Ian McLeod tells the story of one of the fiercest battles of the Second Sikh War, assessing its significance and revealing a unique link with the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
About the event
In January 1849, in the Punjab (in modern-day Pakistan), forces of the British East India Company clashed with the army of the Sikh Empire in a fierce and bloody battle. The British public were shocked by the severe casualties inflicted on British soldiers, particularly those of the 24th Regiment of Foot, which lost half of its strength in dead and wounded. Both sides claimed victory, but British prestige was damaged.
At the time, the battle fired Victorian imaginations. One distinguished poet immortalised it in verse and, when two British generals were remarking on the disaster of the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ in Crimea in 1854, one remarked: ‘These sorts of things will happen in war. It is nothing to Chillianwala.’
Responses