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INTRODUCTION 1



AMONG the men who fought and bled in their country's
service during the flood-tide of the Indian Mutiny, few
names shone with a steadier and more inspiring lustre
than that of William S. R. Hodson, the prince of scout-
ing officers, the bold and skilful leader of Hodson's
Horse. From the middle of May to the close of Sep-
tember, 1857, the fame of his achievements rang daily
louder in the field force which Barnard led from Karnal
to the siege of Delhi. During the next six months he
contrived to add some new and noteworthy services to
a record already blazing with heroic deeds.

Dying as a brevet-major in the prime of his strenuous
manhood, he had already won for himself a proud place
on the honour-lists of our long island story. Hodson's
claim to be remembered as a great soldier has never
been questioned even by the boldest assailants of his
moral rectitude or of his fitness for civil rule. It was
perhaps inevitable that a man of his mark and character
should repel at least as many as he attracted. Few
men, indeed, have had warmer friends or more per-
sistent enemies. But the latter included none of his
own household, and very few who could claim much
personal knowledge of the man they misjudged.

In writing about Hodson, I have tried to steer an
even course between the Scylla of unqualified praise and
the Charybdis of undeserved censure. A careful study
of Reynell Taylor's report, the full text of which will
be found in the Appendix, compared with the evidence
contained in some of Hodson's own letters, and in the
statements volunteered by important witnesses, has

1 Original Preface to first edition of 1901.



2021403



viii Major W. Hodson

convinced me that nine-tenths of the stories current to
his discredit owe their prevalence and long vitality to a
widespread misconception of the causes which led to his
removal from the Guides. Of the remaining tenth it is
enough, I think, to say that they are either absurd
distortions of the truth or conclusions drawn from facts
about which opinions will always differ.

In this volume I have quoted liberally from the
letters published by the Rev. Prebendary George H.
Hodson in his excellent biography of his illustrious
brother. These letters are at once so characteristic of
the writer, so full of life and movement and many-sided
interests, so rich in terse and lively details of note-
worthy scenes, incidents, adventures, that I think no
adequate record of his romantic career could do without
them. In these letters one sees the man himself in all
his varied aspects and relations, from the frank, genial,
sympathetic son, brother, friend, and husband, to the
cool, clear-headed, resourceful soldier, always ready to
do, dare, or suffer greatly in the cause of manifest duty ;
quick to take up with a light heart any task that good
fortune or the public need might offer to his hands, and
successful in winning the unbounded confidence and the
loving homage of his Indian troops. Happily for my
purpose, the Rev. G. H. Hodson himself invited me to
make free use of his brother's published correspondence.
I venture to think that no intelligent reader will grumble
at my acceptance of an offer so generous, made by a
master in his own field of literary art.

For much of the new matter contained in this volume
my heartiest thanks are due to Miss Hodson, who
supplied me with a mass of papers bearing upon her
brother's career. To Hodson's old schoolfellow and life-
long friend, the Rev. F. A. Foster, I am indebted for
some pleasant reminiscences of his boyhood and tor
several of the letters, now published for the first time.
Another of his earliest friends, Major-General Charles
Thomason, R.E., has favoured me with some happy
instances of Hodson's bright, buoyant, engaging per-
sonality. To Hodson's stepson, Major-General Reveley
Mitford, to Mr. W. S. Seton-Karr, and Mr. J. W. Sherer,



Introduction ix

C.S.I., my thanks are also due for some valuable addi-
tions to the new matter contained in this volume. The
usual references to printed documents will be found in
their proper places throughout the book.

L. J. T.



The following is the list of other works by the same
author:

East and West, and other poems, 1859; Studies in Biography,
1865 ; History of the British Empire in India from the appointment
of Lord Hardinge to the political extinction of the East India
Company, 1844-1862; A Sequel to Thornton's History of India, 2
vols., 1866; History of India from the earliest times to the present
day. etc., 1874; revised and enlarged ed., 1899; Warren Hastings:
a biography, 1878; Lord Lawrence: a sketch of his public career,
1880; History of India under Queen Victoria. From 1836 to 1880,
2 vols., 1886; William Taylor of Patna: a brief account of his
services, etc. (brief extracts from letters received from 1857 to 1884),
1887; Life of the Marquis of Dalhousie (Statesmen series), 1889;
Warren Hastings (Rulers of India series), 1890; Earl of Auckland
(Rulers of India series), 1893; The Life of John Nicholson, Soldier
and Administrator, 1897; gth edition, 1904; in Nelson's Shilling
Library, 1908; A Leader of Light Horse: Life of Hodson of Hodson's
Horse, 1901; The Bayard of India: A Life of General Sir James
Outram, Bart., 1903.

