Author: June Bush
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 414
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788129113863
Description
Some years ago June Bush inherited a set of diaries, Journals and letters written between 1853 and 1863 by her great-grandfather Captain Richard Warner. Also with the collection were sixty-five letters from his son Ashton Cromwell Warner, who as a young serving officer in the Bengal Army, found himself caught up in the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
When June subsequently discovered in the British Library a further series of sixty-nine letters written to his parents during the Indian Rebellion by Ashton’s younger brother Wynyard, plus a number of other letters from concerned relatives and friends, she decided to compile the whole unpublished collection into a book.
Through the journals and diaries of an elderly father and the letters of two of his three sons, the narrative traces the build-up to the Rebellion, Ashton’s life under siege in the Residency at Lucknow and Wynyard’s experiences during the battle to regain control of Delhi. It continues through 1858 and 1859 as both brothers find themselves fighting their way back into Lucknow and then north towards Nepal.
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Family Tree
Ashton leaves for India
The Clouds Gather
Mutiny
The Mutiny Spreads
Chinhat
The Situation Worsens
The Attack on Delhi
Waiting
The Aftermath
Meeting
On the offensive
Lucknow
Rohilkhand
Mopping up
Pastures New
Change
Towards Nepal
The White Mutiny
The Final Chapter
Postscript
Appendix I to VII
Maps
Bibliography
Index