William Pattle was Second in Command, under Sir Charles Napier, of the Army that conquered Scinde in 1843. He was born in London on 28 July 1783, the son of Thomas Pattle of the Bengal Civil Service, and his wife Sarah. William was a cadet in 1798 and a cornet in the 1st BNC in April 1801. He was on active service in Jumna Doab in 1803, at Sasni, Bijaigarh and Kachaura. Promoted to lieutenant on 11 Mar 1805 he served in the Second Maharatta War, at Koil, Aligarh, Delhi, Agra, Laswarri, Deig and Bhurtpore. He was appointed Adjutant from 1806 to Jan 1810 and was in the operations in Bundelkhand against Gopal Singh in 1810, fighting at Bichaund. He was in the Third Maharatta War of 1817-18, promoted to captain on 8 June 1816, and major on 26 June 1826. On 27 April 1833 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. The Army List of 1842 places him in the 9th BLC as lieutenant-colonel, and the 1835 list shows that he had disappeared from the 1st BLC. However, Major Hodson’s list of Officers of the Bengal Army does not mention his move from the 1st to the 9th. In 1842 he was in command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the Army of Reserve for Afghanistan, and then in command of the cavalry, and 2nd in command to Napier in Scinde in 1843. He controversially prevented Jacob's Scinde Horse from pursuing and capturing Shere Mohammed after the battle of Hyderabad.
He was promoted to Colonel on 27 April 1833 and posted to Barrackpore in 1850. He was, according to Hodson, lieutenant-colonel in the 8th, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 9th, 1st and 5th BLC, and Colonel of the 4th BLC from 1849 to 1858. After the Mutiny he was Colonel of the 3rd European Bengal Light Cavalry in 1858-62 and Colonel of the 19th Hussars from 30 Sep 1862 until his death at Dawlish on 9 Feb 1865. He was promoted to General in 1863. His appointment to CB was made on 4 July 1843 after the Scinde campaign. As a General officer he was ADC to Queen Victoria. He was married twice. First to Isabella Clara, youngest daughter of the Rev Holt Okes, in South Africa on 28 June 1838. Isabella died on 4 Nov 1858 aged 44, and he married secondly, Jane Anne, a widow, and daughter of the Rev Robert Parkinson Brooke, Chaplain in Bengal.
