| The Defence of the Magazine at Delhi | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Indian Rebellion of 1857 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 East India Company |  Oudh | ||||||
The Defence of the Magazine at Delhi was an action during the Indian Mutiny on 11 May 1857. [1]
| The Defence of the Magazine at Delhi | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Indian Rebellion of 1857 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| East India Company | Oudh | ||||||
The Defence of the Magazine at Delhi was an action during the Indian Mutiny on 11 May 1857. [1]
The Indian mutiny began in the Garrison town of Meerut in early May 1857, and the rampaging mutineers reached Delhi on the morning of 10 May, intent on capturing the great magazine and the vast amount of warlike stores. On 11 May Deputy Assistant Commissary John Buckley, Lieutenants Forrest, Willoughby and Raynor, Conductors Shaw and Scully, plus 3 others of the Bengal Ordnance Department defended the Magazine for more than five hours against thousands of rebels. After the mutineers had stormed the Palace, the gates of the Magazine were closed and barricaded. Inside the gates were placed 6 pounder Cannon, double charged with grape. For the further defence of the Gate and the Magazine, there was a 24 pounder Howitzer, which could be aimed at any part of the Magazine, which was operated by Buckley. The native Garrison was then armed, but it was clear that they too were on the verge of mutiny as the men refused to obey any orders issued by Europeans.[ citation needed ]
The 9 Europeans decided to defend the Magazine for as long as possible in the hope that relief would come from Meerut, then, if all was lost, to blow up the Magazine and themselves, rather than allow the rebels to seize an Army’s worth of munitions. A train of gunpowder was laid by Buckley and Scully, ready to be fired on a pre—arranged signal, which was that of Buckley raising his hat from his head, on the order given by Willoughby. The gunpowder was to be fired by Scully, but not until the last round from the howitzer had been fired. When the mutineers placed scaling ladders against the wall the whole of the native establishment deserted by climbing up the sloped roofs on the inside of the Magazine and descending the ladders to the outside, after which the enemy appeared in great numbers on the top of the walls. The defenders kept up an incessant fire of grape on them, but it was clear that all was lost.[ citation needed ]
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Buckley and his comrades took the decision to blow up the arsenal, and consequently themselves, to save the vast quantities of arms and ammunition from falling into rebel hands. On being directed by the severely wounded Lt Willoughby, Conductor Buckley raised his hat as the signal and Conductor Scully took a lighted fuse into the Magazine causing it to ignite. The resulting explosion was the largest ever known and was heard 40 miles away in Meerut. The Magazine simply disintegrated and around a thousand mutineers were killed in the devastating blast.[ citation needed ]
Conductors Shaw and Scully, Sub- Conductor Crow, Sergeants Edwards and Stewart were all killed in the blast. A friendly native guided Lieutenant Raynor to safety. Rebels killed Lieutenant Willoughby some two days later whilst he was trying to reach Meerut. Lieutenant Forrest, who was also wounded, reached Meerut after much hardship. In the smoke and confusion Buckley, although severely wounded and blasted almost black by gunpowder, had initially managed to escape the rebels as he was blown clear over the walls and into the River Jumna. He came under heavy rifle fire and he was hit in the elbow. Being already wounded and near exhaustion he collapsed on the far bank and was captured. On learning that his wife and 3 children had been mercilessly slaughtered in the city he broke down, being so distressed that he wanted to die himself and tried to provoke his captors to kill him. However, the rebel leaders had been so impressed with the gallant actions of the defenders in the Magazine that they refused to kill such a brave man. After some weeks he was able to escape and made a safe passage to British lines. [2]
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the form of a mutiny of sepoys of the company's army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi. It then erupted into other mutinies and civilian rebellions chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, though incidents of revolt also occurred farther north and east. The rebellion posed a military threat to British power in that region, and was contained only with the rebels' defeat in Gwalior on 20 June 1858. On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, though they did not declare the hostilities to have formally ended until 8 July 1859.
General James Blair was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to members of British and Commonwealth forces.
William Raynor VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He is the oldest recipient of the Victoria Cross at 61 years old.
John Smith was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Born in Derbyshire in the United Kingdom, Smith enlisted in the army of the East India Company at the age of 23. Posted to India in 1839, Smith served through various campaigns, earning the Victoria Cross in 1857 at the Siege of Delhi. Smith died from dysentery in 1864.
Major John Buckley VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was the 115th recipient of the award and the first of 182 awarded during the Indian Mutiny.
