The Book of the V.C.: A record of the deeds of heroism for which the Victoria Cross has been bestowed, from its institution in 1857 to the present timeHaydon, A. L. (Arthur Lincoln)
History
The Book of the V.C.: A record of the deeds of heroism for which the Victoria Cross has been bestowed, from its institution in 1857 to the present time
Haydon, A. L. (Arthur Lincoln)
Great Britain -- History, Military; Victoria Cross
This turn of affairs was tacitly acquiesced in by the Indian Government,
who recognised that the change was for the better, but on the late
Maharajah, Soor Chandra Singh, complaining to the authorities of the
bad treatment he had received (and deserved, by the way), some notice
of it had to be taken. So Mr. Quinton, Chief Commissioner of Assam, was
despatched to Manipur with instructions to arrest the head and front of
the offending, the Senaputty.
This gentleman, however, firmly declined to comply with the request that
he should surrender himself. An attempt was then made to seize him in
the palace, but without success, and diplomacy was again resorted to. A
meeting was arranged for the discussion of the matter, and one evening
Quinton, Grimwood, and several of the British officers had an interview
with the Regent and the Senaputty. Not one of them was ever seen again
alive. On their refusal to accept the terms proposed by the Manipuri
chiefs they were all massacred.
Mrs. St. Clair Grimwood, who was one of those who escaped from the
besieged Residency immediately after the tragedy, has given us a graphic
account of her experiences. She was ignorant of the real facts when
forced to flee by her companions, the first news being that her husband
had been taken prisoner with the others. Only at the end of her journey
did she learn the awful truth.
Down in the cellar of the house Mrs. Grimwood, like the brave lady she
was, carefully tended the wounded amid the crackle of musketry and the
crash of bursting shells. She was hit in the arm, though fortunately not
seriously, and only desisted from her task when it became evident that
they must all leave the place. The rebels had set the Residency on fire.
With the wounded and an escort of sepoys, Mrs. Grimwood and the officers
who had survived made a dash for the road, reaching it in safety. “I had
not even a hat,” she remarks, “and only very thin house-shoes on. One of
these dropped off in the river, where I got wet up to the shoulders. We
were fired at all the way. I lay down in a ditch about twenty times that
night while they were firing, to try and escape bullets.”
After ten days’ marching through the jungle-covered country, fording
rivers and scrambling through swamps, not to mention a sharp encounter
with their enemies, the little party reached British territory. They had
just two cartridges left by that time; one of them being reserved, it is
noted, to save Mrs. Grimwood from falling alive into the hands of the
Manipuris!
One is tempted to dwell at greater length on the story of that dramatic
flight from the Residency, but it is with Lieutenant Grant that we are
mainly concerned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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