Anne Carmichael-Smyth

Anne Becher was the third of four children born to John Harman Becher and his wife Harriet Cowper. She was born on the 13th October 1792 at Kilshenaghur, India and baptised there on the 12th July 1793 [India Office records]

Her father died when Anne was eight years old. Her brother John died in infancy, but Anne & her two sisters Harriet and Maria returned to England to live with their grandparents.

In 1808 Anne fell in love with an officer named Henry William Carmichael-Smyth. For reasons that are still unclear, this match was not approved of and both Anne & Henry were told the other had died. Anne and her sisters were then sent back to back to India in 1809 with their mother [now Harriet Butler], her husband and his daughter.

On the 13th October 1810 at Fort William, Calcutta, aged just 18, Anne was married to Richmond Thackeray. On the 18th July 1811 are a long labour, their only child was born; William Makepeace Thackeray [the author of Vanity Fair]

Richmond Thackeray invited an English Officer to dinner and he turned out to be none other than Henry William Carmichael Smyth! It must have been an awkward dinner party.

Richmond Thackeray died of a lingering fever on the 13th September 1815 on board a ship on the Ganges. After waiting a suitable interval, Anne finally married her first love Henry William Carmichael Smyth on the 13th March 1817 at Cawnpore, Bengal, India.

Anne & Henry can be found together in the 1861 census in England, but Henry died soon after aged 81, at Ayr.

Anne died on the 18th December 1864 at Palace Green, Kensignton, with her estate going to her grand-daughters [from Probate records]. She was buried on the 24th December 1864 at All Souls, Kensal Green, Middlesex [from burial register].