TRANSLATIONS : I; Michelet's La Sorciere, 1863; J. J. L. Blanc's
Lettres sur PAngleterre, 2nd series, 1867.

Editor of Allen's Indian Mail from 1867-1878, and contributor
to various journals and magazines.



CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE EARLY TRAINING SCHOOL

LIFE AT RUGBY ...... i

II. FROM CAMBRIDGE TO GUERNSEY AND TORQUAY . 12

III. THE FIRST SIKH WAR ..... 16

IV. FROM SABATHU TO KASHMIR .... 27
V. " FRESH WOODS AND PASTURES NEW " . . 38

VI. THE OUTBREAK AT MULTAN, AND AFTER . . 46

VII. THE SECOND SIKH WAR 58

VIII. FROM SOLDIER TO CIVILIAN .... 75

IX. FROM KASHMIR TO KUSSOWLIE .... 86

X. MARRIAGE AND PROMOTION TO THE COMMAND OF THE

GUIDES ....... 97

XI. UNDER A CLOUD ...... 114

XII. WAITING FOR BETTER TIMES . . . .129

XIII. THE GREAT MUTINY FIRST WEEKS OF THE SIEGE OF

DELHI . . . . . . .143

XIV. THE SIEGE OF DELHI 163

XV. BEFORE DELHI . . . . . . 179

XVI. THE STORMING OF DELHI ..... 193

XVII. FROM DELHI TO UMBALA ..... 210

XVIII. FROM UMBALA TO FATHIGARH .... 221

XIX. FROM FATHIGARH TO CAWNPORE . . . . 234

XX. LAST SCENE OF ALL ...... 245

XXI. CONCLUSION ....... 257

APPENDIX 269

INDEX 3 or



TO

LILY WARING TROTTER,

THIS BOOK, WHICH, BUT FOR HER ACTIVE AND

PATIENT COLLABORATION, COULD NOT HAVE

BEEN WRITTEN, IS DEDICATED BY

HER GRATEFUL FATHER



MAJOR W. HODSON



CHAPTER I

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE EARLY TRAINING SCHOOL LIFE
AT RUGBY. 1821-1840

WILLIAM STEPHEN RAIKES HODSON, the subject of this
memoir, was born on the igth of March 1821 at Maisemore
Court, in a village near the Severn, about two miles to
the north of Gloucester. In a family of eight children,
he was the third son of the Rev. George Hodson, after-
wards Archdeacon of Stafford and Canon of Lichfield, who
was then residing at Maisemore Court in order to be near
the Bishop of Gloucester, to whom he was chaplain, and
taking private pupils. The Rev. George Hodson's mother,
Miss Hewitt, was sister-in-law to Archdeacon Paley, the
well-known author of Evidences of Christianity.

William Hodson's father came of a family which had
long been settled in the north of England. The father
himself had entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he
took his degree in 1810 as seventh Wrangler and second
Chancellor's Medallist. He was shortly afterwards elected
as Fellow and Tutor of Magdalen College. He married
Mary Stephen, niece of James Stephen, the eminent
Master in Chancery, the friend of Wilberforce and
Macaulay, and the head of a family conspicuous through-
out the century at the Bar, on the Bench, in Council,
and in various fields of literary achievement.

Young Master Willie was blessed with a bright and
joyous nature and an affectionate disposition, which en-
deared him not only to his own family but to all around
him of whatever degree. " That which characterised
him most," writes his elder brother, the Rev. George H.
Hodson, " was his quickness of observation and his h>



2 Major W. Hodson

terest in everything going on about him. By living with
his eyes and ears open, and never suffering anything to
escape his notice, he acquired a stock of practical know-
ledge which he turned to good account in his after-life." l
With his frank blue eyes, shapely features, his yellow
hair and slim well-knit figure, he must have been a
beautiful as well as a charming boy. No wonder that, in
the words of Miss Sibella Hodson, " his father was wrapped
up in him, and we all thought him fascinating." If his
manner as a boy towards other boys was sometimes rough
and masterful, he had ever a soft place in his heart for
girls and women. His mother, at any rate, was not
afraid to entrust him at need with the sole companionship
of her youngest daughter, a trust which he never failed
tenderly and loyally to fulfil.

