Flashman In The Great Game

Notes

1. Lord Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade, was a popular hero after Balaclava, but a reaction set in against him in 1856, with rumours that he had shirked his duty, and even that he had not reached the Russian guns at all. The law-suit did not take place until 1863, when Cardigan sued Colonel Calthorpe for libel on the subject; it was established that he had been at the guns, and also that he had left his brigade during the action which, although it did not reflect on his personal courage, left a large question-mark over his fitness for command.

2. Punch also noted that at this dinner champagne was served at the rate of only one bottle per three guests.

3. For once Flashman is exact with a date — it was on the 21st that Florence Nightingale had a two-hour meeting with the Queen at Balmoral. In fact, his recollections of Balmoral are so exact, even down to topics of conversation and the state of the weather on particular days, that one suspects he is indebted to the detailed diary which his wife Elspeth kept during their married life, and which forms part of The Flashman Papers. (For corroboration, see Queen Victoria's Letters, 1827-61, ed. Benson and Esher; The Queen at Balmoral by F. P. Humphrey (1893); Life of the Prince Consort, 5 vols., by Sir T. Martin (1875-8o); Twenty Years at Court, by Eleanor Stanley (1916); and A Diary of Royal Movements … in the life of Queen Victoria (1883).

4. No record can be found of a visit by Lord Palmerston to Balmoral in late September, 1856; obviously it must have been kept secret, along with the disturbing news that chapattis had appeared in an Indian regiment: most histories of the Mutiny do not mention chapattis as appearing until early in 1857.

For the rest, Flashman gives a fair picture of "Pam" as his contemporaries saw him — a popular, warm-hearted, impulsive, and (to some eyes) deplorable figure whom Disraeli described as a "painted old pantaloon". Lord Ellenborough was a former Governor-General of India, and Sir Charles Wood, although at the Admiralty when Flashman met him, had been President of the Board of Control for India from 1853-55, and was to return to the India Office from 1859-66.

5. The missionaries were greatly displeased at a government decision in 1856-7 that education in Indian schools should be secular. The fear of Christianisation was certainly present among Indians at this time, and is considered to have been a main cause of the Mutiny. Preaching army officers were regarded as especially dangerous: Governor-General Canning, who was was unjustly suspected of being an ardent proselytiser, actually said of one religiously-minded colonel that he was unfit to be trusted with his native regiment, and Lord Ellenborough delivered a strong warning in the House of Lords on June 9, 1857, against "colonels connected with missionary operations … You will see the most bloody revolution which has at any time occurred in India. The English will be expelled." This contrasts with the statement of Mr Mangles, chairman of the East India Company: "Providence has entrusted the empire of Hindoostan to England in order that the banner of Christ should wave triumphant from one end of India to the other."

6. John Nicholson (1821-57) was one of the legendary figures of British India, and an outstanding example of the type of soldier-administrator who became known as "the desert English", possibly because many of them were Scots or Irish. Their gift, and it was rare, was of winning absolute trust and devotion from the people among whom they worked in the East; Nicholson had it to an unusual degree, and when he was only twenty-seven the religious sect of "Nikkulseynites" was formed, worshipping him with a fervour which caused him much annoyance. As a soldier and administrator he was brilliant; as a Victorian case-study, fascinating. Since he served in the First Afghan War he would certainly have known Flashman, but it is interesting that they met as described here, since in late 1856 Nicholson should have been far away on the frontier. However, as he was about to enter on new duties at Peshawar about this time, it is conceivable that he came south first, and that they met on the Agra Trunk Road.

7. The Guides was perhaps the most famous fighting unit in the history of British India. Raised by Henry Lawrence in 1846, and commanded by Harry Lumsden, it became legendary along the frontier as an intelligence and combat force of both infantry and cavalry (Kipling, it will be remembered, used the Guides' mystique in his "Ballad of East and West"). It is interesting that Flashman recognised Sher Khan as an ex-Guide by his coat, since the regiment normally wore nondescript khaki rather than a military colour.

