rorkesdriftvc.com :: View topic - BBC HISTORY

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:58 am

I remember somebody asking if there was a court of enquiry following the massive defeat of General Burrows column at Maiwand.

There was a Court of Inquiry held and it sat around the 7th September 1880 and was refered to in the court marshal proceedings of Major Currie of the 3rd Bombay Light Cavalry in March 1881.

Richard

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:11 pm

Stackers,

Ref your last to me:

Burrows (commissioned 1844) was 53 years of age and came to 1st Inf Bde from being the QMG of the Bombay Army. No active service since the Mutiny. One of the things has struck me most about him in my research is that despite the failings in his generalship he was formidably brave at Maiwand. Not only does he appear to have been fighting in the midst of the Bombay Grenadiers, using his revolver when the ghazis got in amongst them, he also, when it all came unpicked and the cavalry and guns were making away, returned to his infantry and fought it out in the garden enclosures like a regimental officer. He was also right at the back of the retreat and, as legend has it, was literally the last man through the gates of Kandahar - which is exactly where defeated generals should be in such a situation - but so very rarely actually are. You could safely stick a VC on him and it wouldn't look out of place - put it that way. Nuttall came from being Commandant of the Sind Frontier Force with, as I indicated in my hot and hasty reply, a good deal of service in civil police appts in India. Nuttall had also been in Abyssinia during Napier's campaign, where he served on the transport staff, and earned himself a brevet to Lt Col and a MID. Earlier he had been in Persia 1856/7 and I imagine would have come back to serve in the Mutiny - but I will check this. Burrows was marginally older than Nuttall.

I have to swing by a big library in the next week or two, and will note down their full details and send them on.

As ever

Mike

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 12:28 pm

Nuttall was in the Mutiny - placed in command of detachments of police in the Deccan and Concan against Bheel rebels, and took an active part in the relief of Peint, and present at the engagements of Wassiembiera (two horses wounded under him, and five commendations from the Government). He died in 1890.

Best -
G

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:17 pm

Col Snook when is your book on Maiwand due to be published
Thank You
Clive

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 5:27 pm

Clive

It's not specifically on Maiwand but it does have a 20,000 + word chapter on the battle as well as pictures and maps of it. Similar length chapters on a number of other Victorian colonial battles. Should be out in Sep/Oct.

Regards as ever

Mike

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:06 pm

Stackers

Thanks. So, if there was a C.O.I., there could be a transcript of the proceedings somewhere, possibly ?

Coll

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:26 pm

I'd be interested as well. Looking forward to the book by Mike on a battle I'm not very familiar with.

And just wondering, how is the state of the battlefield, i.e., can it be visited? And are the British dead buried there or somewhere else?

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:18 am

Rich

No. It decidedly cannot be visited, at least not without a flak jacket and your last will and testament recently overhauled! It is in the middle of a very dangerous war zone.

As ever

Mike

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:13 pm

Mike

I don't suppose that you have any pictures of the battlefield? Apart from the rather grainy pictures in Leigh Maxwell's book, I have not seen any other images. I would like to see the location where Pte Alfred Northcott met his end as I am the current custodian of his medal. Like the rest of the 66th who fell that day, he is commemorated on the Maiwand Lion in Reading.

Peter

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:20 am

Peter

No sadly I don't. I'd love to get my hands on some. I'll keep my ear to the ground to see if any patrols have been there and snapped anything in passing. If I have any success I'll copy them to you, but in all honesty I think it's a long shot. (pardon the pun!)

As ever

Mike

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:08 pm

Thank you Mike..I am pleased that you are so concerned with my well-being that you have assuredly warned me of the consequences of a vist... Wink

..anyway, maybe old Francis Frith got there to take some snappys???....I like his pix....

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:52 pm

Rich

Given the choice between running around down-town Johannesburg for half an hour waving a fistful of large denomination rand notes and going to Maiwand for 5 minutes with a platoon as your close escort, choose the former!!

As ever
Mike

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 7:42 pm

oh definitely Mike definitely!..but between you and me I think I'll keep the rands outta site....no need to restlessly stir the pecuniary interests of Johannesburgians... Wink

....

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:34 am

Mike

Just to let you know that I've got 'My God ! - Maiwand.' by Leigh Maxwell on its way to me.

So I'll get an idea of the events prior to reading the Maiwand chapter in your book.

Coll

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 11:20 am

Cl Snook
I am still waiting for your latest boook "In To The Jaws of Death". I pre-ordered it four months ago from Waterstones but they say it is not yet released by the printers how much longer do I have to wait?
Clive Crying or Very sad