Major-General Sir Henry Havelock was a British general who is particularly associated with India and his recapture of Cawnpore during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Henry Havelock, 1865 portrait
Havelock's grave, in the grounds of the Alumbagh Picket-House, the former palace
The monument erected over Havelock's grave, in the Alambagh cemetery
The statue of General Havelock in Trafalgar Square, London
The siege of Cawnpore was a key episode in the Indian rebellion of 1857. The besieged East India Company forces and civilians in Cawnpore were duped into a false assurance of a safe passage to Allahabad by the rebel forces under Nana Sahib. Their evacuation from Cawnpore thus turned into a massacre, and most of the men were killed and women and children taken to a nearby dwelling known as Bibighur. As an East India Company rescue force from Allahabad approached Cawnpore, 120 British women and children captured by the rebels were butchered in what came to be known as the Bibighar Massacre, their remains then thrown down a nearby well. Following the recapture of Cawnpore and the discovery of the massacre, the angry Company forces engaged in widespread retaliation against captured rebel soldiers and local civilians. The murders greatly enraged the British rank-and-file against the Sepoy rebels and inspired the war cry "Remember Cawnpore!".
A contemporary engraving of the massacre at the Satichura Ghat
Photograph entitled, "The Hospital in General Wheeler's entrenchment, Cawnpore." (1858) The hospital was the site of the first major loss of British lives in Cawnpore
Up to 1,000 British troops, their families and loyal sepoys were holed up in Gen Wheeler's entrenchment in Kanpur for three weeks in June 1857 where they were constantly bombarded by the army of a local prince, Nana Sahib.
Savada Kothi became a base headquarters for the rebel sepoys