8. Flashman's assumption that the Rani would be much older was not unnatural. He had heard Palmerston describe her as "old when she married", which, by Indian standards, she was, being well into her teens.

9. The General Service Enlistment Act (1856) required recruits to serve overseas if necessary. This was one of the most important grievances of the sepoys, who held that crossing the sea would break their caste.

10. Irregular cavalry units of the British Indian armies occasionally dressed in a highly informal style, so the Afghan rissaldar might conceivably have been wearing an old uniform coat of Skinner's Horse ("The Yellow Boys"). But it is unlikely that he had ever served in that unit — the Guides would have been more his mark.

11. The society of Thugs (lit. deceivers) were worshippers of the goddess Kali, and practised murder as a religious devotion which would ensure them a place in paradise. They preyed especially on travellers, whom they would join on the road with every profession of friendship before suddenly falling on them at a prearranged signal; the favourite method of killing was strangulation with a scarf. The cult numbered thousands before Sir William Sleeman stamped them out in the 1830s, but since many continued at large, and the Jhansi region was traditionally a hotbed of thugee, it is perfectly possible that ex-Thugs were active as Flashman says. In some cases it was possible to identify a former Thug by a tattoo on his eyelid or a brand on his back.

12. "Pass him some of his own tobacco" — a grim joke by Ilderim's companion. "Pass the tobacco" was the traditional verbal signal of the Thugs to start killing.

13. There was indeed a Makarram Khan, who served in the Peshawar Police, and later became a notable frontier raider at the head of a band of mounted tribesmen, fighting against the Guides cavalry. (See History of the Guides, 1846-1922).

14. The offering and touching of a sword hilt, in token of mutual respect, was traditional in the Indian Cavalry. (See From Sepoy to Subedar, the memoirs of Sita Ram Pande, who served in the Bengal Army for almost fifty years. They were first published a century ago, and recently edited by Major-General James Lunt.)

15. It is curious that Flashman makes no reference to dyeing his skin (as Ilderim had suggested) and indeed seems to imply that he found it unnecessary. But dark as he was, and light-skinned as many frontiersmen are, he must surely have stained his body, or he could hardly have passed for long in a sepoy barrack-room.

16. Of the sepoys whom Flashman mentions by name, only two can be definitely identified as serving in the 3rd N.C. skirmishers at this time — Pir Ali and Kudrat Ali, who were both corporals, although Flashman refers to Pir Ali as though he were an ordinary sepoy.

17. "Addiscombe tripe" refers to the officers, not the jemadars and NCO's. Addiscombe was the military seminary which trained East India Company cadets from 1809 to 1861. Flashman's prejudice may be explained by the fact that Lord Roberts, among other famous soldiers, went there.

18. The fears and grievances which Flashman recounts probably give a fair reflection of the state of mind of many sepoys in early 1857. Rumours of polluted flour and greased cartridges, and stories like that of the Dum-Dum sweeper, reinforced the suspicion that the British were intent on interfering with their religion, breaking their caste, altering terms of enlistment, and generally changing the established order. To these were added the Oude sepoys' discontent at the recent annexation of their state, which cost them certain privileges, and resentment at the changed attitude towards them (by no means imaginary, according to some contemporary writers) of a new generation of British officers and troops, who seemed more ignorant and contemptuous than their predecessors; this unfortunately coincided with the arrival in the Bengal Army of a better class of sepoys, possibly quicker to take offence — or, according to some writers, more spoiled.

All these things combined to undermine confidence and cause unrest, and there was no lack of agitators ready to play on the sepoys' fears. The belief that the British intended to Christianise India (see Note 5) was widespread, and reinforced by such reforms as the suppression of thugee and suttee (widow-burning). The resentment which reform had created among Indian princes has been referred to: in addition, educational innovations created disquiet (see Lawrence's evidence to the Select Committee on India, July 12, 1859, E.I. Parliamentary Papers. vol. 18); so even did the development of the railway and telegraph. With all these underlying factors, it will be seen that the greased cartridge was eventually only the spark to the tinder. (See also Sita Ram, Lord Robert's Forty-one Years in India, Kaye and Malleson's History of the Sepoy War and History of the Indian Mutiny (1864-80), G. W. Forrest's History of the Indian Mutiny (1904-12), and the same author's Selections from the Letters, Despatches and C.S.P. Government of India, 1857-8.)

