The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-12 00:00:00

ANGLO-INDIANS AT THE FUNERAL.

Under the heading " Anglo-Indians at Lord Lawrence's
Funeral," The Times of Tuesday gave an extremely interest-
ing article, from which we make the following extracts:—
"The solemn pageant enacted in Westminster Abbey on
Saturday,morning was essentially a chapter in the history of
our Indian Edipire. Anglo-Indians of both services, sol-
diers pure and simple, whose honours have all been won in
hard warfare; civilians on whose breasts war medals glis-
tened, and soldier politicals, a race of men of whom
India is justly proud, mustered in large ntlmbers to follow
to the grave the rugged chief whose unconquerable
energy had infused itself into not a few of those present,
and been the foundation of their brilliant careers.
Thronging the nave and choir of the noble resting-
place of England's mighty dead were men of all
countries and of all creeds, anxious to pay their tribute of
respect to the mortal remains of him who not inaptly has
been !styled the 'mint of India.' larominent among the

mourners was the decorated group of Punjaubee 8, men
whose dashing gallantry or still more daring counsel tumbled
our great Pro-consul to hold the Province he ruled no well,
and to convert it into a base of operations agabsst the
mutineers of Hindostan. Indian officials from all Presi-
dencies, and British statesmen of every party, joined
in the long procession, the sombre hues of whicti were
brightened up by the uniforms of soldiers on whose breasts
medals for the Sutlej. Punjab, the Mutiny, and Frontfear cam-
paigns were an evident token of comradeship with the de-
ceased peer. Two men, whose names are inseparably con-
nected with the administration of the Punjab, led the ,cortEge.
Sir Charles Brownlow, K.C. B , was fitly selected to bear the
decorations and medals of the deceased: A quarter of a
century ago, when adjutant of the let Sikh Infantry, Lieu-
tenant Brownlow was dangerously wounded in a border
skirmish near Peshawur. The soldierly qualities displayed
in the affair with the Momunds, and subsequent ly in the
Bozdar hills, attracted the attention of the LiEtutenant-
Governor of the Punjab; so when the Mutiny broke out, and
Sir John was casting about him for men to train th a warlike
population of the Punjab and lead them against our common
foe, the mutineers, Lieutenant Brownlow was selected to
raise a regiment. The aiguillettes of an Aide-de .Camp to
Her Majesty, the Knighthood of the Bath, m edals for
China, Umbeyla, Hazara, and Lushai prove the wisdom of
the selection. It was meet that an officer of thee Punjab
Frontier Force should have preceded the bier ,of his old
Chief.

"Following Sir Charles Brownlow, carrying the Baronet's
coronet of the late peer, was Lieutenant-Genes a Reynell
Taylor, C. 8., C.S I. His gallant deeds are little known at
home; but the Bayard of the Frontier bears a m ems in the
Punjab second to none. As assistant to Six Herbert
Edwardes, Reynell Taylor, in 1847, did good is ,ork in the
pacification of the turbulent Trans•lndus prov (noes, then
belonging to the Sikh kingdom. The murder of the British
officers at Mooltan was the signal for the second Sikh war,
and Edwards, throwing aside the task of pacification, moved
rapidly on the focus of rebellion and played a gal lent part in
the capture of the city. Mooltan in our hands, Reynell
Taylor, accompanied only by untrained Pathans, swept up the
border clearing it of bands of Sikh soldiery. lie relieved
Dere Ismail Khan, borrowed an old honeycomb ad piece of
ordnance from the Nawab of Tank, and with Ma raw half-
armed rabble laid siege to the Fort of Lukkl, Jaeld by two
regiments of Sikhs with ten guns. The story of that siege is
unknown in England, though no finer feat of art to was ever
performed by an Englishman. The smattering; of fortifica-
tion learned at Addiscombe stood the young Cavalry
subaltern in good stead; trenches were opened, sap-rollers
made of bags filled with cotton plucked front the fields;
stones from the river bed of the Kuram used in I lieu of round
shot—any and every expedient was triedL Without.
one single soldier, with no hope of relisforcements,
In the midst of a fanatical Mahomedan pop ulation, and
threatened by an army marching down the Kitrum Valley
from Cabul, Taylor never thought of flinching; his energy
infected the Pathans, his perseverance overcame s ill obstacles,
and after a siege of a month Lukki capitulated and the
Trans-Indus provinces were secured to us fur ever. Thirty
years ago rewards were sparinkly given, toad though
since the siege of Lukki Reynell Taylor's services have been
of no little account, he still remains a Companion of
the Bath. His tact and courage held the Deraja is for us in
1857, and as political officer in the Mahsud Vaziri Espedition
and at Umbeyla, he showed that he possessed other qualities
than those of a dashing soldier.

