On this day, Charles Cockerell was created a baronet on the recommendation of former Governor-General Lord Wellesley. Cockerel had assisted Wellesley in the Mysore war of1798- 1799. Working withthe Bengal government, Cockerell had commanded the force formed from within the civil service.

He had arrived in Bengal in 1776 from England and had worked for the surveyor-general’s office. He became a friend of Governor-General Warren Hastings. He was a partner in a “house of agency”, the description for establishments that managed the concerns of Europeans in India in business and money matters. He later managed Paxton and Cockerell, later Paxton, Cockerell and Trail, the “most successful agency” house of its time.

He returned to England in 1801 and became partner in London of the Cockerell firm, which dealt in busi- ness in India and banking for British clients. After the abolition of slavery by Britain, the firm took up recruitment of indentured labourers from India for Mauritius.

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