Untold lives blog

The India Office Records holds many files relating to the award of medals and honours to soldiers for bravery in battle. One interesting file on the subject of honours is from the India Office Information Department, which was responsible for communicating official policy to the press, advising on broadcasting and films about India, and liaising with the Ministry of Information and the Governments of India and Burma about publicity and propaganda.

The file contains a splendid booklet produced by the Inter Service Public Relations Directorate, India Command, in late 1945. Titled Officers & Men of the Indian Army who have been awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the field it gives information on the 21 men who had been awarded the medal during the course of the Second World War (up to February 1945). Each page of the booklet gives a photograph of the soldier, with a description of the action for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and a dramatic drawing showing the action.

Included in the booklet is a page on the Indian Army’s second youngest winner of the Victoria Cross, 20 year old Sepoy Kamal Ram, 8th Punjab Regiment, from the small village of Bholupura, Karauli State, in what was then the United Provinces. The action for which Kamal was awarded the VC took place in Italy in May 1944 just after the Regiment had crossed the river Gari. Kamal’s Company found itself held up by four German machine gun posts, and he volunteered to deal with one of them. He attacked the post alone killing the two German gunners and a German officer who suddenly appeared from a trench. Kamal then successfully attacked the second post, and hurled grenades into the third. Not surprisingly the remaining Germans surrendered. He later rushed a house, killing another German soldier, and taking two more as prisoners. The VC ribbon was presented to Kamal by King George VI in Italy in July 1944.

King George VI pinning the Victoria Cross on Sepoy Kamal Ram, 26 July 1944. © IWM (NA 17270)

Also in the file is a telegram from the Government of India War Department reporting on a letter received by the family of Kamal Ram from him following his act of bravery. Written for him in Hindi by a friend, it was intended for the whole village. In it he mentions nothing about his exploits, instead asks about news of relatives, their cattle, the crops and the weather. Clearly not wanting to worry his family he wrote to reassure them: “I am serving with great pleasure. I will never disgrace your name. I am at a great distance from you in Italian Raj. I have good food and I am quite fat”. His citation stated “His sustained and outstanding bravery unquestionably saved a difficult situation at a critical period”.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
India Office Information Department File 462/80(c) Honours, 1941-1944 [IOR/L/I/1/1034]

See my previous posting on the award of the Victoria Cross to the first soldier of the Indian Army during the First World War.

When Thomas Hickey sketched Prince Shukr Ullah on January 13 1801, this elegant ten year old boy’s life had just undergone a seismic shift. In 1799, when he was 8 years old, his father, Tipu Sultan of Mysore, had died in battle against the English East India Company.

WD3213 - Shukr Ullah, 7th son of Tipu. Inscribed, “Shuk’r Ullah Saheb, 7th and favourite son of the late Tippoo Sultaun and aged about 10 ½ . Jan 13 1801.” 

Tipu Sultan’s death brought the turbulent Mysore Wars to an end. The East India Company now controlled most of southern India. To ensure this victory, the Company’s next move was to quietly destroy Tipu Sultan’s family. The British placed a new, compliant ruling family onto the throne of Mysore, and Tipu Sultan’s potential heirs, his thirteen sons, were moved to Vellore Fort, the East India Company’s strongest fortress in the Carnatic.

According to the inscription on the drawing of Shukr Ullah, he was the “7th and favourite son of the late Tippoo Sultaun”. It is entirely possible that Tipu wanted this “favourite son” to ascend the throne of Mysore, but instead, he lived the rest of his life under house arrest. It is difficult to understand why the British found Shukr Ullah so threatening; At his young age, he probably hadn’t lived beyond the palace confines of the zenana.

Thomas Hickey’s sketch of Shukr Ullah was made into an oil painting, which is now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta. It was part of a set of 16 portraits by Hickey, which were sent to Calcutta in 1804 to be framed and displayed in the Governor General’s residence. All 16 portraits depict Indian men and boys whose fates were altered by the British after the Fourth Mysore War. Shukr Ullah’s six older brothers were painted as part of this set, but his six younger brothers were not. Today, the 16 Hickey portraits are in Calcutta’s Victoria Memorial Hall and in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.

In July 1806, Shukr Ullah’s older brothers were implicated into a Sepoy mutiny at Vellore Fort. Soon afterward, their place of internment was moved from Vellore to Rasapagla, in Bengal. Shukr Ullah died there on 25 September, 1837 at the approximate age of 47.

Jennifer Howes
Art Historian specialising in South Asia

Further Reading:
British Library, IOR/F/4/113, 2126. Pages 24L, 24M.
William Dalrymple. “Tipu Sultan: Noble or Savage?” The Open Magazine, 27 November 2015.

