The Sikandar Bagh Palace gate in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was here and at the nearby Shah Najaf imambara that the 93rd Highlanders under Sir Colin Campbell stormed the walls, and broke through to the besieged Residency. The resistance was fierce, and on just one day of fighting, November 16th, twenty-four VCs were earned, but three days later Campbell evacuated hundreds of civilians, including women and children, sick and wounded, trapped within for four terrifying months.
Part 1 of 2
IN 1857, sepoys in the service of the East India Company joined with ruling princes in the Indian Mutiny, angered by mismanagement and presumption in the Company’s handling of Bengal and of Oudh, a recent addition to the Company’s trophy cabinet.*
As the mutiny spread, Sir Henry Lawrence, recently appointed Commissioner for Oudh, opened his official Residency at Lucknow to over a thousand civilian men, women and children fleeing unrest in neighbouring districts. Defence was provided by a garrison of 1,700 fighting men, British and Indian.*
By June 30th, some 8,000 rebels had the Residency under seige. Lawrence, wounded by an artillery shell, died on July 4th, and command passed to Colonel John Inglis of the 32nd Regiment of Foot, an unenviable responsibility. Within the Residency, anxiety was turning to fear: days earlier in Cawnpore, just fifty miles away, nine hundred besieged men, women and children had surrendered after their own three-week ordeal, only to be helplessly massacred when their guard was down.
See The Indian Mutiny. See a map of States for and Against the British in the Mutiny; and British India after 1860.
The Residency consisted of a large house surrounded by gardens, kitchens, a hospital, and various other buildings including religious sites (which Sir Henry ordered his men to respect). After Sir James Outram broke through in September, the defended region was enlarged. For a map, see Lucknow: Intrenched position of the British Garrison, at Wikimedia Commons.
Précis
During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the town of Lucknow was subjected to a four-month siege by the rebels, just days after a siege at nearby Cawnpore had ended with surrender and a massacre. On June 30th, rebels surrounded the British Commissioner’s Residency at Lucknow, and a few days later the Commissioner himself, Sir Henry Lawrence, was killed. (57 / 60 words)
Part Two
The main building of La Martiniere, a private school in Lucknow. It was founded together with schools in Calcutta and Lyons, France, by the Will of Major-General Claude Martin (1735–1800), a Frenchman who served in the British East India Company’s militia, “for learning young men the English language and Christian religion if they found themselves inclined”. The school opened in 1845, and a girls’ school was added in 1871. Staff and boys fought or ran errands during the eighty-six days of siege, and were collectively awarded the Indian Mutiny Medal by Queen Victoria. More information at La Martiniere College website.
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.
Précis
In September, the first of two relief attempts ended when Sir James Outram reached the Residency but could not evacuate it, as too many people were sick or wounded. A second effort led by Sir Colin Campbell met with fierce resistance, and twenty-four VCs were won in one day’s fighting, but at last the siege ended on November 19th. (59 / 60 words)