19. Mrs Captain MacDowall's advice on the running of an Indian household might serve as a model for its time. (See the Complete Indian Housekeeper, by G. G. and F. A. S. published in 1883.)

20. The 19th N.I., who had rioted in February, were disbanded at the end of March, having refused the new cartridge. The paper which Mangal showed to Flashman was undoubtedly the March 28 issue of Ashruf-al-Akbar, of Lucknow, which predicted a great holy war throughout India and the Middle East; however, it gave a warning against relying on Russian assistance, describing them as "enemies of the faith".

21. Sepoy Mangal Pandy (? -1857), of the 34th Native Infantry, ran amok on the parade ground at Barrackpore on March 29, apparently drugged with bhang, trying to rouse a religious revolt and claiming that British troops were coming against the sepoys. He attacked one of his officers, and then tried to kill himself. Pandy was subsequently hanged, along with a native officer whose offence apparently was that he did not try to stop the attack. However, this first of the Indian sepoy rebels gained an appropriate immortality: the British word for any native mutineer thereafter was "pandy".

22. For the loading drill, see Forest's Selections, and J. A. B. Palmer's The Mutiny Outbreak in Meerut in 1857 referring to the Platoon Exercise Manual. While there is general agreement among historians on what happened at the firing parade, some differ over precise technical details; Flashman's account is sound on the whole. He states that the cartridges were not greased, but waxed, and since he does not refer to them as ball cartridges, this would seem to confirm that they were ungreased blanks. However, this would not allay the fears of the sepoys, who were apparently suspicious of any cartridge with a shiny appearance. Nor do they seem to have been impressed by the repeated assurances that it was unnecessary to bite the cartridge (which, if it were greased, would be highly polluting); as early as January, 1857, when it was announced that the sepoys could grease their own loads with non-polluting substances, it was also stated that they could tear the cartridges with their fingers (see Hansard, 3rd series 145, May 22, 1857); the response of some sepoys to this was that they might forget, and bite.

23. The British were, in fact, more considerate and humane towards their native troops than they were to their white ones. Flogging continued in the British Army long after it had been abolished for Indian troops, whose discipline appears to have been much more lax, possibly in consequence — a point significantly noted by Subedar Sita Ram when he discusses in his memoirs the causes of the Mutiny.

24. Lieutenant (later Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh) Gough was warned by one of the native officers of his troop on May 9 that the sepoys would rise to rescue their comrades from the jail. Carmichael-Smith and Archdale Wilson both rejected the warning.

25. One of the first casualties of the Meerut mutiny was, in fact, a British soldier murdered in a bazaar lemonade shop.

26. Hewitt and Archdale Wilson were extra-ordinarily slow in getting the British regiments on the move after the outbreak; they did not reach the sepoy lines until after the mutineers had set off for Delhi.

27. Altogether thirty-one Europeans are known to have been murdered in the Meerut massacre, including the Dawson family, and Mrs Courtney and her three children (all mentioned by Flashman). The full list is given in the Records of the Intelligence Department of the N.W. Provinces, 1857, vol. ii, appendix. The circumstances of their deaths are horrifying enough — Surgeon Dawson was shot on his verandah, while Mrs Dawson was burned by thrown torches, and at least one pregnant woman, Mrs Captain Chambers, was murdered — but even so, greatly overstated reports of Meerut atrocities were circulated, including tales of sexual violation. It is worth quoting the statement of Sir William Muir, then head of the N.W. Intelligence Department, in a letter to Lord Canning (Agra, December 30, 1857), that several British witnesses at Meerut were confident that no rapes took place, and they believed that the atrocities, appalling as they were, had been exaggerated. It was alleged, for example, that Riding-Master Langdale's (not Langley's, as Flashman says) little daughter was tortured to death; she had, in fact, been killed by a tulwar blow while sleeping on her charpoy (see the Rev. T. C. Smith's letter, dated Meerut, December 16, 1857). This tendency of many British observers to be strictly fair and impartial, even in the highly emotional atmosphere of the Mutiny and its immediate aftermath, should not be seen as playing down the atrocities; they were merely concerned to correct the wilder stories, and give an honest account.

