Ordeal At The Lucknow - The Defence Of The Residency

ORDEAL AT LUCKNOW The Defence of the Residency by MICHAEL JOYCE More than eighty years have passed since the out reak of the Indian Mutiny, but the Residency of Lucknow is not forgotten: the men who held an untenable position for a hundred and forty days are still honoured by the flag that is never struck at sunset? but flies day and night above the ruins and every morn ing afresh tribute of flowers is laid on the grave of Henry Lawrence. This is the true story of the three thousand men, women, and children who fought and suffered in Lawrences entrenchment. It is told from their point of view, with only such intelligence of events outside as reached them through the enemys linesa method which does less than justice to Havelock, Outram, Colin Campbell and their men, but which may help us to share the hopes and fears that possessed the garrison from day to day. Those hopes and fears are set down in the letters, journals, and memoirs of the time as fully as the practical details of the defence. There is as much to be harnt of the daily life of Mrs Inglis and her family as vfthe military dispositions of her husband, the Brigadier. We are told of Kavanaghs feelings as he made his way at night through the enemys lines, and of HaveLock's First words to the defenders when he entered the Residency at last with reinforcements. The rank and file of the 52nd Foot, the back bone of the garrison, come to life in Private Metcalfes narrative, and even Bustle, the chaplain's terrier, has a place in history. The Bengal Army had long been in a state of disaffection which various causes were combining to increase, when in January 1857 an unfortunate report, not quite unfounded, that the new Enfield cartridges were lubricated with cows fat, gave substance to ike fears of the Hindu sepoys that the East India Company were resolved to break their caste and turn them into Christians. February, March, and April were months of unrest, but it was not till the second week of May, when a savage outbreak at Meerut was followed by the seizure of Delhi and the restoration of the Mogul dynasty, that the Calcutta government awoke to find its very existence threatened. At the end of May the storm broke at Lucknow, where the bulk of four regiments mutinied, but were driven off by Lawrence. At Cawnpore, fifty miles to the southwest, the sepoys rose a week later and in vested General Wheelers illprepared position. One by one the outlying pans of Oudh were lost to British rule, until at last Lawrence was cut off at Lucknow with over Jive hundred women and children, one weak battalion of European infantry, and a handful of military oddsandends, civilian volunteers, and loyal sepoys to hold his own, as he feared, against many thousands of mutineers, disciplined and wellequipped and supported by a hostile and warlike population.