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Sir Hugh Massy Wheeler KCB (30 June 1789 – 27 June 1857) was an Irish-born officer in the army of the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
. He commanded troops in the
First Anglo-Afghan War The First Anglo-Afghan War ( fa, جنگ اول افغان و انگلیس) was fought between the British Empire and the Emirate of Kabul from 1838 to 1842. The British initially successfully invaded the country taking sides in a succession d ...
, and the
First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and Second Anglo-Sikh Wars, and in 1856 was appointed commander of the garrison at Cawnpore (now Kanpur). He is chiefly remembered for the disastrous end to a long and successful military career, when his defence of Wheeler's entrenchment and surrender to
Nana Sahib Nana Saheb Peshwa II (19 May 1824 – 24 September 1859), born as Dhondu Pant, was an Indian Peshwa of the Maratha empire, aristocrat and fighter, who led the rebellion in Kanpur (Cawnpore) during the Great Revolt of 1857. As the adopted s ...
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 ...
led to the annihilation of almost all the European, Eurasian and Christian Indian population of Cawnpore, himself and several members of his family included.


Background and early life

Wheeler came from an Anglo-Irish background. His father Hugh Wheeler was a captain in the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
Service; his mother Margaret was the daughter of
Hugh Massy, 1st Baron Massy Hugh Massy, 1st Baron Massy (1700 – 30 January 1788) was an Anglo-Irish peer and politician. Massy was the son of Colonel Hugh Massy and the elder brother of General Eyre Massey, 1st Baron Clarina. He married firstly Mary Dawson, daughter of C ...
. Wheeler was born 30 June 1789 in Clonbeg,
County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...
. He attended Bath Grammar School and was commissioned a cadet in the Bengal Army in 1803. Arriving in India in 1805, he joined the forces of
Lord Lake Gerard Lake, 1st Viscount Lake (27 July 1744 – 20 February 1808) was a British general. He commanded British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and later served as Commander-in-Chief of the military in British India. Background He was ...
.


First Anglo-Afghan War

In April 1805, aged just fifteen, Wheeler was posted as a lieutenant to the 24th Native Infantry. He was promoted to captain in 1819, transferred to the 48th Native Infantry in 1824, and was further promoted to major in 1829 and lieutenant-colonel in 1835. He formed a relationship with Frances Oliver (née Marsden), an
Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The '' Oxford English ...
woman who was married to another officer. The couple had a number of children together and eventually married when Frances was widowed. Wheeler led the 48th Native Infantry during the Afghan War in 1838–9, taking part in the capture of
Ghazni Ghazni ( prs, غزنی, ps, غزني), historically known as Ghaznain () or Ghazna (), also transliterated as Ghuznee, and anciently known as Alexandria in Opiana ( gr, Αλεξάνδρεια Ωπιανή), is a city in southeastern Afghanistan ...
and Kabul. In December 1840 he returned to India, as part of the escort of the captive ruler of Afghanistan
Dost Mohammad Khan Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (Pashto/Persian: ; 23 December 17929 June 1863), nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, Also titled Amir al-Mu'minin, was a member of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of the Emirate of Afghanistan. His 37-year ...
who had been replaced by
Shah Shujah Durrani ''Padshah Sultan'' Shah Shuja Durrani (Pashto/Dari: ; November 1785 – 5 April 1842) was ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He then ruled from 1839 until his death in 1842. Son of Timur Shah Durrani, Shuja Shah was of the Sadduzai ...
. For his part in the campaign Wheeler was twice mentioned in despatches, made a companion of the
Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...
, and awarded the order of the Durani Empire. Amongst the British and Indian forces who remained in Kabul was Thomas Oliver, lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Native Infantry and the husband of Wheeler's partner Frances. He was killed in November 1841 while defending the city from attack by the supporters of Akbar Khan, the son of deposed Dost Mohammad Khan. Also killed in November 1841 was Wheeler's son Frank, who was fighting in Shah Shujah Durrani's Army. A few months later, 6 March 1842, Frances Oliver and Wheeler were married in
Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...
. On the same day their three youngest children, Patrick, Margaret and Robert, were baptised. Another son, Francis, was born three months later.


