Extracts from Letters and Notes
Extracts from Letters and Notes

Author: Charles Reid

Publisher:

Published: 2006-04

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9781845742270

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General Reid commanded the Sirmoor Battalion throughout the Mutiny and the Advance Posts during the Siege of Delhi.He also includes an account of the march to Meerut after the Mutiny there.

The Siege of Delhi
The Siege of Delhi

Author: Amarpal Singh

Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited

Published: 2021-07-15

Total Pages: 817

ISBN-13: 1445682362

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A forensic look into the Sepoy rebellion at Meerut in 1857 and the three-month siege and capture of Delhi which followed.

The Gurkhas
The Gurkhas

Author: Chris Bellamy

Publisher: John Murray

Published: 2011-04-14

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 1848545150

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The Gurkhas have fought on behalf of Britain and India for nearly two hundred years. As brave as they are resilient, resourceful and cunning, they have earned a reputation as devastating fighters, and their unswerving loyalty to the Crown has always inspired affection in the British people. There are also now up to 40,000 Gurkhas in the million-strong army of modern India. But who are the Gurkhas? How much of the myth that surrounds them is true? Award-winning historian Chris Bellamy uncovers the Gurkhas' origins in the Hills of Nepal, the extraordinary circumstances in which the British decided to recruit them and their rapid emergence as elite troops of the East India Company, the British Raj and the British Empire. Their special aptitude meant they were used as the first British 'Special Forces'. Bellamy looks at the wars the Gurkhas have fought this century, from the two world wars through the Falklands to Iraq and Afghanistan and examines their remarkable status now, when each year 11,000 hopefuls apply for just over 170 places in the British Army Gurkhas. Extraordinarily compelling, this book brings the history of the Gurkhas, and the battles they have fought, right up to date, and explores their future.

Cult of a Dark Hero
Cult of a Dark Hero

Author: Stuart Flinders

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-06-14

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1838608338

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In September 1857, a member of a religious sect killed himself on hearing the news that the object of his devout observance, Nikal Seyn, had died. Nikal Seyn was, in fact, John Nicholson, the leader of the British assault that recovered Delhi at the turning-point of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. What was it about Nicholson that prompted such devotion, not just from his religious followers, but from the general public? And why is he no longer considered a hero? The man called 'The Lion of the Punjab' by his contemporaries and compared to General Wolfe of Quebec, and even to Napoleon, has in recent times been dubbed 'an imperial psychopath' and 'a homosexual bully'. Yet his was a remarkable tale of a life of adventure lived on the very edge of the British Empire; of a man who was as courageous as he was ruthless, as loyal to his friends as he was merciless to those who crossed him. But it is also the story of how modern attitudes to race and Empire have changed in the years since he died. Previously unpublished material, including the diaries of contemporaries and personal letters, helps build a new perspective on Nicholson's personality. The book considers his sexuality and ambivalent attitude towards religion. It traces his murderous thoughts towards the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, John Lawrence, and reveals that, remarkably, the Nikal Seyni cult continued into the 21st century. This is the first book-length biography of Nicholson for over 70 years. A new account of the Irish soldier who became an Indian God, an examination of the cult of a dark hero, is long overdue.