28. The mutiny and massacre at Jhansi took place exactly as Ilderim Khan described it. The mass murder of the 66 Britons (30 men, 16 women, and 20 children) was carried out in the Jokan Bagh on June 8, t857; the only details which Ilderim's narrative adds to historical record are the quoted remarks of the victims and their killers. It was the second largest massacre in the entire Mutiny, and in some ways the most cruel, although it has been overshadowed in popular infamy by Cawnpore. What is by no means certain is how far Rani Lakshmibai was responsible, if at all: she protested her innocence afterwards and there is considerable doubt what her attitude was to Skene's three envoys before the Town Fort surrendered. (No record exists of the death of "Murray sahib" as described by Ilderim Khan, and the quotation that the Rani "had no concern with English swine", which is to be found in at least one other contemporary source, appears to rest on the evidence of a suspect Indian witness). It is possible that Lakshmibai was powerless to prevent either the mutiny or the massacre; on the other hand, there is no evidence that she tried to, and there is no doubt that soon afterwards she was most effectively in control of Jhansi, and capable of dealing with any threat to her sovereignty.

29. The quotation given by Flashman is the substance of the last letter which Wheeler sent out of Cawnpore after one of the most heroic defences in the history of war. Later events were to overshadow it, but it remains an epic of the Mutiny, for the conditions within the entrenchment, the figures of casualties, and even small details of the siege, were as Flashman describes them: for example, Bella Blair did die, John McKillop of the Civil Service did draw water under constant fire for a week before he was killed, and the reference to shooting horses for food, rather than riders, is authentic.

30. Azeemoolah Khan had been sent to London in 1854 by Nana Sahib, the adopted son of the Maharatta Peshawa, to petition against the disallowance of Nana's pension and title after his father's death. The petition failed, but Azeemoolah, by his own account, had immense success in his pursuit of London society women — a boast which did not endear him to W. H. Russell of The Times when the two met at Missirie's Hotel, Constantinople, in 1856, and subsequently in the Crimea. Apart from being a nobleman, Azeemoolah is also believed to have worked as a teacher and as a waiter. Nana Sahib, who had joined the rebellion on the outbreak at Cawnpore, was to become the most famous of the Mutiny leaders, but Tantia Tope, whom Flashman barely noticed, was to be a far greater menace in the field.

31. While Flashman's account of the council of war is new, it supports the known facts: Wheeler wanted to fight on, and his younger officers supported him; the older men wished to surrender for the sake of the women and children, and Wheeler finally agreed, although he was deeply suspicious of the rebels' good faith. Nana Sahib's offer of terms, in the words which Flashman gives, was brought to the entrenchment by Mrs Jacobs, described by one contemporary as an "aged lady".

32. Details of the massacre at Suttee Ghat are necessarily confused, but the broad facts are as narrated, and again many of Flashman's incidental memories are confirmed by other accounts. For example, Ewart was killed on the way to the ghat in a palankeen; Vibart's kit was carried and his wife escorted by rebels of his regiment; five loyal sepoys were murdered; Moore ("the real defender of Cawnpore") was killed in the water, shoving off. Some versions say that the thatch in the barges was fired before the shooting began, and one of Wheeler's servants, a nurse, said the general was killed on the shore, his head being cut off as he leaned from his stretcher; however, the probability is that he died in one of the boats. What appears to be in no doubt is the premeditated treachery of the attack; only one boat (Vibart's) escaped.

33. The reptiles which attacked the swimmers can hardly have been gavials, which feed exclusively on fish. True crocodiles have an overlapping fourth tooth.

34. The account of the escape down-river is true. This is independently confirmed by the narrative of Lieutenant Thomson, which describes the fire-arrows, the boat's grounding, the temple siege, escape to the shore, the boat's disappearance, crocodiles, etc. Apart from Flashman, there were four survivors — Thomson, Delafosse, Sullivan, and Murphy — who were eventually rescued by Diribijah Singh.

