Maggs Bros. Ltd.

A wonderful and heart-breaking suite of watercolours recording the actions and death of Lieutenant Edward Cotgrave Parr Willoughby (1834-1858) during the India Rebellion.

The captions read in full:

6. Scenes in the life of Lieutenant Edward Cotsgrave Parr Willoughby, 4th Punjab Rifles, (killed during Indian Mutiny 1858). aged 23. 2nd Son of Major General Michael Franklin Willoughby, C.B. Inspector General of Military Stores for India.

1st. The BIVOUACK... Writing Home to Much Loved Friends.

2nd. The COMMANDER in CHIEF'S QUARTERS, ... Approbation from Lord Clyde.

3rd. The ATTACK on the Begum's Palace, Lucknow, headed by the 4th Punjab Rifles, & the 93rd Highlanders.

4th. STORMING of the SECUNDRABAGH, Lucknow, ... (The Victoria Cross in Perspective.)

5th. The Fatal March on FORT RHODAMOW. ... "The Golden Bowl is broken, and the Silver Cord is loosed." Ecclesiastes XII.

6th. RESCUE of the Body of Lieutenant WILLOUGHBY, by Captain CASE, 4th Punjab Rifles, assisted by 2 of the 42nd Highlanders. 2 Native Officers, and 2 Sowars of the Regiment, in which one of the Highlanders, and one of the Sowars were killed.

The style of these watercolours is very much in imitation of an etched series of prints, however if they were preparatory sketches for etchings, we have traced no surviving copies of the printed works. The artist has not signed their work, but the fact that the first scene shows the young man “writing home to much loved friends” suggests that they were likely drawn or commissioned by friends or family. Willoughby was only twenty-three years old when he died, making this attempt to commemorate the final events of his short life all the more poignant.

Willoughby was born in Pune, his father was a Major-General in the Royal Artillery who was present at the Capture of Aden and the battery of Hyderabad. Edward was educated in England, and then joined the Bombay Army as a cadet in 1855, seeing action in the Crimean War in Turkey and in the Persia War of 1856/7, before returning to India for the second relief of Lucknow.

The first of these images records the 4th Punjab Rifles in camp, with Willoughby at front and centre writing home. In the second, we witness him being feted by Lord Clive.

The third and fourth images show Willoughby in action during the attack on the Begum’s Palace as well as the "storming of the Secundrabagh," critical battles in the capture of Lucknow. The attack was so fierce it resulted in the deaths of between six and seven hundred rebel soldiers. Willoughby's actions earned him an honourable mention in the Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General’s dispatches.

In the fifth, The Fatal March on Fort Rhodamow, we see Willoughby sustain the fatal wound to his throat while on horseback.

His obituary in the London Illustrated News notes that "Lieutenant Willoughby was so ill that he was obliged to be carried with the column in a dhooly and mounted his horse, and while gallantly leading his men to the assault was mortally wounded in the throat, but still bravely persisted in going forward, till he sank from the loss of blood, and died on the glacis."

The April 15th attack on Fort Ruiya, also known as the Battle of Rhodamon, was considered to have been a major miscalculation on the part of Sir Robert Walpole, the commander of the 3rd division. On a march through Rohilkhand, they came across a fort in the jungle, concealed from view by dense vegetation. Walpole ordered his troops into action without previous reconnaissance, a decision for which he was harshly criticised, and led to heavy losses from the 42nd Highlanders and 4th Punjabi Rifles in particular. They were, in essence, attacking blind a fortified stronghold of matchlockmen (who knew the local terrain) and were then ordered to retreat, only to be picked off one by one. It’s little surprise that Walpole is left unmentioned in the series of cartoons.

But the obituary doesn’t end here, nor doest this suite. In the recovery of Willoughby’s body, "Captain Cope, his commanding officer, was severely wounded, and some of his men killed ... He was buried in a grove of trees about three miles south-west of the fort where he fell, by the side of Brigadier the Hon. Adrian Hope, who was killed on the same day."

Two of Willoughby’s fellow officers, Captain William Martin Case (1862-1906) and Alexander Thompson (c.1824-1880) were awarded the Victoria Cross for their role in the recovery of his body, and a third, Private Edward Spence, was recommended for the VC had he survived, and ultimately awarded it posthumously. This is depicted in the final scene, where they are assisted by two Native officers and two Sowars.

Willoughby’s regiment, the 4th Punjab Rifles, was originally raised as the 4th Punjab Infantry Regiment in 1849 by Captain G. G. Denniss at Lahore as part of the Transfrontier Brigade, which became the Punjab Irregular Force (PIF) in 1851. It comprised of Sikh, Punjabi Muslim and Pathan recruits. It changed its name to the 57th Wilde’s Rifles (Frontier Force) in 1903, in honour of Lieutenant Alfred Thomas Wilde of the 19th Madras Infantry, who was appointed the regiment’s commandant in November 1851.

Anon., [obituary] “Lieutenant Willoughby” in London Illustrated News, 17 July 1858.