Campaign of the Indus: In a Series of Letters from an Officer of the Bombay Division — John Shaqi
Campaign of the Indus: In a Series of Letters from an Officer of the Bombay DivisionHoldsworth, T. W. E.
History
Campaign of the Indus: In a Series of Letters from an Officer of the Bombay Division
Holdsworth, T. W. E.
Afghan Wars
He was educated for the highest walk of the legal profession, and had
nearly prepared himself for the university, when he decided to change
his course and go into the army. The Commander-in-chief placed his name
amongst the candidates for commissions, and he went to Hanover, where,
after he had made himself master of the German language, his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge kindly gave him a commission in the
Yagers of the Guard, better known in England, in the Peninsula, and at
Waterloo, as the Rifles of the German Legion. Being only a volunteer in
the regiment, he could not receive pay from the government; he was,
therefore, at very considerable personal expense to keep his proper
standing with his brother officers; and as soon as he had acquired all
the military knowledge that he was likely to get in the regiment in time
of peace, he obtained leave to return to England; and, as he had not any
immediate expectation of a commission, he visited France, to make
himself more perfect in the French language. After this, he was allowed
to purchase a commission in the 2nd regiment, or Queen's Royals; and he
embarked to join that corps in India. His letters will shew what that
regiment, in common with others, have endured during a campaign of
fifteen months in Central Asia, their privations and expenses; and when
his second commission was paid for, during that campaign, he found
himself at its close, at the age of twenty-five, a lieutenant on full
pay, the amount of which, if he was in England, would be far short of
the interest of the money which has been expended in his commissions and
education, and with fifteen lieutenants still above him on the roll of
his regiment.
It will be seen by his letters, and it is confirmed by the official
despatches of the Commander-in-chief, that the company to which he was
attached (the light company of the Queen's) led the storming party at
Ghuzni. He was shot through the arm and through the body, and left for
dead at the foot of the citadel at Kelat, whilst endeavouring to save
the lives of some Beloochees who were crying for mercy. And for these
services he is to be rewarded with a medal, by Shah Shooja; for Ghuzni,
and for the capture of both places he has the full enjoyment of the
highest gratification that a soldier can feel--the consciousness that he
has done his duty to his country, and, let me hope, in the act of mercy
in which he suffered, his duty to his God as a Christian. But he is not
a solitary example of such good fortune. No one who was wounded and
survived may have been nearer death than himself, yet are there others
who have done more, and suffered more, as the history of the army of
the Indus would bear ample testimony.
Let me then ask, in behalf of the British officer, when he is lightly
spoken of as a man, or when the expenses of the army are cavilled at, on
which side is the debt--on his, or on that of his country?
A.H. HOLDSWORTH.
_Brookhill,--May, 1840._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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