Richard Harte Keatinge
Lieutenant General Richard Harte Keatinge was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Life and career
Keatinge was born in Dublin, the younger son of Richard Keatinge and Harriet Augusta Joseph, the third daughter of Samuel Joseph. His father was a successful barrister who served for many years as the Irish Probate judge. His mother came from a prosperous London merchant family. It was a religiously-mixed marriage, his father being a Protestant and his mother Jewish.In 1862 he was transferred to the Royal Artillery and then to the Bombay Staff Corps of the British Indian Army.
In 1868, Colonel Keatinge designed Rajkumar College, Rajkot, which was formally opened in 1870. The college was founded for the education of the princely order by the princes and chiefs of Kathiawad for their sons and relations.
From 1871 to 1873 he was Chief Commissioner of Ajmer-Merwara.
He became the first Chief Commissioner of Assam in 1874, remaining in this position until 1878.
He later achieved the rank of lieutenant general.
In retirement, he settled at Horsham, Sussex, where he died in 1904. By his wife Harriet Pottinger, he had eleven children.