Page 67 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

The Residency now – The Residency compound is well maintained by India’s National Monuments Authority and is open to the public. It remains as it was after the siege was lifted (but tidied up, of course). Several buildings exist in various states of disrepair, all pockmarked with cannon and ri e shot. Part of the main Residence included the signal tower where a look-out of cer was stationed daily throughout the siege. Latterly, semaphore equipment was installed there to communicate with Sir Colin Campbell’s advancing relief force
be greased with a mixture of beef and pork fat, which was felt would de le both Hindu and Mus- lim Indian soldiers as the end of the cartridge had to be bitten off when loading the ri e. On 1st May, the 7th Oudh Irregular Infantry refused to bite the cartridges, and on 3rd May they were disarmed and disbanded by other regiments.
On 10th May, the Indian soldiers at Meerut, another city in Oodh, broke into open rebel- lion, and marched on Delhi. When news of this reached Lucknow, Lawrence recognised the gravity of the crisis and summoned two sets of pensioners (retired Indian soldiers) from their homes, one of sepoys and one of artillerymen, to whose loyalty, and to that of the Sikh and some Hindu sepoys, the successful defence of the Residency was largely due.
On 23rd May, Lawrence began fortifying the Res- idency (a large complex containing the of cial home of the Commissioner [the Residence] and the former British Residents General, and many other buildings) and laying in supplies for a siege. Large numbers of British civilians made their way to the Residency from the cantonments and out- lying districts. On 30th May most of the Oudh and Bengal troops at Lucknow broke into open rebellion. In addition to his locally recruited pen- sioners, Lawrence also had the bulk of the Brit- ish 32nd Regiment of Foot1 available, and they were able to drive the rebels away from the city.
1 This was a Cornish regiment from around Bodmin, originally raised in 1702, and which later merged
to become the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Its successors are the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry, The Light Infantry and now The Ri es.
First siege
Lawrence retreated into the Residency, where the siege now began in earnest on 1st July. The actual defended line was based on the com- plex of six detached smaller buildings and four entrenched batteries. These buildings included the actual Residence, the Treasury, Dr Fayrer’s house and hospital, the Brigade Of cers’ Mess and also the Begum Kothi (ladies quarters), this being a complex of buildings including a tomb and mosque built by the then Nawab Saadat Ali Khan II in the late 18th Century when he built the Residency for his British Resident. The posi- tion covered some 60 acres of ground, and the garrison (855 British of cers and soldiers, 712 Indians, 153 civilian volunteers, with 1,280 non- combatants, including hundreds of women and children) was too small to defend it effectively against a properly prepared and supported attack. Also, the Residency lay in the midst of several palaces, mosques and administrative buildings, as Lucknow had been the royal capi- tal of Oudh for many years. Lawrence initially refused permission for these to be demolished, urging his engineers to ‘spare the holy places’ so as not to further in ame local sensibilities. How- ever, during the siege, they did, as predicted, provide good vantage points and cover for rebel sharpshooters and artillery.
The rst attack, after artillery bombardments on 30th June, was repulsed on 1st July. The next day, Sir Henry Lawrence was fatally wounded by a shell, dying on 4th July. Colonel John Inglis, commanding the 32nd Regiment, took military command of the garrison. Major John Banks was appointed the acting Civil Commis-
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