DISSEGNO E FORTIFICATIONE DI PIADENA E DI CANETO.  [Maps K.Top.78.10.1.]

This map really presents the case for an unknown, and certainly untold, life; its maker, or rather cartographer, remains anonymous and no other institutional examples of the map have been traced to date.

Titled “DISSEGNO E FORTIFICATIONE DI PIADENA E DI CANETO” the map forms part of the King’s Topographical Collection. The collection, formerly belonging to George III, was donated to the British Museum by George IV and is now held by the British Library. It comprises some 40,000 maps, prints and drawings of all areas of the world. The collection is currently being digitised and re-catalogued, improving records that often date from 1829 and show only brief titles concerned solely with the geographical location depicted and not with those involved in an item’s creation, its physical attributes or its context.

The map shows Piadena and Canneto sull’Oglio in Italy.

With a title and key in Italian, as well as the Italian subject matter, then Italy is a likely place of publication. Reference to the Duke of Nevers in the key, as well as to the quarters of Spanish and other troops, suggests a date of publication for the map during or shortly after the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628-1631). Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers and Duke of Mantua, as he would become, was successful in his claim to the Duchy of Mantua.

The map’s existence within the K.Top in a printed and published state, and not just as a manuscript, suggests that public interest in the War had warranted the map’s publication. However, that interest may have been relatively short-lived; if this K.Top example is the single exemplar then the numbers published are likely to have been relatively small. Thus, the map’s survival illustrates the importance of K.Top as a repository for such ephemeral, but extremely scarce, material .

The engraving shows traces of a pair of initials at lower left, perhaps “K. K.”.  If these initials do indeed suggest the identity of a person involved in the map’s creation, then that creator remains enigmatic.

Kate Marshall, Map Cataloguer Kings Topographical Collection.

Indian seamen, or lascars, remain forgotten heroes of the world wars, partly because information about them is very scarce. The blog I posted earlier today details the death toll, the numbers of men taken prisoner and acts of bravery and selflessness in circumstances of extreme danger. We thought it appropriate to remember the Indian seamen commended for their bravery and devotion to duty by publishing their names recorded in an India Office Records file (IOR/L/E/8/2909).

Image of Head Lascar
Photo 472/25 (110)

Documents from the India Office Records file, below

 In the file, details of the individual reasons for their award are detailed down the right hand side of the pages above. Unfortunately, these flimsy papers with their slightly smudgy text are too wide to be photographed in their entirety and remain legible in this blog. The original file may be consulted in the Asian and African reading room at the British Library once you have obtained a reader's pass.

Penny Brook
Head of India Office Records

Further reading

Rozina Visram Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (Pluto, 2002)

IOR/L/E/8/2909 E&O 5216/45 - Preparation of a Brochure on the War Effort of Indian Seamen, 1945

Making Britain database

Asians in Britain learning resource

Images

Seamen from South Asia, known as lascars, played a vital role during both world wars, providing manpower to keep the supply lines open. However, their bravery and commitment, in often terrifying situations, have been largely overlooked, even though thousands paid the ultimate price. During the First World War 3,427 lascars lost their lives and 1,200 were taken prisoner. It is thought that around 6,600 died during the Second World War, 1,022 were wounded, many severely, and 1,217 became prisoners of war. Pioneering historians such as Rozina Visram have highlighted the importance of their role and the extent of their sacrifice, but until now, relatively little has been known about the stories of individual lascars. The India Office Records team was therefore delighted to find this modest-looking file, dated 1945.

A note inside the file states ‘We’ve very little information about Indian Seamen. The attached represents all there is.’

  According to a further note ‘Indian seamen served in all the Seven Seas throughout the war. They took part in the landing operations in Africa, Italy, France and Burma.’ The file contains five pages listing honours awarded to Indian officers and men for gallantry and devotion to duty, or for long and meritorious service at sea. Honours were awarded for bravery under fire and when ships were torpedoed and sinking, courageous rescues, service to others, leadership and fearless devotion to duty. A further page lists those who received civil commendations for brave conduct or were mentioned in despatches. The images below are taken from the list of honours and give a flavour of the individual acts of courage.

s.s. British Judge
Award: B.E.M. 

m.v. Sutlej
Award: B.E.M. 

s.s. Fort Maisonneuve
Award: B.E.M. 

The slightly fuzzy typescript and flimsy paper in the file seem inadequate as a memorial to such courage, but this record is remarkable for the way it brings together the elusive details of their service.

