 1886 Companion of the Distinguished Service Order - 25th November, 1887 DAQMG for Intelligence, Burma - 1892-1898 Major, 2nd Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry - 9 March, 1898 Brevet Lt. Col, 2/SLI - 5 October, 1898 AAG, India - 1900-1902 Brevet Col. 2/SLI - 10 February, 1904 Commanding 2/SLI - 1906-1910 Half Pay - April-June, 1910 Commanding South West Infantry Brigade/Territorial Force - 1910-1914 Retired - January, 1914 Commanding 107th Infantry Brigade - Sept. 1914 to Oct 1915 Area Commandant BEF - 1917-1919 The following is from Couchman's 1936 obituary which appeared in the Somerset Light Infantry Regimental Journal of that year: "Colonel Couchman, known to his contemporaries in the Regiment as Box, was essentially an outdoor man and, in his young days, a noted big game shot. He was an enthusiast at all sport, especially polo and shooting. He loved, too, to wander and was never happier than when camping out in the jungles and forests of India and Burma. His love of this kind of life naturally led him into the Intelligence Branch of the Staff in India, and he did a good deal of survey work in Burma and later on in Bengal – and it was his work in the Intelligence Branch, in which he served as D.A.Q.M.G. from 1892-98 and as A.A.G. from June, 1900, to May, 1902, which brought him his Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonelcy. He commanded a Battalion of his Regiment – The Somerset Light Infantry – for the full term of four years, loved and respected by all, and was then promoted Colonel and given command of the South-Western Brigade (Southern Command) in June, 1910. He retired in January, 1914, after thirty-six years’ service. But this was not to be the end of his soldiering for, when the Great War broke out, he again went on Active Service and served first as a Brigade Commander in France and afterwards in a Staff appointment, gaining a Mention in Despatches, the 1914/15 Star, and the Great War and Victory Medals. After the war failing health obliged him to live a quiet and somewhat retired life, but he never lost interest either in his friends or his old Regiment." During the Burma Expedition of 1885-87 Couchman would receive two Mention in Despatches and be awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He was also awarded the Royal Humane Society's Bronze Life Saving Medal in 1897 for saving a man from drowning. The citation from the Royal humane Society reads thus: "At great personal risk, rescued a native from drowning at Mong Lem, China, 11th March, 1897" Cabinet Photograph Shriniwas Mahadeo & Son - Photographer Church Road, Belgaum, India c 1887 |
