Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Martindell, Gabriel
MARTINDELL or MARTINDALL, Sir GABRIEL (1756?–1831 ), major-general H.E.I.C. service, a Bengal cadet of 1772, with other cadets of his year bore arms in the 'Select Picket,' which greatly distinguished itself in the Rohilla battle of St. George in 1774. He was appointed ensign in the Bengal native infantry 4 Aug. 1776, and became lieutenant in 1778, captain 1793, major 1797, lieutenant-colonel 1801, colonel 1810, and major-general 4 June 1813. As a subaltern he was long adjutant of the native corps to which he belonged, and as lieutenant-colonel his battalion was counted one of the best native corps in the army. He was employed with a detached force in Bundelkund, then in a state of anarchy, during the Mahratta war of 1804-1805. On 2 July 1804 he attacked and routed an invading force of Mahrattas, under Ameer Khan, at Paswarree, and covered Lord Lake's army during the siege of Bhurtpore in the following December-January. In 1809 Martindell captured the strong fortress of Ajagerh in Bundelkund (see Mill, vii. 174-7). In 1812 he attacked the city and celebrated hill-fort of Kalinjar (Callinger), also in Bundelkund. The assault proved unsuccessful, but Daryan Singh, who held the fort, surrendered eight days afterwards, on receiving an equivalent of territory in the plains (Hunter, Gazetteer of India, vii. 333). For each of these services Martindell received the thanks of the governor-general in council. After the fall of Robert Rollo Gillespie at Kalanga in the Himalayas, in October 1814, Martindell was appointed to the command of a division of the army for the invasion of Nepaul, with which he made some unsuccessful attacks on Jytak. He commanded the division in the subsequent operations under Sir David Ochterlony, who assumed command of the army in February 1815 (see Mill, viii. 31, 35-6 et seq.) When the order of the Bath was extended to include the East India Company's officers in 1815, Martindell was one of the first selected for the distinction of K.C.B. (7 April 1815). He commanded a column of troops during the Pindarree war; and in 1818, as commander of the troops and joint civil-commissioner, rendered valuable service in restoring order in Cuttack (ib. viii. 142-4). In April 1820 he was appointed to the command of the 1st division of the field army (headquarters, Cawnpore) and the general command of the field army, an appointment which ceased in July 1882. Martindell, who was married, died at Buxar, 2 Jan. 1831.
[East India Registers and Army Lists, under dates; Mill's Hist, of India, vols, vii-viii.; Philippart's East India Military Calendar (London, 2 vols., 1823) contains a biography of Martindell in i. 406-8. and some useful notes on other pages of the same volume; but, by an extraordinary blunder, the unsuccessful attack on Kalinjar in Bundelkund, by Martindell in 1812, is confounded with Gillespie's attack on the now effaced fort of Kalanga, near Deyrah Dhoon, in 1814. The obituary notice in Gent. Mag. 1831, pt. i. p. 83, is based on Philippart.]