Martin Richard Gubbins

Martin Richard Gubbins (1812–1863) was a British official in India. He is known for his part in the Siege of Lucknow, where he was at odds with the commanding officer, Henry Montgomery Lawrence.

Early life He was the third son of Major-General Joseph Gubbins and his wife Charlotte Bathoe (died 1824). He was educated at the East India College, Haileybury from 1828 to 1830. Three brothers were also in British India: John Panton Gubbins the eldest, Charles and Frederick Bebb Gubbins. His sister Elizabeth married William Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St Albans and then Lucius Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland.

Gubbins went out to India as writer in 1830, and became assistant under the chief commissioner and resident at Delhi, 26 April 1831. He subsequently held posts at Allahabad, Muttra, and other places, and went to Awadh on its annexation by Lord Dalhousie in 1856 as a member of the British commission.

During the cold season of 1856–1857, Gubbins made a tour as financial commissioner through Awadh, to test the summary settlement of the land revenue, which had just then been completed. He worked to redress grievances of the landowners; but at the same time his disputes with Colville Coverley Jackson, the chief commissioner, were counter-productive.

Sir Colin Campbell began to relieve Lucknow on 9 November 1857, reaching the Residency after a week of fighting. Gubbins accompanied Campbell's forces to Kanpur. In poor health, Gubbins then sailed back to England. Although Henry Lawrence had had some sympathy for the approach taken by Gubbins to land reform, and also found Jackson unacceptable, Gubbins was tarred with a long history of quarrels, and the fact that Lawrence had found him troublesome. His Mutinies in Oudh was found self-serving, and was rebutted, by George Hutchinson (1826–1899) of the Bengal Engineers, in Narrative of the Mutinies in Oude. Hutchinson was commissioned by Robert Montgomery, brought in to be Chief Commissioner of Oudh, over Gubbins's head.

Gubbins became judge of the supreme court of Agra. He resigned due to ill-health, and returned to England in January 1863. After his return he suffered from mental depression, and committed suicide at Leamington on 6 May in that year.