George Cruttenden was a former Major in The East India Company’s Bengal Army. After Military Service he was partner at Cruttenden, Mackillop & Co., one of the half-dozen firms which dominated the economy of Bengal in the early nineteenth century. After the death of Cruttenden in 1822, Benjamin Wolff, bound by family ties, took care of Cruttendens private papers. Benjamin’s brother Knud N. Wolff had been married to George Cruttenden’s daughter Sarah but had died three years earlier. George Cruttenden was immortalized by Sir Richard Westmacott in a large marble monument in St. John’s Church, Calcutta. His daughter by C.W. Eckersberg in A portrait of Sarah Wolff née Cruttenden in a blue dress, writing a letter, 1821, sold in these rooms April 2009.-With three other watercolours, one inscribed Ghool Bang, from the East, The Seat of Chs. Trower Esq. at Bhangulpore, July 14th. 1800, Bewauny Baksh Pinxit.

GEORGE CRUTTENDEN
 1768–1822 Late Major in the Honorable E Company's Bengal Army whose long term of Military Service, fulfilled with every mark of good desert was followed by an active part in civil life, pursued with equal talent and integrity.