" He was always," writes Miss Hodson, " very neat
and tidy in his dress and appearance, and he was very
handy. His handwriting, too, was always clear and
beautiful; never a blot or erasure, even in the stress of
active service. . . . Owing to the severe headaches
from which he suffered, and which made study often hard
work for him, and kept him at times from school, I used
to be his playfellow," an arrangement which she never
found cause to regret, even when her playmate insisted
on teaching her the broadsword exercise.

During William's early boyhood his studies, on account
of the headaches aforesaid, were pursued at home under
the direction of his excellent father, except for the short
period when the Rev. E. Harland acted as his private
tutor. " Home life, however," says Mr. George H.
Hodson, " had not prevented him from growing up an
active high-spirited boy, full of life and energy." Nor
had his peculiar ailments prevented his nimble intellect
from imbibing a fair amount of such knowledge as boys
of his age are expected to acquire. Whatever else the
boy of fourteen may have failed to learn, he had at least
received the spiritual training of a nature nutrita faustis
sub penetralibus a nature fed upon the best traditions of
a pure English home.

1 Hodson of Hodson's Horse. By the Rev. George H. Hodson,
M.A., etc. Revised editioa. 1889.



Early Training 3

In the early part of 1837 young Hodson was sent to
school at Rugby, then famous for the reforming rule of
its headmaster, the wise and learned Dr. Arnold, whose
name has long been a household word with all readers of
Torn Brown's School-days, and the Life by Dean Stanley.
And here I cannot do better than quote the following
pertinent memoranda which have been kindly furnished
me by Hodson's schoolfellow, Mr. W. S. Seton-Karr,
sometime judge in the High Court of Calcutta, and after-
wards Foreign Secretary to the Government of India in
1868-69:

" Hodson, when he came to Rugby, was older than any
of his contemporaries of that year; most of them were
of the age of twelve to fourteen. He was placed in the
Middle Fifth, and thus escaped fagging altogether, and
passing through the Fifth Form and the ' Twenty,' as it
was then termed, reached the Sixth Form under Arnold
during 1839 and 1840. Hodson was not a deep or brilliant
scholar, and he was no proficient in Latin verse, on which
Arnold, after some hesitation, had by that time begun
to set a high value, as may be seen in Dean Stanley's
Biography. But he had read the best Greek and Latin
authors, and his construing was correct and even elegant;
while in general knowledge of the world he always struck
us as superior to the average of clever scholars of the same
age. He had a store of anecdotes about public men, the
universities, and their Dons ; and we used to look to him
more than to other contemporaries for information and
enlightenment on matters beyond the reach and range of
average schoolboy life.

" Hodson was no cricketer, and never even in the
Twenty-two; but he was an excellent runner, and led
the others at hare-and-hounds, or paper chases, which
came off at least once a-week in the winter and spring,
when the claims of football were not paramount. His
wind and endurance in the Crick and the Barby Hill runs
were often the admiration and envy of the school.

" Although athletics with the exception of cricket,
football, and ' Bigside-leaping ' were not so extensively
practised, nor held in the same esteem, as they are at the
present day, Hodson was one of the committee for con-



4 Major W. Hodson

verting the island into a sort of gymnasium, with swings,
parallel bars, and other mechanical contrivances; and he
won great renown by winning a single wager which de-
pended on three distinct events :

1. He was to run eight miles in the hour.

2. To run a mile in five minutes.

3. To pick up 100 stones, placed one yard apart, within

the hour.

If he failed in any one of these feats he was to forfeit his
stake. He accomplished them on the Tuesday, Thursday,
and Saturday, half-holidays, in one week.

" I witnessed the performance on two occasions. The
eight miles were run on the Barby Road, and part
of the way against a cold head wind. He had some
minutes to spare, and did the eight miles with hardly a
pause.

