Anniversary

Memorial Well by Wheeler's Entrenchment (picture provided by Mark Probett from his collection)

161 years ago, on the 27th of June, the Cawnpore Garrison was slaughtered at Satichaura Ghat. Unlike other memorial days which are perhaps given a moment's notice or some commemoration, this day is much too obscure in history, too long ago and above all, steeped in controversy.

The world we live in today, we are meant to apologise for a colonial past, hang our heads in shame for perceived ills perpetrated by people from ages gone by and instead of remembering the dead, we should shun them. This may appear to be wisdom - a way to cure old ills and wrongdoings. However, history cannot be rewritten to serve a current agenda. To do so is to insult everyone.

The main criticism that anyone who writes about the mutiny hears, is the lament, "but the British wrote the history" so ergo, it must be biased. There is no doubt that many accounts of the mutiny were fabricated, especially in newspaper back in England to provide sensationalism to an already horrifying event. As was proved time and time again, the accounts of rape (defilement as the Victorians would say) of British women were discounted as were stories of roasting babies in boxes and skewering them on pikes. These were stories written with malice in mind; to sensationalise an already horrible time for means of profit, not unlike the stories we hear in the news today. We like to think we live in an enlightened world, but sadly, we do not. The essential evil behind them is the same. The cruel, wanton need to incite feelings of anger and revenge. 161 years later, we are still as gullible and as quick to judge as those men were then, acting on hearsay and outright lies.

The first soldiers who entered the Bibigarh do not recall the writings on the walls, like "Avenge Us Country Men" simply because they were not there. What was there was the sad little chronicle left by one of the Lindsay sisters, in which she lists the destruction of her family. The vengeful tomes were added later, by future visitors, malicious graffiti to fuel hatred.

We  know that very few accounts exist of the autrocious behaviour of the British and the army of retaliation. The few that are mentioned are done so in a fleeting, almost off hand in manner. This is pure arrogance - the destruction the British left in their wake and the horrors they perpetrated during their advances should not be swept away. After the siege, Delhi was a ghost town - city of the dead, with bodies rotting in the streets, eerily silent and empty. The native population fled after the fall of the rebel army, fleeing from the on coming British who had very little more in mind than plunder and revenge. Stories were rife that the city should be razed to the ground, the mosques blown up and the fort destroyed - fortunately,sense prevailed and at least some of the city was left standing. This was an unequal war fought on unequal grounds, it would be wrong to say "but look what the Indians did." Violence is not an excuse for more violence. The only equality we can give them is all sides were wrong. There was no reason to kill the Leeson children or murder the souls in the Bibigarh as there was no reason for the British to indiscriminately hang every Indian they came across or burn their villages.

There are some who are more invested in the story of Cawnpore than others - those who had ancestors who died in the entrenchment, at the ghat and in the Bibighar. I have, over time, come into contact with some who lost much of their families there - and even though in the light of our ever so modern world, we should not forget that all those that died, albeit 161 years ago, are lives that were destroyed and dreams never fulfilled. Somewhere, for someone, be they Indian or British, a future was never lived. What would their contributions have been? Would we perhaps live in a different world had they lived? Maybe their lives would not have been any more significant than our own, but these are musings we will never know the answer to.

Without further adieu, I have added here a short film, a tribute to Kanpur.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fugzn8PAM48

(All credit for the film to India Rising and my thanks for allowing me to link it to my site).

11th May, 1857, Delhi

The mutineers arrive in Delhi

Leaving Lucknow behind for a moment, I would like to take you, my fair readers, to Delhi. More specifically, St. James' Church at Kashmiri Gate.

St. James' Church with war damage

The first church to be built in Delhi in 1836, it was commissioned by Colonel James Skinner. He built the church at his own expense, spending the princely sum of 95,000 rupees. It was designed by Major Robert Smith and took ten years to complete.  It is constructed on a cruciform (Greek Cross) plan with three covered porches, highly decorated stained glass windows and a central, octagonal dome. The copper ball and cross are said to be copy of a church in Venice. In 1857, these were used as target practice by the Sepoys, sustaining irreparable damage and were finally replaced. The church itself was damaged by shellfire during the uprising.