This story also illuminates the Untold Lives of the staff at the British Library. The importance of the file was spotted by Luke Marriage when he was cataloguing the India Office Economic Department records, so he showed it to colleagues at the India Office Records team meeting and we agreed that we should blog about it. Before he catalogued it, researchers could only have found it by painstakingly searching in the original registers and indexes which would have led them to the rather cryptic catalogue record below.

Thanks to Luke’s work, the new catalogue record includes the brief description below which means that in future, researchers will easily find it in our online catalogue.

We are very pleased that our efforts to improve access to the India Office Records have also enabled us to pay tribute to the courage and fortitude of Indian seamen during the Second World War. At 11-00 am today, we will remember them further by using the Untold Lives blog to post the names of all those listed in the file. 

Penny Brook and Luke Marriage
India Office Records

Further reading

Rozina Visram, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (Pluto, 2002)

IOR/L/E/8/2909

Making Britain database

Asians in Britain learning resource

Images:      

The Battle of Agincourt was fought between the English and French armies 600 years ago on 25 October 1415, St Crispin’s Day.

And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(Shakespeare’s Henry V Act 4, Scene 3)

Plan of the Battle of Agincourt from The Chronicles of E. de Monstrelet (London, 1840) BL flickr 

St Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers, cobblers, and leatherworkers.  In the third century two brothers, Crispin and Crispinian, went from Rome to France where they preached Christianity and worked at night making shoes.  The Roman governor had them put to death and they were made saints having been martyrs for their faith.

St Crispin and St Crispinian from William Hone, The Every-day Book (1825) 

Shoemakers traditionally celebrated St Crispin’s Day with a day off work and much merrymaking. Newspapers often published stories of shoemakers ‘on the drink’ as they kept St Crispin’s Day. An old rhyme ran:

The twenty-fifth of October,
More Snobs drunk than sober.

If it rained on 25 October, St Crispin was said to be helping shoemakers by sending weather that made people think of buying new shoes and galoshes.

William Hone tells the story of Emperor Charles V roaming incognito in Brussels when his boot needed mending.  He found a cobbler but it happened to be St Crispin’s Day.  The cobbler refused to leave the jollities to carry out the repair in spite of being offered a handsome tip by the Emperor: ‘“What, friend!” says the fellow, “do you know no better than to ask one of our craft to work on St. Crispin?  Was it Charles himself, I’d not do a stitch for him now; but if you’ll come and drink St. Crispin, do and welcome: we are as merry as the emperor can be.”’ Charles accepted the offer.  The cobbler guessed that Charles might be a courtier and drank a toast to the Emperor. Charles asked if he loved the Emperor: ‘“Love him!” says the son of Crispin; “ay, ay, I love his long-noseship well enough; but I should love him much better would he but tax us a little less”’. The next day, Charles summoned his host to court.  When the man realised whom he had entertained the previous day, he feared his joke about the Emperor’s long nose would cost him his life. However Charles thanked the cobbler for his hospitality and as a reward ordered that the cobblers of Flanders should bear arms of a boot with the Emperor’s crown upon it, and that the company of cobblers should henceforward take precedence over the company of shoemakers in processions.

The Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) from Cassell's Illustrated Universal History (London, 1893) BL flickr

So we wish you a Happy St Crispin's Day!

Ho! workers of the old time styled
The Gentle Craft of Leather!
Young brothers of the ancient guild,
Stand forth once more together!
Call out again your long array,
In the olden merry manner!
Once more, on gay St. Crispin's day,
Fling out your blazoned banner!

From 'The Shoemaker' by John Greenleaf Whittier

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
William Hone, The Every-day Book (1825)
British Newspaper Archive

Today, 21 October, marks the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, fought by the Royal Navy in 1805 under the command of Viscount Horatio Nelson against a superior combined force of French and Spanish ships commanded by the French Admiral Villeneuve. It was the most decisive naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars, confirming British naval supremacy and ensuring that Napoleon was unable to progress his plans for an invasion of Britain.

In a letter written just before the battle Nelson informed his mistress Emma Hamilton:

'…the signal has been made that the enemy's combined fleet are coming out of Port. We have very little wind, so that I have no hopes of seeing them before tomorrow. May the God of Battles crown my endeavours with success; at all events, I will take care that my name shall ever be most dear to you and Horatia, both of whom I love as much as my own life. And as my last writing before the Battle will be to you, so I hope in God that I shall live to finish my letter after the Battle'.

This was the last letter Nelson would write Emma.  

