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Appendix A

(Vide note to page 60.)

With reference to the common saying that Lord Lawrence saved the Panjab, and thereby saved India, it may be fair to remark that this opinion was not supported by many of the officers who served with the Dehli Field Force during the siege: their views may be shown by the following extracts taken from a letter written by Lieut.-Colonel Turnbull (who served throughout the siege on the personal staff of Sir Henry Barnard, General Reed, and Sir Archdale Wilson) to Mr. Bosworth Smith, with reference to Lord Lawrence’s share of credit for the work done at Dehli, as described in that Author’s book:–

“The one figure which stands pre-eminently forward in this narrative” (Mr. Bosworth Smith’s Life of Lord Lawrence ‘) “of the siege of Dehli, is that of Sir John Lawrence. All others sink into insignificance. The terrible anxiety of our generals, receiving constant entreaties (if not more) from Lahor to do something; to take active measures to push on, &c., when it would have been ruinous, if not practically impossible, to do so; the tearful prostration of mind and body by such a strain in a climate reaching sometimes 133 degrees in a headquarters tent, the perpetual knowledge that if nothing were done they might be blamed, and, if anything were done and failed, the blame would be theirs also; more especially as the consequence of any such failure would be the rising of the Panjab; all this does not seem to have been sufficiently taken into account. It was Sir John Lawrence who urged our instant move on Dehli. When we got there we found ourselves checked, surrounded, and outnumbered. He denuded the Panjab of troops, and sent them to us, thus enabling us to hold our own, and thus to save the Panjab, and India. It is hard to see how, with the original responsibility resting on him, he could have done anything less.

“The siege of Dehli has never been sufficiently estimated in England, and for several reasons. No one can know what really went on there except those who were there. The fall of Dehli took place in September. Sir Colin Campbell had arrived in Calcutta the 13th August. From that moment all attention was riveted on him; and, soon after, on Lakhnao. Troops arrived from the Cape by October; the China expedition was directed to India; troops and officers, whose numbers and names had already become well known during the Crimean War, came out; full battalions, one thousand strong, took the place of attenuated regiments of

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two hundred and fifty; and last, not least, war-correspondents kept the English public well up in all the minor details of what was then occurring. The natural consequence was, that the recollection of things done at Dehli faded away. The terrible anxieties of the commanders, the gallantry and sufferings of the officers and men, were either passed over, or, if remembered, were soon obliterated by the newspaper descriptions of what was even then going on. One person could not be passed over, and that was Sir John Lawrence. From his constant correspondence with the Government at the Presidency, his work could not be forgotten. The centre of the work above the zone of the Mutiny was the taking of Dehli, so that his name was, in England, more immediately connected with it; and, in the opinion of some, he never used such opportunities as came to his lot afterwards as fully as he might have done in remembering those who were one of the stepping-stones to his advancement.”

Colonel Turnbull was a most gallant officer. In his despatch after the battle of Badli-ki-Sarai, Sir Henry Barnard specially mentioned the “daring devotion” of his two aides-de-camp, Captain Turnbull and his own son. The praise was well merited, for both were to the front whenever service was to be rendered and danger to be encountered.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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