George Forrest VC was born St Michael's, Dublin and was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Richard Fitzgerald VC was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross.
Colonel John Charles Campbell Daunt VC was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
William Alexander Kerr, VC was a Scottish soldier, writer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Major James William Miller VC was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
The siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defence of the British Residency within the city of Lucknow from rebel sepoys during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After two successive relief attempts had reached the city, the defenders and civilians were evacuated from the Residency, which was then abandoned.
The Siege of Delhi was one of the decisive conflicts of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The rebellion against the authority of the East India Company was widespread through much of Northern India, but essentially it was sparked by the mass uprising by the sepoys of the Bengal Army, which the company had itself raised in its Bengal Presidency. Seeking a symbol around which to rally, the first sepoys to rebel sought to reinstate the power of the Mughal Empire, which had ruled much of the Indian subcontinent in the previous centuries. Lacking overall direction, many who subsequently rebelled also flocked to Delhi.
Sikandar Bagh, formerly known by the British as Sikunder/Sikandra/Secundra Bagh, is a villa and garden enclosed by a fortified wall, with loopholes, gateway and corner bastions, approx. 150 yards square, c. 4.5 acres (1.8 ha), located in the city of Lucknow, Oudh, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by the last Nawab of Oudh, Wajid Ali Shah (1822–1887), as a summer residence. The name of the villa signifies '"Garden of Sikandar", after Sikandar Mahal Begum, the Nawab's favourite wife. It was stormed in 1857 by the British during the Indian Rebellion and witnessed within its walls the slaughter of all 2,200 sepoy mutineers who had made it a stronghold during their Siege of Lucknow. The site now houses the National Botanical Research Institute of India.
Bernard Diamond VC in Portglenone, County Antrim, Ireland was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
George Dobson Percival Willoughby was a British soldier who served as a lieutenant in the Bengal Artillery of the East India Company. He is remembered for having blown up the powder magazine at Delhi during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 to prevent it from falling into the hands of the rebels.
The Froberg Mutiny was a mutiny within the British armed forces staged between 4 and 12 April 1807 at Fort Ricasoli on the island of Malta, then a British Protectorate, by the Froberg Regiment. The regiment had been formed using dubious methods, with personnel recruited from various nationalities in Albania and the Ottoman Empire. The troops, who had arrived on Malta in 1806, were unhappy with their rank and pay. The mutiny lasted for eight days, during which several people were killed and the fort was damaged. The mutiny was put down and the ringleaders were executed. It is considered the most serious mutiny of the Napoleonic Wars.
The siege of Arrah took place during the Indian Mutiny. It was the eight-day defence of a fortified outbuilding, occupied by a combination of 18 civilians and 50 members of the Bengal Military Police Battalion, against 2,500 to 3,000 mutinying Bengal Native Infantry sepoys from three regiments and an estimated 8,000 men from irregular forces commanded by Kunwar Singh, the local zamindar or chieftain who controlled the Jagdishpur estate.
During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 a column of troops led by the commander of the 24th Regiment of Foot was sent to disarm Bengal Native Infantry units believed to be at risk of mutiny in Rawalpindi and Jhelum. At Rawalpindi, the 58th Bengal Native Infantry was disarmed peacefully, however the two companies of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry resisted the attempt by force of arms. These two companies were quickly defeated by the British, loyal native troops and the local population. In Jhelum, also garrisoned by the 14th, the concurrently timed disarmament was much more violent. Thirty five British soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot were killed along with a number of Loyal Indian troops, by mutinous sepoys of the 14th Bengal Native Infantry. When the mutineers realised that they, except the Sikhs, were to be disarmed, they mutinied and made a vigorous defence against the force that had arrived from Rawalpindi to disarm them. The following night a significant number of mutineers managed to slip away but most were subsequently arrested by the Kashmir authorities, into whose territory they had escaped.
John Arthur Bayley was a British Army infantry officer and grandson of a baronet, who wrote a personal account of his time as an officer on campaign in India. His regiment the 52nd Regiment of Foot took part in quelling the Indian Mutiny and specifically were part of a British assault force that forced a breach at the Kashmir Gate during the Siege of Delhi.
The United Irish Uprising in Newfoundland was a failed mutiny by Irish soldiers in the British garrison in St. John's, Newfoundland on 24 April 1800. The authorities attributed it to the influence and example of the United Irishmen and their rebellion in Ireland two years prior.