35. The massacre of women and children at Cawnpore was the most notorious atrocity of the Mutiny, and provoked the most notorious reprisal by General Neill. It has been suggested that Nana was not himself responsible, and that the massacre may have been in retaliation for the indiscriminate punishment which Neill's troops had visited earlier on Allahabad and on villages during their march to Cawnpore. Without in any way condoning Neill's behaviour, which has been justly condemned by historians, it is only fair to point out that there had been no element of retaliation in previous massacres by Indians, at Meerut, Jhansi, and Delhi. What is not in dispute is the effect which Cawnpore had on British opinion, or the fury it caused in the army — a curious echo of this even lingered on into the Second World War, when tattooists in Hogg Market, Calcutta, were still offering to imprint the arms of British recruits with the legend "Cawnpore Well".

36. Flashman does T. Henry Kavanaugh considerably less than justice. The big Irishman was undeniably eccentric — one Mutiny historian, Rice Holmes, has called him vain and self-important to the point of insanity — but his night journey to Campbell, in his ludicrous disguise, was an act of the most calculated courage. Possibly Flashman was nettled by the fact that other accounts of the exploit describe Kavanaugh's companion as an Indian; he may also have been unfavourably impressed by the somewhat immodest title of the book in which Kavanaugh described his adventure: How I Won the V.C. It tallies fairly closely, in general facts if not in spirit and interpretation, with Flashman's version. An excellent map of the scene of the journey is in Forrest, vol. ii.

37. Campbell has been much criticised by some military theoreticians for his caution, and for his (and Mansfield's) reluctance to shed lives — British and mutineer; Fortescue thinks this policy may even have helped to lengthen the Mutiny. It is not a view which Flashman could be expected to share. (See Fortescue, vol. xiii.)

38. The painting to which Flashman refers, of Havelock and Outram greeting Campbell at Lucknow, is by a celebrated Victorian painter of military scenes, T. J. Barker. The mounted figure shown raising a hand in acclamation may indeed be intended to be Flashman; it bears some resemblance to the only other identifiable picture of him as a comparatively young man — in a group of Union staff officers with President Lincoln during the U.S. Civil War.

39. Flashman's old friend, William Howard Russell, The Times correspondent, makes an obvious reference to this incident in My Diary in India (p. 188, vol. I).

40. Flashman's description of the looting is borne out by Russell, who described his attempt to buy the jewelled chain from an Irish soldier in his Diary; their accounts are almost word for word, and Russell even confirms that the chain subsequently fetched £7,500, as Flashman says.

41. Griff, or griffin — a greenhorn, a young officer. Hardly a fair description of Roberts who, although still young, was to win his Victoria Cross only a few weeks later. But Flashman plainly had little liking for the legendary "Bobs", who was to become Field-Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar; no doubt he was jealous of him.

42. Roberts apart, it seems to have been a distinguished gathering round the fire that night. William Stephen Raikes Hodson (1821-58) was already renowned as an irregular cavalry leader and the founder of Hodson's Horse. He was a year older than Flashman and since they were at Rugby together it seems quite feasible that Flashman had been his fag. Hodson has left a mixed reputation; a brilliant soldier, he was capable of cold-blooded cruelty, as when he murdered the Delhi princes while they were his prisoners. He was shot at Lucknow on March 11th, 1858, and there was a rumour (repeated by Flashman) that he was in the act of looting at the time. Roberts firmly denied this, with convincing evidence (see note, page 404, Forty-one Years in India, vol. I). Sam Browne, inventor of the belt which bears his name, was another celebrated cavalry leader, who became a general and won the V.C. He lost his left arm in a skirmish some months after Lucknow. "Macdonald the Peeler" was probably Macdonald who had been provost-marshal in the Crimea.

43. As one of the Jhansi besiegers later put it: "The Ranee, young, unwedded, jealous of power, sat watching the puny figures below … we watched and wondered what she said and did to those best-favoured among a band of chieftains, and imagination ran wild in the fervid heat." (See J. H. Sylvester, Cavalry Surgeon, ed. A. McKenzie Annand, 1971.)

