Edmund Arthur Ponsonby Hobday (above, seated) was born on 17 May 1859 in Calcutta, British India, the son of Lt.-Col. T. F. Hobday, Bengal Staff Corps.
He entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1877, and joined the Royal Artillery in 1879. He served in India until 1884, when he was posted to the Royal Horse Artillery in Ireland.
Lieutenant - 6 April 1879
Captain - 15 August 1887
A.D.C. to Sir Auckland Colvin, Lt.-Gov. N.W. Provinces - 1887-1888.
A.D.C. to Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chlef in India - May 1888.
Major - 15 February 1897
Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, R.A. - 29 August 1902
Lieutenant Colonel - 18 December 1904 Colonel - 18 December 1907
Half-Pay - 29 December 1909
He saw active service at Malakand as Staff Officer under relief column commander Colonel A. I. F. Reid, 29th Punjab Infantry. Hobday was present during the latter half of the siege of Malakand and relief of Chakdara, receiving a Mention in Despatches from Major General Bindon Blood which read: “Major E.A.P. Hobday, R.A., was most energetic and indefatigable in assisting Colonel A.J.F. Reid and me in carrying out the multifarious work which had to be done at the Malakand, and in the Swat Valley on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd.”. He was appointed Staff Officer of Flying Column during the Mad Mullah's raid in 1898.
Above: A talented artist. Hobday provided the illustrations for his book Sketches on Service During the Indian Frontier Campaigns of 1897.
The son of John Thomas Abdy, Regis Professor of Law at Cambridge, John Abdy (above, standing) was born at Cambridge in April 1856. He was educated at Charterhouse School, later attending the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He graduated from there into the Royal Artillery (RA) as a temporary lieutenant in August 1876, which was made permanent in March the following year with promotions following:
Captain - December 1884 Major - July 1893
Temporary Lieutenant Colonel - February 1902
Lieutenant Colonel 1903 Colonel - February 1907
Companion to the Order of the Bath - 1911
Retired - April 1913
Temporary Brigadier General - November 1914
Honourary Brigadier General (Retired) - June 1918
Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - 3 June 1918
Abdy saw active service in the field during the Anglo-Boer War and was present at the Defence of Ladysmith, where he was slightly wounded. He received a Mention in Despatches and the Queen’s South Africa Medal with clasp “Defense of Ladysmith”. During the Great War, he returned to serve with the RA, then posted to headquarters in April 1916. Hofbday was subsequently appointed assistant military secretary. In his youth, Adby was a noted first-class cricketer playing for Hampshire. He married Alice Laura Bonham-Carter in April 1888. He died in Switzerland in 1924. Abdy is pictured in mufti, a word of Arabic oigins that came to describe civilian dress when worm by British officers.
Cabinet Photograph
John Blees - Photographer
British India
c. 1895