The copper ball and cross, pockmarked with bullet holes

Today the building is being attacked again, not by war but by a different kind of monster - progress. Inevitable in the expansion of any city, the trains from the nearby Kashmiri Gate metro station are damaging the foundations of the church and the much revered Heritage Line, with a stop barely 5 minutes from the church is further undermining the construction. St. James' was built in gentler times, when its' architects never envisioned the sprawling behemoth that Delhi has become. The Delhi chapter of INTACH are doing their best to save the church and their efforts have not been without fruit.

On my last visit to St. James' Church, I decided to photograph the memorial plaques on the walls. In keeping with my own efforts to put a personal history to the many names I have found commemorated there I shall attempt to bring them to life.

This is the memorial plaque to  the Reverend Jennings and his daughter, Annie Margaret, who were killed, together with Miss Clifford, Mr. Fraser and Mr. Douglas on the 11th of May in the apartments of Mr. Douglas at the entrance to the Red Fort. Annie had only recently arrived in India to keep house for her father, as her mother was in England overseeing the education of the younger Jennings' children.

Mary Jane Alicia Clifford, 24 years old, was in Delhi to help Annie prepare for her wedding to Mr. Charlie Thomason of the Bengal Engineers and son of the former Lieutenant Governor to the Punjab.  She had come out to India to keep house for her brother, Wigram Clifford, aged 23, of the Bengal Civil Service, Mewati Outpost, Gurgaon. They were the children of Captain M. Clifford, of Carn Cottage, County Cavan.

The girls were both said to be pretty and vivacious, Annie was very active in organizing the choir at St. James' Church and it seems, that during their time in Delhi, there was sudden rise in church attendance among the soldiers in the nearby cantonments, braving the lengthy, fiery sermons of the reverend to spend some time in the company of the pretty girls.

This probably was down to the prettiness and enthusiasm of the girls and  not the exertions of the Reverend. For exert himself he did, but not in a way designed to bring anyone any comfort. Reverend Midgley Jennings served as a chaplain to the East India Company from 1832, serving in Kanpur and other locations until his posting in Delhi in 1852. He was committed to converting India to Christianity and his views were seen as both brash and insensitive by the  residents in Delhi. Although Jennings was not the sole cause of the mutiny, he and his preaching brethren certainly did nothing to promote harmony among the people of India and the British. Describing the Mughal court of Bahadur Shah Zafar as the evil empire and unabashedly comparing Islam to the Antichrist in the scriptures and calling Hindus "Satanic pagans", Jennings used education as a front, fervently setting up the Delhi Mission and he made it his goal to offer education "of a superior kind" to the elite of Delhi. It goes without say that there were many British in India who did support Christian conversion - and it explains why no one stopped Reverend Jennings on his tumultuous trek of preaching in India for over 20 years.

The very public conversion of Dr. Chaman Lal indirectly led to the doctor's death at the hands of the mutineers in 1857. He had been the personal physician to the Mughal emperor and his baptism, along with that of the prominent mathematician, Master Ramchandra, on the 11th of July 1852, did not sit well with many of the citizens of Delhi. " Even the king  Bahadur Shah Zafar did not like their conversion and offered to convert them to Islam if they were not satisfied  with their own religion." (Delhi in 1857. N.K. Nigam, 1957, pp.17)

Reverend Jennings could not help crowing about the baptism to the SPG writing that it

"..consequentially caused  the greatest excitement throughout the city..The whole Hindu population assembled around the church on Sunday evening."

Dr. Chaman Lal had been attending to his patients at the hospital in Daryaganj on May 11th 1857, when he was pointed out to the mutineers as a Christian and shot outside the dispensary.

There are many myths attached to the deaths of Miss Clifford and Miss Jennings. In particular, they were used as objects to fuel feelings of hatred and revenge with wild exaggerations of their murders circulating in the papers of the day and spread throughout the length and breadth of India. What could have been going through the mind of the brothers of the girls  when they the heard stories of their having been stripped naked, insulted in a barbarous manner, (depending on the account), either cut to pieces bit by bit, or crucified and displayed naked on the ramparts of the fort? It is no wonder they were filled with a thirst for revenge and probably a maddening hatred for Indians.

