Thomas Otho Travers

Thomas Otho Travers (25 September 1785 – 9 July 1844) was a soldier, a friend of (and later aide-de-camp to) Stamford Raffles, and author of The Journal of Thomas Otho Travers 1813-1820, published more than a century after his death. He was born in Patrick Street, Cork, Ireland to Robert Travers a banker and Commissioner of the Peace for County Cork. Thomas was twelve years old when his father died, and became a cadet with the East India Company in 1803, arriving in Bengal on 2 September 1804. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant of the 20th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry on the 21st of the same month. In 1806 he was posted with his Regiment to Prince of Wales' Island (Penang), where he was to meet Stamford Raffles. By 1811, Raffes was both de facto and de jure Lieutenant-Governor of Java and Travers and Captain Robert C. Garnham were Raffles' aides-de-camp. In 1815, control of Java reverted to the Dutch and in early 1816, Travers accompanied Raffles on a tour of the Island made to help smooth the transition. Travers then accompanied Raffles on his return to England in late 1816. Travers spent some time in Ireland, where he attended the wedding of his sister, Harriet, to Thomas Browne of Somerset House. In early 1817, Travis was again with Raffles in England, and often served as an escort for Raffles' new wife, Sophia. Later in 1817, That summer, Travers returned to Ireland to court Mary Lesley while Raffles toured Europe. Travers was engaged to Lesley by the end of July and travelled to Ireland on 24 July to get married.