An evocative Indian Mutiny Medal awarded to Colonel R. C. Tytler, Indian Army, whose experiences in the rebellion were vividly recalled by his wife in An Englishwoman in India: The Memoirs of Harriet Tytler 1828-1858

She and the Colonel were fortunate to escape the slaughter that erupted in Delhi in May 1857 and, on account of her being heavily pregnant, she became the only woman given permission to stay put on Delhi Ridge during the ensuing siege - the happy couples’ new arrival being christened ‘Stanley Delhi-Force Tytler’

With the assistance of his artistic wife, the Colonel created a stunning photographic portfolio of ‘Indian scenes’ in 1858, including a famous portrait of Bahadur Shah II, the ex-King of Delhi, whose gold crown and throne chairs he purchased at a prize agent’s auction and sold to Queen Victoria for £500


Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Delhi (Capt. R. C. Tytler, 38th Regt. N.I. in Cge. Mily. Chest), better than very fine £1600-1800

Robert Christopher Tytler was born at Allahabad in October 1817, the son of Surgeon Robert Tytler of the Indian Medical Service; his mother was the daughter of a German count and his younger brother John (1825-80) won the V.C. during the Indian Mutiny, while serving as a Lieutenant in the 66th Native Infantry.

Young Robert was appointed an Ensign in the 34th Native Infantry in February 1835, a regiment to which his father had been appointed Surgeon, but later transferred to the 38th Native Infantry and was advanced to Lieutenant in September 1837. He subsequently witnessed active service in Afghanistan 1839-42, being present at the engagements leading to the re-occupation of Cabul under General Nott (Medal); fought in the Gwalior campaign in 1843 and was present at Maharajpoor (Star), and, in the rank of Captain, had charge of the Commissariat Depot at Busseean and Wudnee during the First Sikh War.

In January 1843, at Meerut, he married Isabella (nee Nicolson), but she died at Mussoorie in January 1847; he married secondly, in March 1848, Harriet Christina, the second daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel John Earle of the Bengal Army. A woman of singular courage and independence, Harriet was a gifted artist, her works including a fine cyclorama of the interior of the Red Fort at Delhi - it measured 18 by 6 feet and was sold to Phineas T. Barnum, the famous American show promoter. Moreover, in her latter years, she wrote a vivid account of events at Delhi in May 1857, an account published in Chambers Journal in the 1930s and later expanded under the title An Englishwoman in India: The Memoirs of Harriet Tytler 1828-1858.

Delhi - escape - the Ridge - the birth of ‘Stanley Delhi-Force Tytler’

Of events at Delhi in May 1857, much had been written, for the city became the scene of much slaughter. For Harriet, matters were particularly harrowing, for she was heavily pregnant and had two young children to look after, Edith, 2 and Frank, 4, and her French maid, Marie.

Luckily, after she had managed to flee their home in the city, leaving behind all of their possessions - likely among them her husband’s campaign medals - she reached the temporary safety of the Flag Staff Tower; here she was seen clutching one of her children in one arm, and passing up ammunition with the other. In terms of her fears, she wrote:

‘As you may imagine, our hearts were now more than filled with hopeless despair. At the slightest noise, my children would clasp me all the tighter, and I felt over and over again, as I am sure every one else did, that our last moment had come. God only know the misery of that heart-rending day, borne so heroically with silent resignation by us all.

Before the magazine blew up, I had thought several times of running over to tell me husband of what was going on in the city; but the thought of leaving my children to their fate and those three miles to the White House, on the arid ridge of sunbaked boulders in the burning sun of May, with its furnace-like wind, without a hat or umbrella, was too much - I knew it could only result in death, so had to give up the idea, as also of ever seeing my husband again.

I thought the very worst the Mohammedan troopers could possibly do would be to kill my children before my eyes and then shoot me or cut me down; but thank God! I never for a moment supposed that a worse death could be possible, until afterwards, when I heard of the brutalities inflicted upon all the poor women in my condition who fell into their hands’ (An Englishwoman in India: The Memoirs of Harriet Tytler 1828-1858, refers).

Among other events, Harriet saw Captain Tessier being shot at by passing mutineers as he rode towards Flag Staff Tower - ‘His horse received six bullets, all of which were meant for the rider. He was covered in his charger’s blood, though unwounded himself, and just had time to turn his horse’s head and reach the Tower, when the faithful creature fell down dead.’

Shortly afterwards, her husband, who had witnessed the mutiny of the 38th Native Infantry - but persuaded 40 or so sepoys to remain loyal - arrived at the Tower. A row ensued with his Brigadier, who wished to remain, but at length Tytler was able to convince him that to do so would invite certain death; accordingly a ‘stampede’ erupted for assorted carriages and bullock carts outside the Tower, and a desperate attempt to make for Kurnaul ensued. As they set off, her husband ‘driving at a furious pace ... we cast our eyes in the direction of the cantonment and saw every bungalow in the lines on fire. It was a sickening sight ... ’

The ensuing journey was beset by much hardship, broken wheels and carriages resulting in long marches, a nightmare admirably described by Mrs. Tytler. Some days later, however, via Kurnaul, they reached Amballa, where the barracks of the 9th Lancers served as a temporary haven.

The harrowing opening scenes of slaughter at Delhi played out, Tytler and Harriet were present at the engagement fought at Badli-Ka-Sarai, following which he was advanced to Major and appointed Paymaster to the Delhi Ridge Force - with ‘Charge of the Military Chest’, as uniquely inscribed on his Mutiny Medal.