These tales were  the vicious exaggerations of writers  whose only intent was to sell their rags to a gullible public and fan the flames of retribution. The public was at the mercy of this unscrupulous peddlers of smut and lies.

What is known is when the outbreak occurred, they were in the apartments of Mr. Douglas above the Lahore Gate in the Red Fort. They were found and murdered on the spot. Though one account has the girls hiding under a sofa or in a cupboard, it is ultimately of little consequence. What is important to note though, is contrary to the rags of the day, they were neither violated, paraded naked through the streets, chopped into pieces while still alive or crucified on the walls of Delhi.

Lahore Gate, Red Fort, Delhi 1857-1858
oldindianphotos.in
Source: National Gallery of Canada

A monument did exist to the Miss Clifford and her brother "A List of Christian Tombs and Monuments in the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir and Afghanistan Vol. II Inscriptions, 1910", the gravestone reads as follows:

"Sacred to the Memory of  M.J.A. CLIFFORD daughter on Captn R.M. Clifford, Carn Cottage County Cavan, aged 24 years who was cruelly murdered on the 11th of May 1857 in the palace of Delhie when on a visit at the Revd J. Jennings also to the memory of WIGRAM CLIFFORD brother of the above Bengal Civil Service, aged 23 years who having shared in all the dangers of the Siege of Delhie fell in an attack on an outpost of the Mewatties near the village of Alipore in the Goorgoan district on the 31st of October 1857. This Monument has been erected by their friends."

From C.J. Griffiths:

"C---d escorted his sister to Delhi on May 10.. He returned to Goorgaon, little thinking he would never see her again...It was not until May 12 that C----d heard of the mutiny and, fearing death from the populace of Goorgaon, who had also risen in revolt, he disguised himself as best he could and rode off into the country…" (A Narrative of the Siege of Delhi with an Account of the Mutiny at Ferozepore in 1857." Charles John Griffiths, 1910,  pp. 95)

In the book by Mark Thornhill, then magistrate at Mathura, we have the following description of Wigram Clifford:

"..he was quite a young man, armed with sword and revolver, and wore twisted around his hat a large native turban - he looked very tired and exhausted…"

He was on his way Agra to inform the officials there of the events. Wigram related the story of the uprising in Meerut to Thornhill, the events in his district, which had been overrun by insurgents, and the story of Delhi:

"When I inquired the names of the victims he broke down altogether, for among them was his only sister, a young girl of eighteen, who had but a few months previously arrived in India." (The Personal Adventures of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progress and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny. Mark Thornhill,  1884, pp. 5 - 6 Introductory).

C.J. Griffiths, a school friend of Wigram Cliffords', met him in Delhi.

"From what he hinted, I feel sure he had it on his mind that his sister, before being murdered, was outraged by the rebels. However this may be, my old school-fellow had become a changed being. All his passions were aroused to their fullest extent and he thought of nothing but revenge. Armed with sword, revolver and rifle, he had been present at almost every engagement with the mutineers since leaving Meerut. He was known to most of the regiments in the camp, and would attach himself to one or the other on the occasion of a fight, dealing death with his rifle and giving no quarter. Caring nothing for his own life, so long as he succeeded in glutting his vengeance on the murderers of his sister, he exposed himself most recklessly throughout the siege, and never received a wound." (Griffiths pp.97)

 Then follows a further encounter with Wigram, which horrified Griffiths and indeed would anyone, even today:

" On the day of the final assault I met him in one of the streets after we had gained entrance to the city. He shook my hands, saying he had put to death all he had come across, not excepting women and children, and from his excited manner and appearance of dress - which was covered with blood-stains - I quite believe he told me the truth."

Griffiths dined with Clifford the night Delhi was taken. Clifford told him was going to take part in an assault the next morning on a small village nearby.