Anglo-Sikh Wars

During the
First Anglo-Sikh War The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 in and around the Ferozepur district of Punjab. It resulted in defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession o ...
Wheeler commanded an infantry brigade composed of the 50th Foot and the 48th Native Infantry. At the
Battle of Mudki The Battle of Mudki was fought on 18 December 1845, between the forces of the East India Company and part of the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of the Sikh Empire of the Punjab. The British army won an untidy encounter battle, suffering heavy casu ...
in December 1845 he was wounded, but was able to take part in the
Battle of Aliwal The Battle of Aliwal was fought on 28 January 1846 between the British and Sikh forces in northern India (now Punjab). The British were led by Sir Harry Smith,Smith, Sir Harry. ‘'The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith Bar ...
the following month as second in command to
Sir Harry Smith Lieutenant-General Sir Henry George Wakelyn Smith, 1st Baronet, GCB (28 June 1787 – 12 October 1860) was a notable English soldier and military commander in the British Army of the early 19th century. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, he is a ...
. For his services he was made aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria (an honorary appointment) and was posted colonel to the 48th Native Infantry. He stayed in the Punjab, commanding the forces in Jullunder Doab, the region surrendered by the Sikhs at the
Treaty of Lahore The Treaty of Lahore of 9 March 1846 was a peace-treaty marking the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War. The treaty was concluded, for the British, by the Governor-General Sir Henry Hardinge and two officers of the East India Company and, for the ...
. The
Second Anglo-Sikh War The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company that took place in 1848 and 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab and what subsequently ...
in 1848-9 saw Wheeler leading forces involved in the capture of Rangar Nangal Fort, of Kalawala and of the heights of Dallah. He was twice mentioned in despatches and earned the praise of the governor-general: "Brigadier-General Wheeler, C. B., has executed the several duties which have been committed to him with great skill and success, and the Governor-General has been happy in being able to convey to him his thanks thus publicly." Wheeler was amongst those named in a vote of thanks in both the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
and the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
in April 1849, and the following year he was made a KCB. At the end of the fighting Wheeler resumed his command in Jullunder Doab, being promoted to major-general in June 1854, and made a visit to Ireland on furlough in 1853–1855. Having returned to India, he was appointed in June 1856 to his final post as commander of the Cawnpore Division.


Cawnpore

By the time he was posted to Cawnpore Wheeler was 67 years old and had spent some 50 years in India. He was a small slight man, described by Captain Mowbray Thomson of the 53rd Native Infantry as: "short, of a spare habit, very grey, with a quick and intelligent eye; not imposing in appearance except by virtue of a thoroughly military gait... a first-rate equestrian". He had made India his home, married the daughter of an Indian woman, spoke Hindi fluently and was popular with the sepoys. The garrison town of Cawnpore, situated on the Grand Trunk Road and the banks of the River Ganges 800 river miles from the seat of government in Calcutta, had been set up in 1770 on the site of a small village called Kanhpur when British East India Company troops had been fighting with the
Nawab of Oudh The Nawab of Awadh or the Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers who governed the state of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in north India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to a dynasty of Persian origin from Nishap ...
against the Mahrattas. The camp quickly expanded as traders and craftsmen followed the army. In 1801, when the town became British territory, they were joined by the East India Company's civil servants. Wives and families came out from England and Cawnpore acquired all the amenities of an English Town. By the time Wheeler took up his post as commander, Cawnpore was connected to Calcutta by telegraph and steam boats, and there were plans to bring the railway to the town. North of Cawnpore was the small town of
Bithoor Bithoor or Bithur is a town in Kanpur District, by road north of the centre of Kanpur city, in Uttar Pradesh, India. Bithoor is situated on the right bank of the River Ganges, and is a centre of Hindu pilgrimage. . Bithoor is also the centre ...
, where, at the end of the
Third Anglo-Maratha War The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the English East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha ter ...
the captured
Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later ...
,
Baji Rao II Shrimant Peshwa Baji Rao II (10 January 1775 – 28 January 1851) was the 13th and the last Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He governed from 1795 to 1818. He was installed as a puppet ruler by the Maratha nobles, whose growing power prompted ...
had been installed by the British with his entourage and a large pension. After Baji Rao's death in 1851 his adopted son
Nana Sahib Nana Saheb Peshwa II (19 May 1824 – 24 September 1859), born as Dhondu Pant, was an Indian Peshwa of the Maratha empire, aristocrat and fighter, who led the rebellion in Kanpur (Cawnpore) during the Great Revolt of 1857. As the adopted s ...
stayed on in Bithoor. In spite of his disagreement with the British over his entitlement to inherit the pension he was on friendly terms with them and frequently entertained Company officers and civilians.


