Lot 529
A WILKINSON FIGHTING KNIFE NAMED TO MAJOR RICHARD HUBBERSTY OF THE 89th REGIMENT.
A bone handled fighting knife by Wilkinson of Pall Mall with a 21.5cm 'bowie' style blade stamped H. Wilkinson 27 Pall Mall and named R.N. Hubbersty 89th Regiment within a rectangular field with scrolling ends. The blade sharpened. In a leather scabbard marked in ink 'Hubbersty 89th R' 35cm overall length.
Burke's Landed Gentry record Richard Nathan Hubbersty (known as Nathan) as being born on the 3rd of May 1839, he was commissioned into the 89th Regiment of Foot as and Ensign on the 24th September 1858, and a Lieutenant from April 1861 at which time the census record him being a resident of Umballa where the regiment was stationed. Fever and Cholera decimated the men and it seems likely that Hubbersty had a period of prolonged sick leave which he spent in New Zealand. He is recorded as being in New Zealand from 1866 helping a friend by the name of Theodore Hurt at his farm on the Selwyn River near Canterbury on the South Island. He is believed to have returned to the U.K. in 1868. During his absence from the 89th which had been raised in Dublin in 1793 as a reaction to the French Revolution, and which saw service in the Crimea and India amongst other places, becoming the 89th (The Princess Victoria's) Regiment of Foot. He was raised to the rank of Captain in June 1869, In 1870 the regiment was stationed in Madras, in November 1872 it marched into Bangalore. From 1876 they were in British Burma. Hubbersty became a Major on July 1st 1881 and an Honorary Lieutenant Colonel on 11th April 1885 by which time he was on retired pay. He died unmarried in Cornwall on December 1st 1886 at the age of 47.
Provenance: The first Viscount Trenchard and by direct descent in the family.