"All my remonstrances at this were of no avail; he vowed to me he would never stay his hand while he had an opportunity of wreaking his vengeance…"  (Griffiths, pp.98)

Nor did he. Clifford  had become a fearsome, vengeful man, committing terrible acts of violence. Assisting in the suppression of the revolt in Mewat, Clifford burnt many villages and murdered the inhabitants and was finally killed by Meos in October.

Vengeance cannot justify the actions of men like Clifford who were so distraught and twisted by grief they no longer felt compassion or pity. They had turned into butchers and their own deaths were a relief not only for themselves but for everyone around them. We cannot allow ourselves to become blinded.  As Griffiths writes this was "the most cruel and vindictive war the world has seen," (pp. 99)and one that pitted men against each other regardless of caste or creed, Indian or English. Horrors were a feature on both sides and it would be incorrect to lay all of it on men like Clifford as many contemporary writers have done. Although one can argue that the British were wrong for being in India in the first place, that view point is much too simplistic as one would then have to argue of the righteous position of Emperor Bahadur Shah himself, seeing that Mughals were not the natural inhabitants of India either. None of this is any justification for the indiscriminate killing perpetrated during the mutiny by any side. Slaughter has no excuse.

The Cliffords had another brother who served in India, Robert Clifford. However, he missed the mutiny all together as the ship taking him to India broke down and was set down for lengthy repairs on the South American coast. He arrived in Calcutta too late. Born in 1839, he would have been 18 in 1857. He went on to serve with the Sam Brown Cavalry and later with the 2nd Punjab Cavalry, retiring from India in 1881 and died at Carn Cottage in 1930. Their other relative, a cousin, Richard Henry Clifford, the deputy collector of Mathura, survived the mutiny, having been hidden away by a loyal servant.

The Jennings family too have a son commemorated in Delhi, at St. James' Church. 

William John Jennings was on his way to India when the mutiny broke out and heard of the deaths of his father and sister while in transit in Malta. He joined the 2nd European Bengal Light Cavalry in 1858 and later transferred to Mayne's Horse and died in 1860, aged 22. Another Jennings brother, Robert, arrived in India in 1859, joining the 2nd European Bengal Light Cavalry the same year. He attained the rank of general in 1905 and received his knighthood in 1909, eventually dying in Bournemouth in 1922, at the ripe old age of 81.

As the next plaque relates once again to the Jennings and Clifford families, it is necessary to present a brief outline of what happened on the 11th of May in Delhi.

The mutineers from Meerut arrived in Delhi quite unexpectedly in the morning crossing the bridge of boats over the Yamuna. At first a lone rider made his way to the Lahore Gate but could not get in. Captain Douglas, Commandant of the Palace Guard, was informed of the man's arrival and on being informed by the rider that he had just arrived from the mutiny in Meerut and was demanding water and a pipe. Douglas immediately ordered the man's arrest but it was too late, the man put spurs to his horse and rode off. 

By the this time, the King, from his chambers, could see the arrival of the rest of the mutineers from Meerut. Advised to shut the gates below, he gave the order and sent for Captain Douglas. Some more of the mutineers soon arrived and began loudly to demand an audience with the King.

Afraid of letting Douglas open the gate and going down to meet the men, the King advised Douglas to speak to them from the balcony. Douglas told them, 

"Don't come here! These are the private apartments of the ladies of the palace. Your standing opposite them is disrespect to the King!"

On hearing this, the men moved off, heading to the Rajghat Gate in the south. 

The King instructed Douglas to close all the city gates, which Douglas proceeded to do, starting with the Calcutta Gate where he found the commissioner Simon Fraser, the magistrate John Hutchinson and Fraser's clerk, Mr. Nixon.

Mr. Fraser had received a late night message from Meerut the night before, informing him that the mutiny had occurred there and the troops were on their way to Delhi. But Mr. Fraser never looked at the note and went back to sleep. It was found the next day in his pocket,  unread.

The Calcutta Gate was already closed but the men received a message that they mutineers had entered the city via the Rajghat Gate and were already plundering the area known as Daryaganj, where most of the European populace lived. As if by command, a group of sowars now appeared from that direction, fired a volley at the gathered men, wounding Hutchinson in the arm and causing the rest to flee. Fraser, hiding himself in a sentry box, found a musket and shot dead one of the assailants, then, mounting his buggy, he sped off towards the fort. 