Rebellion

When 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 ...
broke out in
Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...
, near
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...
, 10 May 1857, Cawnpore was home to the 1st, 53rd and 56th Native Infantry and the 2nd Bengal Cavalry. These regiments, in common with the other regiments of the East India Company Army, consisted of British officers and Indian soldiers (called sepoys in the case of infantrymen and
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-sol ...
s in the case of cavalrymen). The total number of native troops in Cawnpore in 1857 was about 3,000, compared to about 300 British soldiers (the officers of the Native Regiments, a small number of men of the 84th Regiment, some invalids from the 32nd Regiment, and a few Artillerymen and Madras Fusiliers). As news spread of more disturbances, the atmosphere in Cawnpore became tense, although the hope was still that Wheeler's experience and popularity would be enough to prevent an uprising amongst his troops. Wheeler sent daily telegrams to the governor-general in Calcutta. For example, on 20 May, he wrote: "All well here and excitement less..." and on 24 May "All is quiet here but it is impossible to say how long it will continue to be so". At the same time he gave orders for the entrenchment of a barracks in order, if the need arose, to provide shelter for the European, Eurasian and Indian Christian population of the town. Wheeler has sometimes been criticised for selecting a position that would prove difficult to defend, rather than the fortified magazine on the Delhi road several miles away from Native lines. Others have sought to justify his decision, suggesting that a withdrawal to the magazine might have provoked an uprising, and that he could not have foreseen the rebellious troops remaining in Cawnpore, or being joined by Nana Sahib. Nana Sahib's biographer concludes: At the beginning of June Wheeler felt confident enough to send two officers and about fifty men from his small British force to help Henry Lawrence at
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 ...
. But on the night of 5 June the 2nd Bengal Cavalry and the 1st Native Infantry rose up and left the barracks, although, unlike at other places such as Meerut and Delhi, they did not harm their officers. The following morning, amidst some confusion, they were joined by most of the 53rd and 56th Native Infantry Regiments, although some sepoys joined Wheeler in the entrenchment.


Siege of Cawnpore

At first the rebellious soldiers acted as Wheeler had anticipated and set off on the road to Delhi. However the following day, 6 June, they returned to Cawnpore, with Nana Sahib at their head. The role Nana Sahib took in planning the rebellion in Cawnpore has never been established. He would, after the rebellion was over, claim that he was forced to join the rebels. That morning Nana Sahib sent a note to Wheeler announcing his intention to attack the entrenchment, and his forces soon opened fire. Wheeler's entrenchment contained two large barracks buildings (one used as a hospital) and various outlying buildings. A trench had hastily been dug and the earth from it formed a wall about four-foot high. Several batteries of guns were set up. In all there were about 1,000 people in the entrenchment, but only about 300 were soldiers, the rest being civilians and, mainly, women and children. The entrenchment was ill-equipped for a long siege. Food was not plentiful, water was a particular problem as the only well was in an exposed position, guns were in short supply, and the hospital building burned down when hit by a missile. Disease and heat, as well as enemy bombardment, took their toll. Amongst the soldiers killed was General Wheeler's son Godfrey. Nevertheless, the entrenchment held out for three weeks and repelled several attempts to seize it. According to
Mowbray Thomson General Sir Mowbray Thomson (April 1, 1832 – February 25, 1917) was an officer in the British East India Company. Thomson was born in "Bhurtpore" (modern day Bharatpur, Rajasthan), India on April 1, 1832. He was educated in England and att ...
, one of the very few British survivors of Cawnpore, the original plans for defending the entrenchment had been made by Wheeler and Captain John Moore, who was in command of the invalids depot of the 32nd Foot. As the siege progressed, it was Captain Moore who took the more active role in defence: "Sir Hugh Wheeler was invariably consulted, but the old General was quite incapacitated for the exposure and fatigue involved in the superintendence of all the posts of defence". Wheeler managed, via a messenger, to send a request for 200 reinforcements to Lucknow. "The whole Christian population", he wrote, "is with us in a temporary entrenchment and our defence has been noble and wonderful, our loss heavy and cruel. We want aid, aid, aid..." The reply came back from
Sir Henry Lawrence Brigadier-General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence KCB (28 June 18064 July 1857) was a British military officer, surveyor, administrator and statesman in British India. He is best known for leading a group of administrators in the Punjab affectiona ...
that, since the rebels controlled the banks of the Ganges, any attempt to send reinforcements would be futile.