" I was not present when he ran the mile, but I under-
stood that he was ten or fifteen seconds within time. On
the third occasion the stones were laid in the Close, along
the path which leads from the head-master's garden to
what was then the Rev. C. A. Anstey's. The event came
off after 3 P.M. ' calling over,' before a crowd of boys, and
I distinctly remember our tutor, Bonamy Price, looking
on with wonder and approval. Hodson began by picking
up all the distant stones first; and occasionally took a
few between twenty and thirty yards from the starting-
point. He kept the half-dozen nearest to the starting-
point for the last, and picked them up rapidly, winning
his wager with several minutes to spare.

" Doubtless, in the present day, the above record has
been beaten, and the same number of stones has been
picked up in three-quarters of an hour, and even less, by
those whom Dr. Arnold might have designated as jortemque
Cyan, fortemque Cloanthum. But Hodson's feat, in the
'Thirties, was thought a great achievement.

" Hodson was a good disciplinarian, and could keep the
fags in order. At the end of 1839 it happened that the
captain, or head of Cotton's house, was unequal to the
task of ruling some rather overgrown fellows who were in
the Lower Forms. So, after due consultation, Arnold
resolved on transferring Hodson from Price's to Cotton's



School Life at Rugby 5

house with his master's approval. The ' Doctor ' always
set a value on physical strength and determination as
useful adjuncts to scholarship, and he was well aware of
the importance of ' muscular Christianity ' in its proper
place, in support of brains. Hodson's friends and col-
leagues at Price's were sorry to lose him; but there was
no more trouble or turbulence at Cotton's when Hodson
had cleared the way. I left Rugby at midsummer 1840,
while Hodson stayed till ' Lawrence Sheriff,' or Founder's
day, in October."

The under-master with whom young Hodson first
resided was the Rev. Bonamy Price, who had been one
of Mr. Hodson's pupils at Maisemore Court. Among
William Hodson's younger schoolfellows was another boy,
who afterwards became a distinguished member of the
Indian Civil Service, Mr. John Walter Sherer, C.S.I., who
has favoured me with some pleasant reminiscences of his
former schoolfellow, which illustrates the subject of them
from another point of view:

" I was at Rugby with William, but did not at first
know him; he was two or three years older than myself,
for one thing. . . . The prepositor in my house (Powlett's,
afterwards Cotton's) was F. Gell (afterwards Bishop of
Madras), and when he went to Cambridge, Hodson was
induced to migrate to us. I being in a Form not above
fagging, became principal fag to Hodson, and had to clean
his study, make his coffee, and boil his eggs. Of course he
was in the Sixth, where it became an honour to have
studied under Arnold. Willie Hodson used to refer to his
pupilage with pride. But he was never really an Arnold
man I mean as was Stanley (Dean of Westminster), Tom
Hughes, or Seton-Karr. He was rather an isolated boy ;
for though a great athlete, he did not play much at cricket
or football, and was rather given to hare-and-hounds, long
runs in the country, jumps over hedges, and so on. Occa-
sionally he gave an exhibition in the Close (our ' playing-
field ') of picking up stones at distances within a certain
time. He went in for dumb-bells and other contrivances
for strengthening the figure, and he was a very powerful
well-shaped youth. Tall rather than otherwise, with a
fresh though rather pale face and yellow hair, and large



6 Major W. Hodson

dark-grey or dark-blue eyes, which were a little stern and
unforgiving in expression.

" He was always rather bothered with heat, and re-
quired water for his head; and quite early would be at
the pump half stripped and sousing his yellow locks. He
was not popular, perhaps because, being fond of long
runs, he followed in a measure his own fancies. He was
known to be clever and fond of reading, but took no prizes.
As a fag's master he was strict, but took his fag's part, and
was not unreasonable.

" We stayed on at Rugby till I ceased to be a fag and
came to know him as a friend ; and after I left, and he had
gone to college, we met at times at Leamington."

Another schoolfellow, Mr. Thomas Arnold, has also
written of William Hodson in his Passages from a Wander-
ing Life : " Hodson of Hodson's Horse, who boarded at
Price's house, was in the Sixth Form at the same time with
me. He had a remarkable face, his complexion being
smooth and brilliant as that of a girl, while his hair was
of a bright golden yellow. He was tall and well made,
and a first-rate runner: if I remember right he was re-
garded as the best runner in the school. His expansive
and impulsive nature won him many friends, and for my
own part I always liked him greatly. His faults were
arrogance, rashness, and a domineering temper; and if
one bears this in mind, it is easy to understand the errors
into which he fell in India."