Douglas,  Hutchinson and Nixon followed Fraser by foot, but along the way, Nixon was killed. Seeing no other means of escape, Douglas and Hutchinson leapt into the ditch which surrounded the fort. However, the jump injured Douglas severely on his feet and his back. Only with the help of some loyal servants were they then carried back to Douglas' apartments above the Lahore Gate.

Here the injured men were tended to by Miss Jennings and Miss Clifford.  Meanwhile, Mr. Fraser attempted to send the two girls into the protection of the King's wife Zeenat Mahal, but it was too late. Armed only with a sword, Mr. Fraser went down to meet the mob.

"Mr. Fraser, seeing such marked feelings of hostility, began to return to Captain Douglas' quarters, and as he reached the foot of the stairs, Haji, lapidary, raised his sword and made a cut at him. Mr. Fraser, who had a sheathed sword in his hand, turned sharply around and thrust at him, with the sword in it's sheath, saying to the havildar of the gate guard,"What kind of behaviour is this?". Upon which the havildar made a show of driving off the crowd; but no sooner had Mr. Fraser's back turned, then the havildar nodded with this head to the lapidary, to signify to him that now he should renew the attack. The lapidary, thus encouraged, rushed upon Mr. Fraser, and inflicted a deep and mortal wound on the right side of his neck. Mr. Fraser at once fell, when three other men..rushed out and cut him with their swords over the face, head and chest until he was quite dead." ( Narrative of Jat Mall, Noah Alfred Chick, Annals of the Indian Rebellion, 1859, pp 137-138).

Talwar,1857-1859

Unhindered the mob rushed upstairs to Captain Douglas' apartments, and, armed with talwars, quickly killed Mr. Hutchinson, Reverend Jennings and the two ladies. One of the King's bearers, Mamdoh, grabbed a hold of Jokhun,Captain Douglas' mace bearer (who was trying to flee the apartments) and forced him back upstairs.

"I said, 'you have yourselves killed all the gentlemen already,' but on reaching the room where Captain Douglas was, I saw that he was not quite dead. Mamdoh perceiving this also, hit him with a bludgeon on the forehead and killed him immediately. I saw the other bodies, including those of the two ladies. Mr. Hutchinson was lying in one room, and the bodies of Captain Douglas, Mr. Jennings and the two young ladies in another, on the floor, with the exception of that of Captain Douglas, which was on a bed." Chick, pp. 137).

We come now to the Collins' family.

Until now, I have not been able to find out very much about them, so please have some patience as I continue my humble research. For now, I have pieced together the following:

Thomas William Collins had been for many years,  the Deputy Collector of Delhi, having been appointed to the position in 1833. He had a very extensive family. I have found birth records of 3 of his younger children:

1838, Sept. 19 : COLLINS  At Delhi, the lady of Mr T W Collins, of a son.  (Parbury's Oriental Herald & Colonial Intelligencer, Bengal Births 1838-39)

1840: At Delhi on the 22d August the Wife of Mr Thomas William Collins of a Daughter.  

1842:  At Delhi on Tuesday the 12th July the wife of T W Collins esq., deputy collector of a daughter. ( Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce)

 

and then marriage records of older daughters:

"By License at St. James' Church Delhi on the 21st of August 1848  by the Revd W. Boyle, Mr. Hugh A. Brown Assist Delhi Bank, eldest son of Capt. T. Brown, Mayfield, Edinburgh, to Paulina, the second daughter of T.W. Collins, Esq.,Dy Collector Delhi." (Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce, Marriages 1848)

 

Then an entry for the 11th of January, 1851:

"Delhi, a son to the wife of Mr. Hugh A. Brown." (Samuel Smith & Co., Directory for 1852, Birth Announcements)

Neither Paulina or her husband are mentioned on the family plaque at the church.