Death at the Satichaura Ghat

On 25 June, nearly three weeks after the beginning of the siege, Nana Sahib sent a messenger to the entrenchment with the offer of safe passage to Allahabad in return for surrender. According to Mowbray Thomson, Wheeler was against surrender: At that very moment, Henry Lawrence was penning a letter to Wheeler, urging him to hold out as
Henry Havelock Major-General Sir Henry Havelock (5 April 1795 – 24 November 1857) was a British general who is particularly associated with India and his recapture of Cawnpore during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (First War of Independence, Sepoy Mutiny). ...
was marching from Allahabad to Cawnpore with four hundred British soldiers and three hundred Sikhs, and warning him not to trust Nana Sahib. But Wheeler never received the letter. During the early morning of 27 June Wheeler and the survivors of the entrenchment were led down to the River Ganges where boats were waiting at the
Satichaura Ghat Satti Chaura Ghat (''Satī Caurā Ghāţ'') or Massacre Ghat is a famous ghat in Kanpur, the industrial hub of Uttar Pradesh state in north India. It is located on the bank of the River Ganges in Kanpur Cantonment near Jajmau. Geography The gha ...
. The British had been allowed to keep their small arms. The banks were lined with guns and armed sepoys and sowars and, while the British were embarking on the boats, firing broke out. Wheeler, his wife and elder daughter were amongst those killed in ensuing massacre. Survivors of the massacre were captured and either killed immediately or, in the case of the women and children, on 16 July as British forces approached Cawnpore. It has not been conclusively established whether the massacre was planned, and whether Nana Sahib was responsible. Four British soldiers managed to reach safety. A similar number of Anglo-Indian women survived; Wheeler's younger daughter is thought to have been among them, carried off by a sowar.


Family

Wheeler and his partner Frances Matilda (née Marsden) had nine children, seven of them born before their marriage in 1842 and two afterwards. :* Godfrey Richard Wheeler (28 November 1826 – June 1857) :* George Wheeler (31 August 1829 – 1910) :* Eliza Matilda Wheeler (4 July 1831 – 27 June 1857) :* Frederick Wheeler (19 January 1833 – 16 July 1906) :* Patrick Wheeler (2 July 1835 – 17 December 1917) :* Margaret Frances Wheeler, also known as Ulrica (born 12 August 1837) :* Robert Wheeler (22 February 1839 – 24 October 1926) :* Francis John Wheeler (28 May 1842 – 26 May 1888) :* Charles Eyre Wheeler (1 February 1845 – 22 December 1881) Wheeler also had a son Francis (or Frank) James Wheeler (1816–1841) from a previous relationship, while Frances Matilda had two children, Osman Marsden (born 1810) and Thomas Oliver (born 1811), before her relationship with Wheeler. In 1810 she had married Thomas Samuel Oliver (1784–1841), who was killed in the First Afghan War in 1841. Frances Matilda was the daughter of Frederick Marsden, who was an officer in the East India Company Army, and an Indian woman. Her uncle was the linguist William Marsden. All the sons of Hugh and Frances Wheeler except Francis joined the Bengal Army or the British Indian Army, with four of them (George, Frederick, Patrick and Robert) attaining the rank of general. George married his cousin Margaret Alicia Massy; their son
George Godfrey Massy Wheeler George Godfrey Massy Wheeler, VC (31 January 1873 – 13 April 1915) was a British Army officer, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Bri ...
was awarded the
Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
in 1915. Frances Wheeler, son Godfrey and two daughters were with Wheeler at Cawnpore in May 1857. Godfrey was killed in the entrenchment; Frances and the elder daughter Eliza were killed with Wheeler at the Satichaura Ghat. The memorial tablets in All Souls Church, Kanpur, includes the following inscription: "Sir H. Wheeler, K. C. B.; Lady Wheeler and daughters; Lieutenant G. R. Wheeler, 1st N. I., A.-D.-C; ". It is thought, however, that Wheeler's younger daughter Margaret, also known as Ulrica, survived after having been carried off from the Satichaura Ghat by a sowar. At the time a story circulated that she had killed the sowar and several members of his family and committed suicide, but this was later discredited and she is believed to have married the sowar and lived in Cawnpore for another 50 years.Yalland 1987: 324–5


References


Bibliography

*P.C. Gupta 1963 ''Nana Sahib and the rising at Cawnpore''. Oxford: Clarendon Press *V.C.P. Hodson 1945 ''List of the Officers of the Bengal Army 1758–1834'', vol. 3. London: Constable and Co Ltd *V.C.P. Hodson 1947 ''List of the Officers of the Bengal Army 1758–1834'', vol. 4. London: Constable and Co Ltd *T. R. Moreman 2004 (online edition 2008) Wheeler, Sir Hugh Massy (1789–1857). ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press *M. Thomson 1995
859 __FORCETOC__ Year 859 ( DCCCLIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * January 15 – Battle of St. Quentin: Frankish forces, led by Humfrid, d ...
''The Story of Cawnpore: the Indian Mutiny 1857''. Brighton: Tom Donovan *Z. Yalland 1987 ''Traders and Nabobs: the British in Cawnpore 1765–1857''. Salisbury: Michael Russell (Publishing) Ltd {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Hugh 1789 births 1857 deaths British East India Company Army generals British military personnel of the First Anglo-Afghan War British military personnel of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 British military personnel killed in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Military personnel from County Limerick British military personnel of the First Anglo-Sikh War