Horatio Nelson to Emma Hamilton, 19 Oct. 1805. British Library, Egerton MS 1614, f.125

Just before the two sides engaged at about noon on 21 October, Nelson sent round his famous flag signal: ‘England expects that every man will do his duty’. By 5pm the battle was virtually over with the British having captured seventeen prizes and burned another. Admiral Villeneuve was taken prisoner and taken back to Britain. Only eleven French ships escaped back to Cádiz and of those only five were considered seaworthy.

So comprehensive was the victory that Nelson’s unorthodox tactics have given rise to a great deal of controversy ever since, with some praising them as a masterpiece of naval strategy while others question how much control he had over his unusual plans. Nelson’s chief aim was to send the enemy into confusion. Twelve days before the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson sent this memorandum to Admiral Collingwood: the British fleet was to be drawn up ‘in two lines of 16 ships each with an advanced squadron’. The intention was to ‘overpower from two or three ships ahead of the Commander-in-Chief’.  

 
Admiral Lord Nelson’s Battle of Trafalgar Memorandum, 9 Oct. 1805. British Library, Add MS 37953

The victory at Trafalgar came at the cost of many lives including that of Nelson who was hit by a musket-ball fired from the mast of the French ship Redoubtable. In severe pain, he died three hours later at 4.30 pm. His body was preserved in a barrel of brandy for the voyage home.

Celebration of the great victory at Trafalgar was heavily tempered with grief at the news of Nelson’s death. On 9 January 1806 he was interred in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral.  Huge, silent crowds lined the streets to watch the cortège go past. Even the captured French Admiral, Villeneuve, was present to pay his respects.  

Lord Nelson’s Funeral Procession by Water, 8 January 1806. British Library, K.Top.27.46.

Nelson's influence continued long after his death with great revivals of interest, especially during times of national crisis in Britain. Though it came at the cost of his life, his comprehensive victory over the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar ensured his reputation as one of Britain’s greatest naval heroes for many centuries to come.   

Alexander Lock
Curator Modern Archives & Manuscripts 1851-1950

A recent donation to the India Office Private Papers, held at the British Library, gives a fascinating insight into the siege of Lucknow in 1857. Robert Loveday Inglis, a young soldier with the Bengal Army, wrote a series of letters during the siege which formed a kind of journal of life during the struggle for survival at the British Residency in Lucknow during the uprising against British rule in India.

Robert was born in Simla on 14 March 1839 to John Inglis and Louisa Maria Loveday. The family had a tradition of military service in India. Robert’s grandfather on his mother’s side Lambert Richard Loveday was a Lieutenant General in the Bengal Army, and his father John also served in the Bengal Army in Afghanistan, and at various posts around northern India. In November 1856, Robert was accepted as a cadet in the East India Company’s army. He served with the 13th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry during the siege.

From General views and special points of interest of the city of Lucknow  from drawings made on the spot by Lieut. Col. D.S. Dodgson, with descriptive notices (London, 1860). Images Online

Robert’s letters date from 14 September to 20 November 1857, and are addressed to his mother, who was then at Calcutta.  Robert writes about his experiences, the long periods of boredom punctuated by bursts of intense fighting, the lack of food, the plight of the wounded, the horrors of war, and thoughts of his family.

In one letter dated 16 September, he recalls his shock on first visiting the hospital: “I had no idea the number of our wounded was so great. The beds were all arranged side by side down both sides of a long narrow room. Every here and there you would see some poor fellows with only the stump of their legs or arms”. However, he goes on to comment that he had become in some sense used to the sight of death: “Since then I have seen a great deal of death and though not by any means indifferent, yet I have become so accustomed to it that my feelings now are not the same, at any rate I don’t feel the same awe on passing a death bed as I used to”.

Photo 32/12 Residency building after the siege Images Online 

Robert described many instances of fighting, but was also given to examining the psychological effects of war on him. In killing as many of the enemy as he could, he wondered if he was motivated more by a natural feeling of revenge than by a stern sense of duty, and worried about the brutalising effect of war, confessing to a feeling of triumph when he had succeeded in killing any of the enemy or witnessed them being blown up by a mine.

Robert was wounded shortly before the siege ended, and died in Allahabad on 27 December 1857. His letters were carefully preserved by his family, and were passed down the generations. They were kindly donated to the British Library by Christie Taylor, Robert being her great great uncle.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Letters written during the siege of Lucknow by Robert Loveday Inglis (1839-1857), Bengal Army, to his mother Louisa Maria Loveday at Calcutta (1857) [Mss Eur F693/1]
Unpublished book by Christie Taylor "Letters Home of Robert Loveday Inglis" (2011) [Mss Eur F693/3]