It would appear that Paulina died in Calcutta in 1872:

 

Brown - At Calcutta, March 27, Paulina M., wife of H. A. Brown, postal dept., aged 43. (Allens Indian Mail, All India Deaths 1872)

 

 in 1850, there is the following notice: :

"At St. James' Church on the morning of the 9th of April, by the Revd W. Boyle, Mr. John Leeson of the Commissioners Office late son of Major J. Leeson of the 42nd Light Infantry and Honorary ADC to the Governor General to Miss Winifred Rose, eldest daughter of T.W. Collins, Esq, Deputy Collector of Delhi." (Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce Marriages 1850)

There is another entry for the Leesons in 1848:

"At St. James' Church Delhi on the 23rd Oct by the Rev Wm Boyle, Mr J. Kane of the Magistrates Office to Miss Martha Leeson, youngest daughter of the late Major Joseph Leeson, 2d Irregular Cavalry and HADC to the Governor General." (Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce Marriages 1848).  Although this entry is perhaps not important to the scope of this writing as I have not investigated the Kane family any further, it might serve as link for anyone who is looking for them.

In 1851, Winfred Rose gave birth to her son:

"At Delhi on the 29th of March the lady of J. Leeson, Esq, Head Clerk of the Magistrates Office a son and heir". (Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce Births 1851)

This was followed in quick succession by three more children:

May 6th 1853, a son and on December 14th, 1855 a daughter. There is also a further son, on the 28th of September 1856.  The entry for Eveline A.R. Leeson, son of J. Leeson who died on the 14th of July 1854 aged 1 in Delhi, is probably the son born on the 6th of May 1853.

The children on the plaque are described as T.W. Collins' grandchildren:

John T.C., Josephine and Joseph O'R.C.

Their mother was the Mrs. Leeson who was brought to the Delhi Camp in 1857 having been saved by from death by residents of the city. She is no longer just the Eurasian or the woman who was mistaken for an Afghan boy, she is Mrs. Leeson, the lady of J. Leeson and the mother of three children, whose names forever rest on the plaque at St. James' Church.

We can start making a picture what befell the Collins family on that day in 1857.

Florence Wagentreiber writing about her family's escape from Delhi has an account of Mrs. Leeson. 

"The lady mentioned by Wilberforce in his book (a missing chapter of the Indian Mutiny) was a member of the Collins and Staines family who nearly all perished during that terrible time most of them on the morning of the outbreak.

"On the morning of the 11th of May, the members of this family, in common with all the Europeans in Delhi, were alarmed by the report that mutineers from Meerut had entered the city and were massacring Europeans. They consequently all assembled in a fine house which belonged to one of them near the Church, and close to the city wall. The house had a tyekanna or deep underground apartment made for coolness in the hot weather the floor of which, though much below the level of the ground within the city, was on a level with that on the outside of the walls, and with which it communicated by a small door pierced through the city wall. Tither they descended to the number of about thirty, including children and infants. There they remained during the whole of the 11th of May..."

On the 12th of May, they left their concealment, probably spurred on by the crying of the children who by this time must have been hungry and thirsty.

"Their house was close to the Water Bastion one face of which looked towards the ridge...while the other in which was the door mentioned, looked towards the river. Through this door they all passed, and went along between the wall and the river till they came to a small arched gateway, but without  a gate on it, in the city wall, and leading into the city. At this archway they found 2 Sepoys who said they had orders to bring them all to the palace before the king. They accordingly brought them inside the city wall again and led them up to what are now the Government College grounds which were then covered in dense bushes. As they were going up here in loose order, one of the Sepoys shot one of the women and her two little daughters crying out, "Oh they have shot mama!" ran away to hide themselves in the bushes...Mrs Leeson's account of what followed was most pathetic, but considering there were were several men in the party, most unaccountable..."

Florence continues the account, describing how the family were deliberately shot down by the escort "as they walked quietly along, none of them apparently except the first two little girls, making any attempt to escape, either by running away or by attacking the two Sepoys. They seemed overwhelmed by the idea of Kismet..." (Reminiscences of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 - Florence Wagentreiber, 1911, pp 46)

The men were in fact a party of the King's servants who said they were taking them to the Fort.

