Alexis Coulomb

According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett:

Coulomb, Alexis and Emma, residents and staff members at the headquarters of the TS. In 1880, Mr. and Mrs. Coulomb appeared, penniless, at the headquarters of the TS in Bombay, India and asked for shelter. HPB had known Mrs. Coulomb slightly as Miss Emma Cutting, in Cairo, Egypt, in 1871. The Coulombs were given a home with the Founders, and Mrs. Coulomb assumed the duties of housekeeper, with the freedom of HPB's purse. Mr. Coulomb was a carpenter and draftsman who made himself useful as a handyman. He was appointed by HSO to the Board of Control when the Founders went to Europe in 1884. This appointment was made because Mrs. Coulomb insisted to HSO that her husband was a proud man and his feelings would be hurt if he were left out. In ODL 3: 74, HSO comments: "If I had had even an inkling of his real character, instead of making her husband ... a Committee man, I should have had our servants chase both of them out of our compound with bamboo switches." The story of how these two, particularly Mrs. Coulomb, conspired with Chistian missionaries to discredit HPB and funished false "evidence" to Richard Hodgson ... is told in numerous places - in greatest detail in Obituary - "The Hodgson Report" on Madame Blavatsky: 1885-1960, by Adlai E. Waterman. ML index; D, pp. 450, 573; SH index.

Additional resources

• Charles J. Ryan, "Chapter 13: The Coulomb Conspiracy against Theosophy," H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1975). Available at Theosophical University Press Online.