Sepoy mutiny (2 risultati)

Wrench was the son of a clergyman, and well educated and well connected (being presented to the Prince of Wales and staying at Chatsworth in his old age). His obituary in the British Medical Journal (27 April 1912), describes how, after service in the Crimea, 'he was transferred to the 4th Lancers, went to Madras with that regiment in the following month, and served with it during the whole of the Indian Mutiny. For his services in India he received the Indian medal and clasp for Central India. He returned to England in 1860, and married in 1861 his cousin, the daughter of Mr. William Kirke, of Markham Hall, Nottinghamshire'. The four items in the present collection are all in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The three duplicates - all closely and neatly written in a vivid and informative style - are among ones produced by Wrench for circulation within his family, there being copies in the collection of Wrench papers in Nottingham University Library. They comprise two letters and a narrative account. The typescript, by an unnamed individual, is not present at Nottingham. None of the four items is in the Imperial War Museum catalogue. ONE: Duplicate of Autograph Letter by Wrench ('Edwd M Wrench M.V.O - F.R.C.S. late asst Sugeon 12 R Lancers'). Dated at beginning 23 December 1907, and at end 'Christmas 1907 - Park Lodge Baslow Derbyshire'. The letter describes the 'Jubilee commemoration' at the Royal Albert Hall, and is headed 'My last Parade'. It begins: 'It was indeed well done (The dinner to the surviving Veterans who fought in the Indian Mutiny campaign in 1857, given by the proprietors of the London Daily Telegraph) a procession of heart stirring episodes from the Inspection by F.M. Lord Roberts on the steps of the Albert Memorial (where I found private Meredith of the 24th who was with me in the trenches at the assault on the Redan Sebastopol June 18 1855) to the surging chorus by the thousands in the Albert Hall of Auld Lang Syne, near the end of what Lord Curzon in his thrilling speech said was a "ceremony" rather than a festival, a speech that made the tears tremble on my eyelids. They overflowed at the solemn sounding of the "last post" recalling to my memory in the words of the poet, O Hara, a charge of the 12th Lancers I rode with at the battle of Banda [.]'. He names others present, including 'Col Robertson [.] he was still the bravest of the brave, for though 86, he was in velvet Levee dress, silk stockings & pumps, without a great coat. (He told me he was a teetotaller) his picturesque appearance attracted Lord Roberts eye, and drew a heavy fire on us, not of rifles, but of snap shot cameras, the result of which has been my portrait in such good company, scattered by the hundreds of thousands in The Daily Mirror of Decr 24 [.] I have looked down the barrel of a loaded musket, near enough to see a Sepoys yellow eyes taking aim at the butt end and ridden with cannon balls hopping over my head like balls in a cricket ground, I cannot compare my perils during the Sepoy Mutiny to many others of the Kirke family'. 2pp., 8vo. TWO: Duplicate of Autograph Letter by Wrench ('Ed M Wrench'). Dated at beginning 'Park Lodge Baslow Aug 1909' and at end 13 September 1909. 3pp., 8vo. The letter begins: 'Having recently discovered that General W A Franks [Major-General William Astell Franks (1838-1929)] now living at Northland Road Southampton, was present when Uncle Henry Kirke died when fleeing from the Mutineers of his Regt. 12 BNI in 1857, I took the liberty of writing to him, he very kindly responded to my enquiries & I feel sure the information he has afforded will be interesting, adding much to our scanty knowledge of that terrible time.' There follow extended transcriptions from Franks's letters: '[.] I saw him the day he died [.] he was on his horse but rolling about on it [.] he looked at me with a vacant stare & was deadly pale. I could see he was dying. Shortly after he fell off his horse, he was the only one of o. …

Contains 96 pages of entries composed in both ink and pencil. 8vo. This diary was kept by Lt. Co. James Burnie, an East India Army Officer who served in the Mooltani Horse during the Sepoy Mutiny. It follows his movements throughout the Indian countryside as he and his column track down and face the mutineers. His troops march through Patiala, Newlee, Kiraoli, Furreedpoor, Barreilly, Nawabganj and Tilsee and Shahjahanpur. His entries contain descriptive observations upon the terrain, marches, war news and details regarding deadly encounters with Sepoy troops. During the campaign Burnie suffers terribly from dysentry and heat stroke. His column often has to hunt for its food while out in the field and at other times, after a victory, they are able to raid the overcome town for supplies. During the latter part of the diary he includes a ink and wash drawing of Mount Nanda Devi. A rare first hand account of this rebellion that ended the vice grip of power of the East India Company over India. "The Indian Mutiny also called SEPOY MUTINY (1857-58), was a widespread but unsuccessful rebellion against British rule in India begun by Indian troops (sepoys) in the service of the British East India Company. It began in Meerut and then spread to Delhi, Agra, Cawnpore, and Lucknow. The mutiny broke out in the Bengal army because it was only in the military sphere that Indians were organized. The pretext for revolt was the introduction of the new Enfield rifle; to load it the sepoys had to bite off the ends of lubricated cartridges. There appears to be some foundation for the sepoys' belief that the grease used to lubricate the cartridges was a mixture of pigs' and cows' lard; thus, to have oral contact with it was an insult to both Muslims and Hindus. Late in April 1857, sepoy troopers at Meerut refused the cartridges; as punishment, they were given long prison terms, fettered, and put in jail. This punishment incensed their comrades, who rose on May 10, shot their British officers, and marched to Delhi, where there were no European troops. There the local sepoy garrison joined the Meerut men, and by nightfall the aged pensionary Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II had been nominally restored to power by a tumultuous soldiery. The seizure of Delhi provided a focus and set the pattern for the whole mutiny, which then spread throughout northern India. With the exception of the Mughal emperor and his sons and Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the deposed Maratha peshwa, none of the important Indian princes joined the mutineers. From the time of the mutineers' seizure of Delhi, the British operations to suppress the mutiny were divided into three parts. First came the desperate struggles at Delhi, Cawnpore, and Lucknow during the summer; then the operations around Lucknow in the winter of 1857-58 directed by Sir Colin Campbell; and finally the 'mopping up' campaigns of Sir Hugh Rose in early 1858. Peace was officially declared on July 8, 1858. A grim feature of the mutiny was the ferocity that accompanied it. The mutineers commonly shot their British officers on rising and were responsible for massacres at Delhi, Cawnpore, and elsewhere. The murder of women and children enraged the British, but in fact some British officers began to take severe measures before they knew that any such murders had occurred. In the end the reprisals far outweighed the original excesses. Hundreds of sepoys were shot from cannons in a frenzy of British vengeance (though some British officers did protest the bloodshed). The immediate result of the mutiny was a general housecleaning of the Indian administration. The East India Company was abolished in favor of the direct rule of India by the British government. In concrete terms this did not mean much, but it introduced a more personal note into the government and removed the unimaginative commercialism that had lingered in the Court of Directors. The financial crisis caused by the mutiny led to a reorganization of the India.…