 From here, one can piece together what happened to Mrs. Leeson. She was shot, the baby in her arms was thrown injured from her arms. As she lay on the ground badly wounded, her other two children were murdered before her eyes. As recorded by Mrs. Harriet Tytler who saw Mrs. Leeson after she was brought to Delhi:

"Before they had killed all the others, Mrs. Leeson's little boy of about six drew close to his mother and, raising her head, put it on his lap and began caressing her face. The little girl of three, running up to her wounded mother, laid herself down by her side..After those soldiers of the King had butchered the rest of the family they came up to her little boy and cut his throat...They then took the little girl and cut her from ear to ear through the mouth...That poor child was some some six hours before she died, all the time writhing away from her mother, in her agony, further and further from her mother till she heard one piercing shriek and then no more, so the mother supposed somebody must have killed her outright. There the poor baby lay on the ground, picking the grass and moaning pitifully, till he died too." ( The Indian Mutiny 1857, Saul David, 2002,  pp 286).

Needless to say, the children of Mrs. Leeson died terrible deaths and on my life I cannot imagine how anyone could be so motivated to subject children to such torture. If the murder of the Leeson children moves you to tears as it does me 161 years too late, then why do the murders which are perpetrated daily on countless other innocents barely warrant a shrug from most of us? Where is our outrage? How hypocritical we have become. Maybe one day, someone will give all the murdered children their names back, but for now, I can only name John, Josephine and Joseph.

I have digressed long enough and I apologise for my momentary lapse of focus.

Mrs. Leeson was rescued by two kindly Afghans and hidden in the city until August when she was brought by them in disguise to the British camp. They refused any reward for her rescue saying they had saved her for humanity's sake. She was later reunited with her husband John. Although I have as yet been unable to discover how he managed it (although it appears he was not in Delhi at all at time but away on business outside of the city), John Leeson spent the mutiny in the fort at Agra and was reunited with his wife later in 1857. They returned to the college grounds to look for the remains of their murdered children but they never found them.

College Building in Delhi, damaged in 1857. Picture by John Murray, 1858
oldinidianphotos.com

Source:  British Library

Now let us get back to the bewildering Collins and Staines family.

In 1843, three sisters married in Kasauli.

"At Kussowlee, Mr. G. Hunt,Sergeant Major, Sappers and Miners, to Amelia Margaret Staines, Mr. T.H.W. Johnstone, Sergeant, Sappers and Miners to Matilda Staines; and Mr. G.R. White, acting assistant overseer Public Works, to Augusta Staines, third, fifth and sixth daughters of the Mr. W. Staines." (Allens India Mail, Bengal Marriages 1843).

These were the sisters of Eleanor Collins, the wife of T.W. Collins. It is from here, we have the connection to G.R. White and Mrs. White on the plaque and Mrs. Hunt and the depressing list of names of their children.

Amelia Margaret Hunt, and Augusta White who married in Kasauli were murdered along with their children, George S., Margaret and Mary Hunt, and James, Henry, Edward  and Christiana White and their infant brother. G.R. White, the husband of Augusta is also on the list. I have often wondered if Margaret and Mary Hunt were the girls who ran away to hide in the bushes when their mother was shot.

J.W. and E.W. Staines were the brothers of Eleanor Collins. Her sisters Christiana Staines and Eliza Cochrane are also there.

J.W. Staines is listed as having had 4 sons, born in 1840, 1844,1846, 1848. The same J.W. Staines loses a son named Charles Henry, aged 5 months and 24 days in 1848. I believe William C. and Lewis C., who are on the plaque, may very well have been his sons.

A death for Mr. William Staines is listed in 1841 at Delhi, presumably the W. Staines mentioned in the marriage notice.

The Corbett family is something of a mystery. The most I have been able to find is they were related to the Jim Corbett of the national park fame and there is a story that Thomas Bartholomew was burned to death on the walls of the Red Fort but again, I cannot put much stock into this. Charlotte and Harriet Corbett are listed as being among the prisoners murdered in the Red Fort.

"Their names, as far as I and my children have been able to recollect them, are...

