Amelia Horne also known as Amy Haines and Amelia Bennett (1839-1921) was a British memoir writer. She is known for her memoirs describing her experiences as a survivor of the

Siege of Cawnpore The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege and surrendered to rebel forces under Nana Sahib in retu ...

during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

, having been abduced and kept prisoner by a

sowar Sowar ( ur, سوار, also ''siwar'' meaning "the one who rides" or "rider", from Persian ) was originally a rank during the Mughal Empire and Maratha Empire. Later during the British Raj it was the name in Anglo-Indian usage for a horse-soldi ...

during the Satichaura Ghat massacre, thereby avoiding the

Bibighar massacre The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore (now Kanpur) were unprepared for an extended siege and surrendered to rebel forces under Nana Sahib in retu ...

.Clare Anderson:
Subaltern Lives: Biographies of Colonialism in the Indian Ocean World, 1790-1920
'

Life

She was born in Calcutta as the daughter of the British master mariner Frederick Horne and Emma Horne, and became the step daughter of John Hampden Cook. She experienced the Siege of Cawnpore with her mother and stepfather. During the Satichaura Ghat massacre, she was abducted by a sowar, who took her as his captive wife. She thus avoided the

. She was eventually released by the sowar, and allowed to return to her family in Calcutta. She married the railway official William Bennett (d. 1877). In 1872, she testified in court in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

in favor of Maulvi Liaquat Ali, testifying that he had saved her during the Satichaura Ghat massacre. They were at least two other women with similar fates during the rebellion, as both Ulrica Wheeler and Eliza Fanthome were similarly abducted during the rebellion.

Legacy

She was the author of two memoirs describing her experiences during the Rebellion: the first published in 1858 under the name Mrs Amy Haines, and the second under the name Amelia Bennett, published in ''The Nineteenth Century and After 1913''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horne, Amelia 1839 births 1921 deaths People from British India 19th-century Indian women British people of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 19th-century British memoirists