" Acting as pall-bearers were General John Beecher, C. 8.,
RE., one of Lord Lawrence's most trusted lieutenants in the
Punjab, a 'soldier civilian,' whose mild yet firm rule is
even now spoken of in kindly remembrance by the Fathans
of Hazara and Yusufzai ; Sir William Muir, now a member
of the Secretary of State's Council, and who previously
held the posts of Foreign Secretary to the Government
of India, member of the Viceroy's Council, and Finance
Minister at Calcutta; Lieutenant• General Sir Henry Nor-
man, K,C 8., C.1.E., who as an ensign was Brigade.
Major to our early expeditions in the Peshawur Valley,
and as a lieutenant was Adjutant-General to the
troops in the field under Lord Clyde; Sir Robert
Montgomery, whose imperturbable coolness saved Lahore,
and whose fertility of resource stamped out mutiny in the
capital of the Put jab. Lord Napier of Magdala, in England
by chance, was there to do honour to his old chief. As
military engineer to the Board of Administration Colonel
Napier planned the defences of the Punjsb frontier, draw
up schemes for bridging the Indus—schemes which to this
day, in spite of his Lordship's earnest remonstrances,
are still unfilled ; as a soldier, Colonel Napier
joined in more than one expedition against the
border tribes, and when the Mutiny broke out made for
himself a name which, like that of the great man whom on
Saturday he followed to the tomb, will ever be connected
with the bravest deeds of Indian history. Lord North-
brook, too, was there, doing honour to tl3 ex-Viceroy
whose policy he approved and whose steps he tried to
follow. Sir Stafford Northcote's previous connection with
the India Office during Lord Lawrence's Viceroyalty
enabled him to show that, though differing in politics,
he was ready to bear testimony to the sterltng worth of a
man whose sole thought was his country's good.

"Following the body, chief among the mourners, was his
brother, fir George, who gave forty years of his life to the
Indian service, who was a witness of the murder of our
envoy in the last Afghan imbroglio, a prisoner in Cabul, one
of the band of soldier civilians who under his two younger
brothers pacified elle Punjab, and who subsequently, in 1857,
held Rajpootana safe from rebellion. There, too, were Sir
Seymour Blau() and Cillonel Randall, staff officers to John
_Nicholson, who fell at Delhi, and by him confided to the care
of his old master, Sir John Lawrence. Later these officers
served on the staff of the Viceroy—the one as military
secretary, the other as A.D.C.—and linked with them was
Captain H. Lockwood, who also was an A.D.C. of Lord
Lawrence. There, too, was Sir Joseph Fayrer, the doctor
whose tender care soothed the last hours of Sir Henry
Lawrence, and Colonel Wilson, A.D.C. to the Queen. These
two, amid the turmoil and the din of that gallant siege,
followed the elder brother to his soldier's grave in the Resi-
dency at Lucknow ; and now, 22 years later, they act as
mourners in Westminster Abbey to the younger. General
Younghusband, C. 8., C 5.1., Chief of the Punjab Police, an
Irregular Cavalry soldier of more than Punjab reputation;
General Johnstone, C. 8., head of the Revenue Survey of the
Punjab, a participator in every expedition of note on
the border; General Keyes, C. 8., who 25 years ago as
subaltern was selected by Lord Lawrence to reorga-
nize a disaffected regiment, who, since then, has
served In upwards of a dozen different frontier wars,
who for eight years held the most important command in
India, the Punjab Frontier Force, and who has planned and
led four separate expeditions; Sir H. Lumsden, who raised
the Corps of Guides. Sir Dighton Probyn, V.C., C. 8., the
preux chevalier of India, attended on behalf of the Prince of
Wales. Ile, too, is of Punjab fame. As a subaltern he
served in the 2nd Punjab Cavalry, and leading a squadron
down to Delhi, highly distinguished himself in the Mutiny.
Thence he was called to the command of a Punjab regiment,
which he led in China and at Umbeyla, and now worthily
represents India in the household of the Prince of Wales.
Sir F. Pollock, Sir Douglas Forsyth, and Mr. George Ricketts,
C. 8., district officers, whose coolness in the hour of danger
held in check the disaffected in the large tracts under their
charge, followed their late chief, and beside them were scores
of old Anglo-Indians."

After enumerating others connected with the Indian ser-
vice, who were present on the occasion, The Times thus
concludes their article :

"The ceremony was worthy of the occasion. There were
statesmen there of the highest rank, who, sinking differences
of party, crowded round the open grave, anxious to do
honour to one of the most illustrious men of the present
generation; and as the eye fell on the group of bronzed and
decorated Anglo-Indians who had never hesitated to risk
their lives in furtherance of the policy by which the late
peer held India in his iron grip until help from home should
arrive, it seemed, indeed, that in laying him to rest by the
side of Clyde and Outram, fellow workers in the same field,
borne to the tomb by colleagues who reverenced his name,
justice had at last been done to John Lawrence of the
Punjab."