Robert O’Hara Burke, explorer : his official certificate of discharge from the Imperial Austrian Army, dated at Vienna, 15 June 1848.

[Vienna : Imperial Austrian Army, 1848]. Lithograph printed certificate, 320 x 460 mm, Imperial Austrian double-headed eagle in upper margin; printed text and manuscript entries in German recording the voluntary resignation of Herr Oberlieutenant Robert O’Hara Burke from the Imperial Austrian army, in which he has served for a period of 17 months in the Regiment of the 7th Hussars; the document is dated at Vienna, 15 June 1848 and is signed at the foot by the Imperial and Royal Minister for War, Count Theodor Baillet Latour; embossed paper Imperial seal still affixed in the lower margin; old fold lines, but very well preserved; housed in a later bird’s-eye maple frame.

‘Robert O’Hara Burke (1821-1861), explorer, was born at St Clerans, County Galway, Ireland, second of the three sons of James Hardiman Burke and his wife Anne, née O’Hara. The Burkes were Protestant gentry and landowners, and the father and all his sons were soldiers. Burke was educated at Woolwich Academy, entered the Austrian army and served as lieutenant in a cavalry regiment. Discharged at his own request in June 1848, he took up a command in the Irish Mounted Constabulary until he migrated to Australia in 1853.’ (ADB)

Burke joined the Imperial Austrian army in 1841, at the age of twenty. For the greater part of his service he was posted to northern Italy. In August 1842 he was made a Second Lieutenant in the Prince Regent’s 7th Regiment of the Hungarian Hussars, and in April 1847 he was promoted to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. In late 1847, suffering ill-health, he spent some time at Recoaro spa in northern Italy, then at Bad Gräfenberg and Aachen, also both spa resorts. Several charges against him over absence without leave and unpaid debts were dropped when he tendered his resignation from the Austrian army in June 1848.

Translation (after R. R. McNicoll, Melbourne Club archivist):

‘In the name of His Austrian-Imperial Majesty and His Royal Apostolic Majesty in Hungary and Bohemia, etc., etc., in the name of Our Most Gracious Lord, it is hereby certified that First Lieutenant Robert O’Hara Burke, born in Clerans, England [sic: for St. Clerans, County Galway], 26 years of age, Protestant, single, has served seventeen months with the Imperial and Royal Austrian Army, and now at his own request, made of his own volition, he has received permission to be allowed to resign his rank of First Lieutenant in Prince Reuss’ Regiment of the 7th Hussars.

Accordingly, First Lieutenant Robert O’Hara Burke is totally released from his commission, with the proviso that, since he has finally left the Imperial and Royal service, he is not entitled either to wear the Imperial and Royal uniform, or to have the privileges of an officer’s rank.

In respect of the said gentleman, Robert O’Hara Burke, proof is herewith confirmed of his aforementioned service performed in the above-named regiment and of his approved withdrawal from same.

Vienna, 15th June 1848 (one thousand, eight hundred and forty-eight)

The Imperial and Royal Minister of War.‘

Provenance: Victorian politician William Arthur Callendar à Beckett (1833-1901), eldest son of Sir William à Beckett; thence by descent.

The Certificate is accompanied by a letter addressed to Richard à Beckett from the Melbourne Club (23 July 1984) inviting him to give a talk on this ‘fascinating find in the family trunk’ at their Early Australian Historical Dinner on 17 August 1984, and a menu specially printed for this event; [together with] a letter to Richard à Beckett from Tim Bonyhady (8 November 1989), who (as he is nearing completion of his book on the Burke and Wills Expedition) enquires about the provenance of the Certificate and as to whether the family had other material relating to Burke; [and] Melbourne Club archivist R. R. McNicoll’s typed translation of the Certificate.