TEETHING PROBLEMS, 1856–1867 63
of massacre and rapine perpetrated by the ‘dusky heathen,’ and the whole
of the Indian military establishment was tarred with the same brush:
Some of the Europeans escaped across the Jumma, and 13 are reported
to be now near Bagput, on the left bank, protected by the zemindars;
but the rest, it is deeply feared, including the ladies and the children,
have been brutally murdered. The mutineers then proceeded to the city,
in which are situated the arsenal, the fort, and the King’s palace and the
civil station, and took unresisted possession of the whole, murdering all
the Europeans they could lay their hands on.^70
It did not matter that the majority of the native troops had remained loyal;
from the vantage point of London, all Indians were the same and all Indians
had forfeited the right to the distinction of the Victoria Cross. The tragedy
was that this attitude and the decisions that flowed from it denied the bravery
displayed by the loyal sepoys and sowars. Not until after the turn of the
century would native Indian courage receive the same official recognition
from the empire they served.
Given the public climate, it was fairly simple to disallow all native eligibility.
It was not quite so simple to exclude the white men that commanded them,
as the War Office and Horse Guards soon discovered. In November 1857 the
Board of Control forwarded recommendations for Lieutenant William Alex-
ander Kerr of the 24th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry and Commander
James Rennie of the Indian Navy made by the governor of the Bombay
Presidency.^71
The initial reaction in London was to lump the company officers with the
company soldiers and exclude both. The Board of Control was informed:
With reference to your letter of the 24th of November last, I have the
honour to acquaint you that I have been in communication with the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty and H.R.H. the General Commanding in
Chief on the subject of the recommendations therein made that the decor-
ation of the Victoria Cross be conferred on Commander James Rennie, of
the Indian Navy, for distinguished acts of gallantry in the military oper-
ations against Persia, and on Lieutenant William Alexander Kerr, of the
24th Regiment of Bombay Native Infantry in an encounter with mutineers
at Calapore.
From the accompanying copies of lettersTheir Lordships and H.R.H.
do not consider the claims of these officers to this high distinction are
sufficiently established; and under the circumstances, I find myself unable
lily
(lily)
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