James Robert O'Neal - Early life

James Robert O’Neal was named after both his Father and Grandfather, but preferred to be known as Bob or Robert. 

He was born on 9 December 1849 to his parents James William O’Neal and Anne (nee White). His Father, James William was employed in the service of the East India Company’s medical service. 

Bob was James and Anne’s second of six children. Two of their children, Andrew, and Henry Thomas died in infancy, whilst John William (Willie), James Robert, George Samuel, and Charles Frederick all survived to adulthood. John married once, and had six children; George married twice, and had eight children by his first wife; and Charles married once and had four children. (details of John, George and Charles’ families can be found on the family tree).

By 1865, at just 15 years old, both Bob’s parents had died. In this era, and location, this was a very vulnerable position to be in. There is no information about what his older brother Willie was doing at this stage, at 18 years of age he was probably already making his own way in life. Bob was taken in by the family of a friend of his Father - Thomas Gamble Nurse. Later, we will see the Nurse family intertwined with the O’Neal’s into the next generation. I have found no mention about if or whether Bob’s younger brothers were also looked after by the Nurse family, but it would seem likely if you are looking after one child of a friend, to take them all in. If this is not the case, I do not know how George and Charles survived the early years after the death of their parents - George would only have been ten, and Charles just seven years old when they were orphaned.

Thomas was a Sergeant in the 2nd Company 2nd Battalion Artillery - essentially a part of the armed force funded and controlled by the East India Company. 

It was to prove very fortuitous for Bob, that Thomas’s family looked after him as a close and enduring friendship was cemented between the two. So much so that some 23 years later, Bob gave his first child the middle name of Nurse as a mark of respect to his Father’s friend.

Having been orphaned at such a young age, Bob’s early aspiration for a career in the Church was rendered impossible. So, at the age of 15, he obtained a clerkship in the Military Finance department of the East India Company - I assume he was introduced by Thomas Nurse.

Just two years later, at the age of 17 to 18, Bob joined The Robert Napier Expedition to Africa to rescue a group of British and Europeans who had been taken hostage.