John Nicholson (officer)
John Nicholson ( December 11, 1822 , † September 23, 1857 ) was an officer in the British East India Company who played a major role in the suppression of the uprising during the Indian Uprising of 1857 . He died of gunshot wounds sustained during the recapture of Delhi in September 1857.
Life
John Nicholson was the eldest son of doctor Alexander Jaffray Nicholson and his wife Clara Hogg. After his uncle James Hogg gave him an officer post in the army of the British East India Company in 1839 , he began his service there. He gained his first military experience during the First Anglo-Afghan War , where he found the mutilated body of his brother Alexander on the Khyber Pass . He then served as Sir Henry Lawrence's political assistant . At the beginning of the Indian Uprising of 1857 he was Deputy Commissioner in Peshawar , one of the northernmost areas of British India . John Nicholson was known for his quick and decisive actions in preventing the Peshawar uprising from spreading. On May 22, just a few days after the uprising in Merath broke out, he had his outnumbered troops disarm their Indian fellow soldiers, thus preventing the uprising from spreading to this region. On June 14th he was provisionally appointed brigadier general and entrusted a mobile task force with which he disarmed Indian troops before they could join the Indian uprising or put them in combat. Because of his great success in this task, he was sent to Delhi on July 25th by Henry Lawrence. Delhi has been in Indian hands since the beginning of the uprising. British troops had holed up on a ridge north-west of the city, but had not yet succeeded in retaking the city. On August 24th, Nicholson succeeded in defeating a numerically much larger insurgent force trying to intercept a supply train for British troops in Delhi. The success was rated by his contemporaries as a major military achievement. John Nicholson was one of the officers who pushed for a storming of Delhi. He accused his superior officers, who shrank from retaking Delhi, to incompetence. He threatened to forcibly depose the commanding officer of the British troops besieging Delhi if he did not finally decide to storm Delhi. John Nicholson was badly wounded at the beginning of the storm in Delhi. However, he still saw that Delhi could be successfully retaken.
John Nicholson was considered a charismatic officer, who was also prepared to take high risks for himself and his troops. His contempt for Indians, against whom he often took very brutal measures, is notorious. In the Victorian era he was revered as one of the heroes of Delhi. He plays a role in a number of books aimed at young readers. Also Rudyard Kipling plays in his book Kim to him.
literature
- William Dalrymple : The Last Mughal - The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-7475-8726-2 .
- Saul David: The Indian Mutiny: 1857. Penguin Books, 2003.
- Saul David: Victoria's Wars. Penguin Books, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-14-100555-3 .
- Nicholson, John . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 19 : Mun - Oddfellows . London 1911, p. 65 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- Sir Henry Newbolt: A Ballad of John Nicholson .
- John Nicholson's Tomb in Delhi
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saul David: Victoria's Wars. Penguin Books, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-14-100555-3 , p. 322
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Nicholson, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British East India Company officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 11, 1822 |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 23, 1857 |