Mrs Scully and three children; Mrs Glynn, Mrs. Edwards and two children, Mrs. Molony and two children; Mrs. Sheehan and child; Mrs. Corbet and daughter, Mr. Staines, Mrs. Staines, Mrs. Cochrane, Miss Staines, Miss M. Hunt, Miss E. Berresford, Miss L. Riley, Master Richard Shaw, Miss Alice Shaw, Miss Ann Shaw, Mr. Roberts and son; Mr. Crow, Mr. Smith..." (Mrs. Aldwell, Annals of the Indian Rebellion, pp.145)

And so we come to the  Berresfords (or, alternately, Beresford)

George Berresford was the manager of the Delhi and London Bank. The building still stands, albeit is it it is hard to find and it is harder to imagine it was once a bank. Today it is the home of a famous electrical and hardware market in Chandni Chowk, known as Bhagirath Palace (or Place). The building itself had once been a palace, belonging to the famous Begum Samru. It is here that the Berresfords made their stand.

Delhi Bank, before the 1857

On the 11th of May the family had gathered at the bank with a few clerks. From the roof of the bank George, the clerks and his wife, Sarah, attempted to defend themselves but were eventually overpowered. Mrs. Berresford as armed with hog spear and with this rather formidable weapon she managed to skewer one or two of her assailants but ultimately it was for naught. One of their daughters either remained  the outhouses behind the bank or made it back there,  but she was captured and taken to the fort, where she was killed along with the rest of the Europeans.

The Bank of Delhi, photographed by Major and Harriet Tytler in 1857

One of the stories, popular at the time and still often repeated, is the Berresfords had their throats cut by broken glass. According to Gulab, a witness,

"I was witness to the murder of Mr. Beresford and his family. When the bank was attacked by the mutineers and the rabble, Mr. Beresford and his family retired to one of the out-offices for concealment, but when discovered, were on the roof of the building. Mr. Beresford was armed with a sword and Mrs. Beresford had a spear. The mutineers, being afraid to approach them by the staircase in front, two of the rabble suggested that they should go around and scale the wall in the rear of the house. Mrs. Beresford struck one the assailants with a spear, and killed him; they were, however, overpowered and all killed. I don't know what number of persons were killed at the bank, but there were several..." ( Annals of the Indian Rebellion, pp 141)

I do not believe the story of the glass - the mob who attacked the Berresfords was in an uncontrollable frenzy and doubtlessly, hacking their way from one site to the next. One can only hope their end was swift.
Their bodies were found after the end of the siege of Delhi and buried in the grounds of  St. James' Church.

Another view of the bank

A further tablet is the one of Frederick  Taylor, principal of the Delhi College. Master Ramchandra takes up the story:

"As it was the summer season, we attended the Delhi College at 6 a.m.; so the next day, the 11th of May, I went to the College early in the morning. At about 8 o'clock a.m., when I was teaching my class in the yard of the upper room, some students told me that the mutineers from Meerut had come to the city. I threatened the students who had said such things, not in the least believing the report. At last some servant of Mr. Roberts brought the news that the mutineers from Meerut had actually arrived, and had killed an European officer in charge of the bridge. Then Mr. Taylor, our Principal, thought it proper to give leave to the whole College though he still did not consider this a very serious matter. I went to the College hall, and sat down with Mr. Taylor, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Stewart , junior, and were talking on the subject. Mr. Taylor wrote a letter to the Captain of the magazine, to be informed whether these reports about the mutineers had foundation. The Captain wrote only these words in reply - 'Come quickly.' No sooner were these words read by Mr. Taylor, than we were struck with horror. Mr. Taylor, Mr. Heatley, the editor of the Delhi Gazette, Mrs. Heatley, Mr. Roberts and all the European teachers of the College went over the the magazine immediately." (Chick, pp.210)

It is uncertain what happened to Mr. Taylor next. If he managed to make it to the magazine, then he was killed when it was blown up by Willoughby as was asserted by an Urdu newspaper published in Delhi in 1857.  If not, then the other account, which tallies more with the words on his plaque, could be closer. After leaving the College, he was given shelter by an Indian friend, but when trying the flee the city in disguise on the 12th of May he was discovered and beaten to death in the street.



1 (Delhi in 1857. N.K. Nigam, 1957, pp.17)