When, on 19 June 1857, General Sir Henry Barnard ordered all non-combatants on the ridge to depart for Meerut, Tytler sought an audience with him to plead on his wife’s behalf to remain behind. She was by that date eight months pregnant and the General was sufficiently moved to grant her permission to remain on the ridge with her husband, thus enabling the eventual arrival of ‘Stanley Delhi-Force Tytler’ - a happy occasion marred by the appalling conditions, extreme heat and concern for the youngster’s survival; Mrs. Tytler’s basic quarters in the bell of arms regularly attracted enemy fire - ‘so accustomed did I become to shot and shell that by the sound in the air I knew what kind of missile was flying over.’

On the re-capture of Delhi, the Tytler’s moved in to the palace of Kamuran Shah, the old emperor’s brother and it was here that General Wilson and his staff officers gathered in the marble hall to drink the health of the newly arrived Stanley Delhi-Force Tytler; he died in Vancouver, Canada in the late 1940s, aged 91, ‘the last survivor of the Indian Mutiny’.

The King of Delhi’s crown and throne chairs

The period immediately following the re-capture of Delhi was fraught with problems for Tytler, charged as he was the ‘Military Chest’, for looting and theft was widespread, even though he had the assistance of a guard drawn from the ranks of the 60th Rifles.

It was also a period in which prize auctions were held, at one of which Tytler purchased the King of Delhi’s crown and a pair of throne chairs.

Royal archives state:

‘In the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 Bahadur Shah (1775-1862), nominally the last Mughal emperor and King of Delhi, was deposed and exiled to Burma, and the involvement of the East India Company in the government of India ceased. The official end of the Mughal Empire was marked in Delhi by the auction of quantities of jewels and other valuable relics of Bahadur Shah’s court.

Three such relics, the Emperor’s so-called crown and two throne chairs, were bought by Major Robert Tytler (1818-72) of the 38th Regiment of Native Infantry (Bengal), who had taken part in the Siege of Delhi. Returning to England in 1860 Tytler declined £1,000 for the crown from a Bond Street jeweller, deciding instead to offer the relics to Queen Victoria. On 3 January 1861, Sir Charles Wood (1800-1885; later Viscount Halifax), Secretary of State for India, wrote to Prince Albert from the India Office, enclosing a memorandum regarding Tytler’s relics, mentioning in particular ‘an article of head dress which has been brought here … It cannot however be called a crown. It is a very rich skull-cap worn on the head of the Emperor, & round the lower part of which the turban was wound - & in the turban jewels were placed.’ Sir Charles recorded that Sir John Lawrence (1811-79, a member of the Council of India and later Viceroy) had seen the so-called crown ‘& has no doubt of its being what the Emperor actually wore’. In response, the Prince (who immediately recognised the great symbolic value and historical interest of the relics) asked Sir Charles to find out what the owner expected for the crown and for the two throne chairs that were also mentioned. On 8 January Wood reported to the Prince that the crown had been sent to Windsor for the Queen to inspect. Both the crown and the throne chairs were subsequently purchased by the Queen.

As recounted in later years by his wife, Tytler felt that the figure of £500 offered by Sir Charles for the crown and two throne chairs was far too low, but reluctantly agreed to it on the promise of a suitable appointment when he returned to India. No such appointment was forthcoming, and the unsatisfactory nature of the transaction with Sir Charles continued to rankle with Harriet Tytler when writing her memoirs more than forty years later.’

Harriet wrote:

‘The crown was sold to Queen Victoria for five hundred pounds, an absurdly small sum, and he was promised a good appointment on his return to India if he accepted the offer. The day after it was sold, we received an offer from the Oxford Museum of a thousand pounds for it, just the shell of it without a single jewel included.’

Photographer - the famous ‘Indian portfolio’

Tytler remained in charge of the Military Chest until May 1858, when he departed with his wife and children on extended furlough - this the period in which they undertook their celebrated photographic journey, following tuition from Felice Beato and Dr. John Murray.

The final result was quite remarkable, some 500 large-format calotype negatives of scenes closely associated with the Mutiny, many of which have appeared - and continue to appear - in related histories:

‘Major Robert C. Tytler exhibited some fine positive photographic illustrations of Indian architecture and scenery, of which negatives as well as the positives were taken by Mrs. Tytler and himself ... The pictures were of great beauty and of an extraordinarily large size ... They elicited great admiration (Report of the Photographic Society of Bengal, February 1859, refers).

Superintendent of Convicts - Andaman Islands - and Tytler’s leaf warbler

Having returned to Calcutta to close the books of his ‘Military Chest’, Tytler was appointed Officer Superintendent of the convict settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands in 1862, where ‘Mount Harriet’ was named in honour of his wife and he remained employed until 1864 - ‘Although a highly talented man, his short tenure at the head of the Andamanese administration was not a happy one.’

Thereafter, he served back in India and, in 1869, was given special permission to proceed to Simla for the purposes of establishing an important museum; his wife founded the Asiatic Christian Orphanage, later known as the Mayo School of Simla. The Colonel died there in September 1872.

Today, he is best remembered for his spectacular photographic portfolio of Indian scenes. Yet the Colonel’s name lives on in other fields, for he was a gifted naturalist, particularly in respect of birds - hence the ‘Tytler leaf warbler’, named after him; sold with extensive copied research.