AFTER Cawnpore was retaken on July 16th, it was decided that Lucknow must not be abandoned to a similar fate. On September 15th, Sir James Outram reached the town and broke through the seige, but he found the sick and wounded there too many for evacuation, so he remained with the defenders instead.
A second relief mission, led by Sir Colin Campbell and guided by Thomas Kavanagh, a civilian who had slipped out disguised as a sepoy, arrived on November 14th.* Five days of fierce fighting ensued. ‘Remember Cawnpore!’ Campbell’s 93rd Highlanders cried to one another, as twenty-four Victoria Crosses were won in as many hours, including one for able seaman William Hall, the first black recipient.* At last, the Residency was successfully evacuated to nearby Alambagh, on November 19th.
‘Although English officialism’ wrote Samuel Smiles ‘may often drift stupidly into gigantic blunders, the men of the nation generally contrive to work their way out of them with a heroism almost approaching the sublime.’*
Thomas Henry Kavanagh (1821-1882) was an Irishman, employed by the Bengal Civil Service. Only five civilians have been awarded the VC, the last of them in 1879.
See William Hall VC.
See ‘Self-Help’ Chapter 8, by Scottish motivational writer Samuel Smiles. ‘Officialism’ is a handy but now largely obsolete Victorian term for excessive bureaucracy, red tape.