John Nicholson (East India Company officer)

John Nicholson
Born	December 11, 1822(1822-12-11) Lisburn, Ireland
Died	September 23, 1857(1857-09-23) (aged 34) Delhi, British India
Allegiance	United Kingdom East India Company
Service/branch	Bengal Army
Years of service	1839–1857
Rank	Brigadier-General
Unit	Bengal Native Infantry
Battles/wars	First Anglo-Afghan War First Anglo-Sikh War Second Anglo-Sikh War Indian mutiny
Awards	Candahar, Ghuznee, Cabul Medal Sutlej Medal Punjab Medal India General Service Medal Indian Mutiny Medal
Other work	Colonial administrator

Brigadier-General John Nicholson (11 December 1822 – 23 September 1857) was a Victorian era military officer known for his role in British India. A charismatic and authoritarian figure, Nicholson created a legend for himself as a political officer under Henry Lawrence in the frontier provinces of the British Empire in India. He was instrumental in the settlement of the North-West Frontier and a played a legendary part in the Indian Mutiny.

Family & Education

Nicholson was born in Lisburn, Ireland, UK the eldest son of Dr Alexander Jaffray Nicholson (who died when J.N. was eight) and Clara Hogg. He was privately educated in Delgany and later attended the Royal School Dungannon.

Early career

Nicholson's uncle obtained a cadetship for him in the Bengal Infantry of the British East India Company. He obtained his commission as Ensign on 24 February 1839 and landed at Calcutta in July the same year, from where he joined the 41st Native Infantry at Benares, being transferred 6 months later in December to the 27th Native Infantry at Ferozepore. He served in the First Anglo-Afghan War, during which he was taken prisoner by the Afghans and held for some time.

John Nicholson after Daguerrotype by Kilburn. NPG D5360

First Anglo-Sikh War

Involved in the First Anglo-Sikh War as a junior officer, he was taken under the wing of Henry Montgomery Lawrence along with several other similarly-aged officers such as Herbert Edwardes, James Abbott, Neville Chamberlain, Frederick Mackeson, Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew, William Hodson, Reynell Taylor, Harry Burnett Lumsden, Henry Daly, John Coke, which group was known as Henry Lawrence's young men, and was given much power as a political officer, and later a District Commissioner. He was feared for his foul temper and authoritarian manner, but also gained the respect of the Afghan tribes in the area for his fairhandedness and sense of honour. He inspired the short lived cult of Nikal Seyn.

Indian Mutiny

Statue of John Nicholson with naked sword in hand in Delhi

Nicholson was best known for his role in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, planning and leading the Storming of Delhi. Famously dismissive of the incompetence of his superiors, he said, upon hearing of General Wilson's hesitancy, "Thank God I have yet the strength to shoot him, if necessary". One famous story recounted by Charles Allen in Soldier Sahibs is of a night during the Mutiny when Nicholson strode into the British mess tent at Jullunder, coughed to attract the attention of the officers, then said, "I am sorry, gentlemen, to have kept you waiting for your dinner, but I have been hanging your cooks." He had been told that the regimental chefs had poisoned the soup with aconite. When they refused to taste it for him, he force fed it to a monkey - and when it expired on the spot, he proceeded to hang the cooks from a nearby tree without a trial.

Nicholson never married, the most significant people in his life being his brother Punjab administrators Sir Henry Lawrence and Herbert Edwardes. At Bannu, Nicholson used to ride one hundred and twenty miles every weekend to spend a few hours with Edwardes, and lived in his beloved friend's house for some time when Edwardes' wife Emma was in England. At his deathbed he dictated a message to Edwardes saying, "Tell him that, if at this moment a good fairy were to grant me a wish, my wish would be sleeping next to my Love,Edwardes."^[1] The love between him and Edwardes made them, as Edwardes' wife latter described it "more than brothers in the tenderness of their whole lives".^[2]

He died on 23 September 1857, in a small bungalow in the cantonments of Delhi, as a result of wounds received in the taking of the city nine days previously. He was 34, not as the tombstone gives it, 35.

Legacy

He became the Victorian "Hero of Delhi" inspiring books, ballads and generations of young boys to join the army. Nicholson is referenced in numerous literary works, including Rudyard Kipling's Kim, in which the protagonist, Kim, meets an aged Rissaldar-Major (a native NCO of Cavalry). The man turns out to be a veteran of the Great Uprising of 1857, and in his interaction with Kim, he is said to sing the old song of Nikal Seyn before Delhi.

Nicholson features in a number of novels about this period in history. He is mentioned by George MacDonald Frazier in his book Flashman and the Great Game, in it Flashman meets Nicholson on the road between Bombay and Jansi just before the mutiny, he describes Nicholson as "The downiest bird in all India and could be trusted with anything, money even." This from Flashman is a rare compliment. He also appears as one of the main characters in James Leasor's novel about the Indian Mutiny, 'Follow the Drum', which describes his death in some detail.

John Nicholson's tomb, Delhi. c.1880

Brigadier-General John Nicholson's tombstone, made from a white marble slab near Delhi’s Kashmir gate, was a former garden seat of the Mughals. His gallant service and untimely death are commemorated on a white marble memorial plaque at the Mutiny Memorial, on the Ridge in New Delhi. A large statue of Nicholson showing him with a naked sword in hand and surrounded by mortars was erected in his honor in Delhi, but was taken down when India became independent and later removed to the Royal School Dungannon, his old school.

A granite obelisk (Nicholson's obelisk) was erected in 1868 at Margalla hills near Rawalpindi as a monument to pay tribute to his valour.

A tablet in the church at Bannu where Nicholson served as Deputy Commissioner from 1852-1854 carries the following inscription: “Gifted in mind and body, he was as brilliant in government as in arms. The snows of Ghazni attest his youthful fortitude; the songs of the Punjab his manly deeds; the peace of this frontier his strong rule. The enemies of his country know how terrible he was in battle, and we his friends have to recall how gentle, generous, and true he was.”

One of the four Houses of the Royal School Dungannon is named after him, having yellow as its colours. It is the youngest House at the school.

Sources

• Edwardes, Michael (1969), Bound to Exile, Praeger, p. pp100 
• Trotter, Lionel James (1900), The Life of John Nicholson: Soldier and Administrator, J. Trotter, p. pp132, 332, http://books.google.com/books?id=5jAoAAAAYAAJ 
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

References

1. ^ Trotter, 1900
2. ^ Trotter, 1900

External links

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• 1911 Britannica article on John Nicholson
• A Ballad of John Nicholson by Sir Henry Newbolt
• John Nicholson's Tomb in Delhi

Persondata
Name	Nicholson, John
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 December 1822
Place of birth	Lisburn, Ireland
Date of death	23 September 1857
Place of death	Delhi, British India