Lieutenant-Colonel J. North Crealock, Acting Military Secretary.

Lieutenant-Colonel J. North Crealock, Acting Military Secretary. the third son of William Belton Crealock, was born on 21 May 1836 and in 1849 followed his brothers to Rugby School. On 13 October 1854 his father purchased for him the rank of Ensign in the 95th Derbyshire Regiment (later the Sherwood Foresters, formed in 1881 from the 45th and 95th Regiments). Four years later he was promoted to Lieutenant and the following year became an Inspector of Musketry at Aldershot.

In 1857 his Regiment sailed for the Cape of Good Hope but on arrival they were re-routed to India, where the Mutiny had broken out. The 95th Regiment landed at Bombay and became part of the Rajputana Field Force, whose task it was to round up the insurgents outside Gwalior. The first success was the capture of Kotch, where the Maharaja had surrendered to the mutineers. Eventually Gwalior was captured, but John North was wounded and took no further part in the campaign. He wrote a vivid illustrated diary," full of humane touches concerning the various people involved in the campaign. This diary tells us much more about John North than the campaign, during which he was thrice mentioned in despatches. His later campaign diaries and notes are of a purely military nature.

In 1860 John North was appointed Inspector of Musketry, first to the Bombay Presidency and then to the Bombay Northern District. From December 1862 to May 1864 he was Aide-de-Camp to Sir William Mansfield, Commander-in- Chief Bombay. He continued to serve in India and attended Staff College in 1868.