How far Hodson's health interfered at times with his
regular school work may be gathered from a letter written
to his father by Dr. Arnold in December 1839 : " My report
of your son's progress has been completely deranged by the
state of his health, which not only hindered him from
doing anything at all at his examination, but prevented
him from doing his regular compositions during a great
part of the half year, and affected, I have no doubt, his
work generally. There was a peculiar inconvenience in
this, because as exercise was recommended to him strongly,
he took an active part in all the school amusements, so
that his health seemed to interfere with nothing but his
work; and though I have not the slightest doubt that the
case was really so, that he could not read or compose,



School Life at Rugby 7

and that it did him good to play at football, yet the
example to the school was very apt to be misunderstood,
and I think that you will agree with me that it would be
better for him not to return to Rugby till his health is
fully re-established. I say this, hoping most sincerely
that he may be well enough to return immediately after
the holidays ; for what I saw of his conduct last half year
in one or two important instances pleased me much, and
I think that his character and influence would act more
and more beneficially on the school with every half year of
added age."

On the strength of this letter young Hodson's Christmas
holidays were extended into the spring of 1840. On his
return to Rugby he took up the post which Arnold had
already designed for him, in the house of a new master,
the Rev. G. E. Cotton, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta.
How loyally he discharged the duties of his new and some-
what trying office the following letter from Bishop Cotton
will show:

"May 18, 1858.

" You are aware that your brother was my pupil at
Rugby for a very short time. He was originally at Price's
house, but at the beginning of 1840 I succeeded to a house
in which there were no prepositors. To remedy this want
Dr. Arnold arranged, with Price's consent, that your
brother should be transferred to my house, partly because
from my intimacy with you at Cambridge I had naturally
made his acquaintance, and partly because from his
energetic character and practical ability he was likely to
give efficient help to a new master beginning the manage-
ment of a house.

" Unfortunately at the time that he ought to have
joined me he was taken ill, and did not return to Rugby
till a large portion of the half year was past, and as he left
it for Cambridge in the following October, my immediate
connection with him was brief. But it was long enough
to give abundant proof that Arnold's choice had been a
wise one. I remember quite well that soon after he came
he made several sensible suggestions as to the arrange-
ments of the house, which after two months or more of



8 Major W. Hodson

freedom from the authority of the Sixth had probably
become somewhat anarchical. But the great point to be
noticed was, that though he immediately re-established
the shattered prestige of prepositorial power, he contrived
to make himself very popular with various classes of boys.
The younger boys found in him an efficient protector
against bullying. Those of a more literary turn (amongst
others one of the present Professors at Oxford) found in
him an agreeable and intelligent companion, and were
proud of being admitted to sit in his study and talk on
matters of intellectual interest. Those who were anxious
that their house should take a good position in the school
were glad to see a leading member of the Sixth Form at
its head, and helping it to rise to greater importance. The
Democrats got their master, and submitted with a good
grace to power which they could not resist, and which was
judiciously and moderately exercised. The regime was
wise, firm, and kind, and the house was happy and pros-
perous. In my private relations with him I always found
him very pleasant, and quite able to reconcile with real
tact his position as a private friend with his relation as
the highest pupil and head of the house to a young master
entering on his work. From all that I knew of him, both
at Rugby and afterwards, I was not surprised at the
courage and coolness which the Times compared to ' the
spirit of a paladin of old.' I cannot say how much I
regret that I shall not be welcomed in India by the first
head of my dear old home at Rugby."

In June 1840 Dr. Arnold writes again to Hodson's
father to express his entire satisfaction with the good
results which had followed Hodson's return to Rugby.
" I sincerely hope," he adds, " that he will be able to
return to us again after the holidays."

" ' Who does not remember,' says a writer in the Book
of Rugby School, ' the fair-haired, light-complexioned,
active man, whose running feats, whether in the open
fields or on the gravel walks of the Close, created such
marvel among his contemporaries? He has carried his
hare-and-hounds into his country's service, and as com-
mandant of the gallant corps of Guides has displayed an
activity and courage on the wild frontier of the Punjab,



School Life at Rugby 9

the natural development of his early prowess at Crick
and Brownsover.' One of Hodson's schoolfellows, the
future author of Tom Brown's School-days, tells us how
at the first calling over he used to come in splashed and