44. Until the discovery of The Flashman Papers, Lyster (later General Sir Harry Hamon Lyster, V.C.) was the only authority for the plan to capture the Rani of Jhansi alive. No other contemporary writer on the Mutiny mentions the scheme, and it was not until 1913, when the Rev. H. H. Lyster Denny published a little-known work, Memorials of an Ancient House, containing some of General Lyster's recollections, that the story came out. According to Lyster, Rose confided the plan to him in strict confidence, and Lyster himself did not reveal it until many years after Rose's death. The plan was substantially as Flashman recounts it, and involved luring the Rani into attempting an escape by withdrawing a British picket from its position covering one of the Jhansi gates.

45. The battle on the Betwa (April 1, 1858) is one of the forgotten actions, but it is a striking illustration of Rose's coolness and tactical brilliance. Caught at an apparent disadvantage, he turned from Jhansi and attacked the new rebel force, which outnumbered him ten to one; Rose led the cavalry charge in person, and Tantia's army was routed with the loss of 1,500 dead and '28 guns captured. (See Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. xiii.)

46. This incident took place about twenty miles from Jhansi, following the Rani's escape, when a party of British cavalry under Lieutenant Dowker caught up with her. According to popular tradition (now confirmed by Flashman's account) the rebel horseman who wounded Dowker was the Rani herself. Incidentally, Flashman is probably in error when he says the Rani left Jhansi through the Orcha Gate; other authorities specify the Bandhari Gate, and say that the Rani herself had the child Damodar on her saddle.

47. There are differing accounts of Lakshmibai's death, but Flashman's accords with the generally accepted version. This is that she was killed in the action of Kota-ki-serai, before Gwalior, when the 8th Hussars charged the rebel camp at Phool Bagh. She was seen in the melee, with her horse's reins in her mouth, and was struck in the body, probably by a carbine bullet: she swayed in the saddle, crossed swords with a trooper, and was cut down. According to tradition, she was wearing the priceless necklace of Scindia, which she gave away to an attendant as she lay dying. Her tent on the battlefield was later found to contain a full-length mirror, books, pictures, and her swing.

48. Captain Clement Heneage took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, and also charged with the 8th Hussars in the action of June 17, 1858, in which the Rani of Jhansi was killed. Flashman's misspelling may have arisen through his never having seen the name written.

49. Deplorable though Flashman's attitude to women was, there were obviously some for whom he felt a genuine attachment, and even respect — Lola Montez and the Rani of Jhansi among them. Lakshmibai obviously captivated him, but how far she returned his affection is debatable. He would turn in his grave at the suggestion, but it seems highly questionable that she spent the night with him in the Jhansi pavilion (see pages 112-14). It may be significant that he never saw her face clearly on that occasion, and his description of the encounter might seem to suggest that the lady who entertained him was a professional nautch-dancer or courtesan, rather than the Rani. It is unfortunately true that in the climate created by the Mutiny, Lakshmibai was credited with every vice ("ardent" and "licentious" were two of the adjectives employed) but there is no evidence that her private life and behaviour were not entirely respectable.

That is not to say that she would not use her feminine power (or any other weapon) for political ends; in this may be found a logical explanation of the pavilion incident. It is possible, on the basis of Flashman's account, that at that time the Rani was already deep in mutinous conspiracy, perhaps with agitators like Ignatieff, and either at their prompting or on her own initiative, decided to destroy Flashman, a potentially dangerous British agent. To lead him on, to lure him to the pavilion, and to arrange for an attack on him by professional assassins, was simple; that something of the sort actually happened is indicated by the confession which Ilderim Khan extracted from the captured Thug. As to the Rani's display of affection for Flashman on his last visit to Jhansi, it may well have been entirely (and not partially, as he complacently assumed) prompted by her need to extract every scrap of information from him. Or — perhaps she was not entirely indifferent to him, after all; he seemed to think so, and he was not inexperienced.