Siege of Lucknow (1857): The Residency Under Fire

The Siege of Lucknow was the defence of the British Residency in Lucknow, capital of Awadh, during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. From 30 June 1857 a garrison of British soldiers, loyal Indian sepoys and civilians held out against rebel forces for nearly five months. Two relief columns fought their way in, and the siege became one of the most celebrated episodes of the rebellion in Victorian Britain.

Background: Awadh in 1857

Awadh (Oudh), a rich kingdom in the Ganges plain, had been annexed by the East India Company in February 1856 and its king, Wajid Ali Shah, sent into exile in Calcutta. Many sepoys of the Bengal Army came from Awadh, and the annexation, followed by a land settlement that dispossessed many great landholders (taluqdars), caused deep resentment. When the rebellion broke out in May 1857, Awadh became one of its strongholds, with broad support among soldiers, nobles and peasants.

Sir Henry Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner, anticipated trouble. He fortified the Residency, a compound of buildings on a rise above the Gomti River, stockpiled food and ammunition and brought in the city’s European community. Late in May the sepoy regiments at Lucknow mutinied, and many left to join the rebels.

Lawrence also held a second strongpoint, the old Machchi Bhawan fort, but he had too few men to defend both positions. The Residency compound itself was a loose collection of houses, offices, a banqueting hall, a church and outbuildings, linked by hastily built earthworks and barricades. Its perimeter, about a mile around, was overlooked in places by buildings only a few dozen metres away.

The siege begins

On 30 June 1857 Lawrence led a force out to meet a rebel army approaching at Chinhat, a few miles from the city. The attack failed, part of his Indian artillery changed sides, and the column retreated with heavy losses. The rebels followed, and the siege of the Residency began that day.

The defenders numbered about 1,700 combatants: roughly 850 British officers and soldiers, mostly of the 32nd Regiment of Foot, about 700 loyal Indian troops and around 150 civilian volunteers. With them were some 1,300 non-combatants, including British women and children and Indian servants. On 2 July a shell struck Lawrence’s room in the Residency, and he died of his wounds on 4 July. Colonel John Inglis of the 32nd took command.

On 1 July the garrison of the Machchi Bhawan was withdrawn into the Residency during the night, and the fort was blown up to deny its stores to the rebels. From then on, the whole British position in Lucknow consisted of the Residency enclosure.

Life under siege

The besiegers, who greatly outnumbered the garrison, kept up almost constant musket and cannon fire from surrounding buildings. They dug mines beneath the defences, and the garrison, helped by Cornish miners from the 32nd, dug countermines to intercept them. Several rebel assaults on the perimeter were beaten off.

Conditions inside were grim. Cholera, smallpox, dysentery and scurvy killed many, and food grew short. Women nursed the sick in the hospital, and diaries kept by survivors such as Julia Inglis and Adelaide Case were later published. The Union flag flying over the Residency became a symbol of endurance in Britain.

The besiegers were not a single army. They included mutinous sepoy regiments, the armed retainers of Awadh landholders and volunteers from the city. In early July 1857 rebel leaders proclaimed Birjis Qadr, the young son of the exiled king Wajid Ali Shah, as ruler of Awadh, with his mother Begum Hazrat Mahal acting as regent and organising the war effort.

The first relief: Havelock and Outram

General Henry Havelock set out from Kanpur in July but was forced back twice by disease and losses. Reinforced by Sir James Outram, he fought his way through the city with about 3,000 men and reached the Residency on 25 September 1857. Brigadier-General James Neill was among those killed in the street fighting.

The relief force had lost about 500 men and could not take the sick, wounded and civilians out safely. Outram took command, and the enlarged garrison held a wider perimeter while remaining under siege for another seven weeks.

The second relief: Colin Campbell

Sir Colin Campbell, the new commander-in-chief, assembled a relief force of roughly 3,500 to 5,000 men and advanced in November. On 16 November his troops stormed the Sikandar Bagh, a walled garden held by rebel sepoys, where around 2,000 defenders were killed. Campbell’s force broke through to meet the garrison on 17 November.

Campbell judged that he could not hold Lucknow, as rebel forces were still strong and Kanpur was under threat. Between 19 and 22 November the garrison and civilians were quietly evacuated. Havelock, ill with dysentery, died at the Dilkusha palace on 24 November. Outram held the Alambagh outside the city, and Campbell left for Kanpur on 27 November. Lucknow itself was retaken in March 1858, and later that year rule passed from the Company to the Crown with the start of the British Raj.

The final recapture of the city came only in March 1858. Campbell returned with a much larger army of around 30,000 men, joined by a Nepalese force under Jung Bahadur Rana. After more than two weeks of fighting through palaces and gardens, the British held Lucknow by 21 March. Begum Hazrat Mahal withdrew with her son and continued resistance in the countryside before finding refuge in Nepal, where she died in 1879.

Key people

• Sir Henry Lawrence (1806-1857): Chief Commissioner of Awadh, who prepared the defence and was killed early in the siege.
• John Inglis (1814-1862): commander of the garrison after Lawrence’s death.
• Henry Havelock (1795-1857): general who led the first relief and died soon after the evacuation.
• Sir James Outram (1803-1863): commander of the reinforced garrison from September.
• Begum Hazrat Mahal (c. 1820-1879): wife of the deposed king, who led resistance in Awadh in the name of her son Birjis Qadr.

Memory and myths

In Britain the siege was celebrated in paintings, newspapers and poems, among them Tennyson’s The Defence of Lucknow (1879). Twenty-four Victoria Crosses were awarded for actions during Campbell’s relief on 16 November, among the most for a single day. The Union flag over the Residency ruins was flown day and night until Indian independence in 1947.

A popular Victorian legend told of “Jessie’s Dream”, in which a Scottish soldier’s wife heard the bagpipes of the relieving Highlanders before anyone else. Historians regard the story as fiction. In India the siege is remembered as part of Awadh’s resistance, and Begum Hazrat Mahal is honoured, like Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, as a leader of the uprising.

Timeline

• 1856, February: The East India Company annexes Awadh.
• 1857, 30 June: British defeat at Chinhat; the siege begins.
• 1857, 4 July: Sir Henry Lawrence dies of wounds.
• 1857, 25 September: Havelock and Outram reach the Residency.
• 1857, 16 November: Campbell’s troops storm the Sikandar Bagh.
• 1857, 17 November: Campbell’s force links up with the garrison.
• 1857, 19-22 November: The Residency is evacuated.
• 1857, 24 November: Havelock dies at the Dilkusha.
• 1858, March: The British recapture Lucknow.

Why it matters

The defence of the Lucknow Residency became a defining story of the 1857 rebellion for the British, while for many Indians the siege is part of a wider struggle against Company rule in Awadh. The preserved ruins remain a powerful reminder of the violence of 1857 and of how differently it has been remembered.