Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The important Indian Mutiny medal awarded to George Schilling, Principal of La Martinière College throughout the siege of Lucknow

Indian Mutiny 1857-58, 1 clasp, Defence of Lucknow (G. Schilling) edge nicks, otherwise good very fine £3,600-£4,600

Provenance: Brian Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, March 2005.

George Schilling, the Principal of La Martinière College, was born in Dublin 1827 and was educated at King’s College, London. La Martinière, a large and impressive palace, lying a mile south east of Lucknow and about two and a half miles from the Residency, was built by Major-General Claude Martine (1735-1800), a French soldier and adventurer who allied himself to the British. Having amassed a fortune of 28 lakhs, Martine left instructions that on his death he was to be buried in one of the ground floor rooms, and endowed three schools; one in his former residence at Lucknow, one at Calcutta and one in his native Lyons.

In March 1857, Schilling, a married man with a daughter, was responsible for 268 pupils and the teaching staff and their dependents, about 100 in all. On hearing of the attacks on Europeans at Meerut and Delhi, Schilling arranged for stocks of food, ‘rice, ghee dall etc., etc.’, and reserves of drinking water in large earthenware pots, to be laid in. A small guard drawn from the 3rd Oudh Military Police was provided, and he also immediately took several other wise precautions, afterwards outlined in his report to the Trustees of the Martine Charities: ‘ ... the Establishment was moved into the main building of the Constantia House; the bigger boys armed, and sentries from among them stationed on top of the building during the day; the duty of keeping watch at night being assigned to the masters. At the same time the bridges connecting the main building with the wings of Martinière were destroyed; the numerous doors in front of the building barricaded, those behind built up with kucha walls, five feet high, and of course the same thickness; all the staircases built up; and also all the doors leading to the central staircase, excepting one filled up with bricks which had been purchased for the construction of a large well.’

On 11 June the cavalry of the Oudh Military Police mutinied and next day the infantry of the Military Police followed suit, but fortunately the guard at the Martinière absconded to join their comrades without first striking a blow at Schilling. The boys, who had been further reduced in number by some returning to their parents, were now sixty-one foundationers and four boarders, and they watched expectantly from the top of the Martinière as a body of mutineers, apparently intent on attacking the College that night, took up a position in a mango tope on the southern boundary of the park. But help from the Residency was at hand and some guns and a party of Lawrence’s Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain Radcliffe, galloped up and went into action. A few rounds of grape at close range scattered the mutineers who were then charged by the Volunteer Cavalry and driven into some trees. Two columns of the H.M’s 32nd Regiment, under Colonel Inglis, appeared in skirmishing order and, advancing into the wooded area, accounted for a number of Sepoys. While all this was going on, Schilling, who was returning from the Residency, ran into some mutineers in the park, but, digging in his heels, was able to escape ‘because of the swiftness of his horse’.

A guard of one Sergeant and eight men of the 32nd now replaced the Oudh Military Police at the Martinière, but over the course of the next few days Lawrence decided that it would be impractical to defend the College in the event of a general uprising and on 17 June he issued orders for the school to join the other Europeans inside the Residency perimeter. ‘By order of Sir Henry Lawrence’, reported Schilling, ‘the school was removed into the Residency on the 18th of June; the order came at 4 o’clock the day before, when all preparations for the defence of the building were at once stopped, and the Principal went down to the city to ascertain where in the Residency, the school was to be placed, and what articles would be allowed to be taken in. Provisions, clothes, a bedstead and a chair to each individual, and a few tables, were all that the rules permitted. For the boys it was impossible to take as much as this, as the rooms assigned to them would not have held bedsteads and seats for all. Consequently only twelve bedsteads for hospital use, tables to dine half the boys, with forms in proportion, all the provisions that had been stored up in the main building, school-books sufficient to carry on the studies of the Christian pupils, with their summer clothing, were taken in, as much in fact as coolies could be obtained to carry.’

Once inside the Residency perimeter the school was allocated a house on the southern face of the entrenchment next to Sikh Square and in front of the Brigade Mess. The house belonged to a native banker, Shah Behari Lal, but from the moment Schilling was placed in command and took possession, it became the Martinière Post. At first Schilling ensured that school routine continued as far as possible, and Crank and his European subordinates continued to keep their pupils at their studies. The maulvis and pandits were given leave of absence on half pay for three months on 20 June and went away never to return, and the Indian doctor sloped off at the first opportunity. At first College servants collected supplies daily from the Martinière, but on 30 June, following the rout of Lawrence’s troops at Chinhut, they deserted. Also on that day of blood, panic and confusion, a flock of sheep belonging to the College was regrettably locked out of the Residency entrenchment when the gates were hurriedly shut.

The Martinière Post was in a very exposed part of the garrison, being separated from the rebel held godowns of Johannes House by a road only twenty feet wide. The boys who bore arms would go on to the roof of their Post and fire through loopholes at whatever targets presented themselves. Besides rebels, these included Mr Johannes’ palka ghari and the pumpkins in his garden which might provide the enemy with an additional source of food. Firing at these latter targets, however, was banned after a small boy called Hornby came onto the roof and addressed some question to two senior boys, namely Edward Hilton (the Sergeant Instructor’s son) and James Luffman. As the two elder boys turned to face the junior, a rebel fired and the bullet, glancing along the barrel of Luffman’s musket, struck him in his left shoulder. Schilling reprimanded the boys and subsequently put that part of the house out of bounds. By preventing his charges from exposing themselves unnecessarily, the remarkable fact emerged that by the time the entrenchment was evacuated in November not one of the Martinière staff or boys had been killed by enemy action though there were many narrow escapes. Two boys, however, were wounded, Luffman as stated, and another named Smith. Two more succumbed to disease.

Besides the daily dangers of rebel fire from Johannes House, members of the Martinière Post were also subjected to two enemy attempts to drive mines under their position and blow it up. On 21 July, the day on which Schilling’s friend Polehampton was killed, a mine starting from the area of Johannes House was discovered in the nick of time, and the rebels dislodged by the use of grenades. However, the rebels’ second was a more successful attempt, as Schilling reported: ‘[it] carried entirely away the outer-room of the principal bungalow on the 10th August, while the boys were at prayers. The three doors in the partition wall, which fortunately remained standing, were blown open by the explosion. Before however the dust cleared away, those were barricaded with school tables, but not so as to prevent the first fatal casualty which occurred at the post, a soldier of the H.M’s 32nd Regiment, who accompanied the Brigadier on a visit of inspection.’

It was a moment of supreme danger. Rebels poured forth from Johannes House and the surrounding godowns and while maintaining a furious fusillade made a concerted effort to get into the Martinière Post. Inglis, visibly upset at the death of the soldier exclaimed, “Another of my brave men is gone”, and ordered those boys with muskets to fix bayonets. At length fire returned from the Martinière Post drove back the rebels, but a number of them succeeded in getting into the tykhanna (underground room). Captain McCabe of the 32nd came to the rescue, and, through holes bored in the floor, bombed them out with grenades. Three rebels were killed and the rest pushed out into Johannes’s godowns.

The constant threat posed by Johannes House was finally answered by a fifty-foot British counter mine started from the Martinère Post a week later. It was dug in three days by men of Cornish tin mining stock belonging to the 32nd. On the 21st a sharp fire was opened on Johannes House, into which, as was hoped, large numbers of rebels flocked in order to reply. The mine was then blown and the house collapsed in a heap of rubble. A hundred rebels including the notorious rebel sniper ‘Bob the Nailer’ perished.

By careful rationing, Schilling was able to feed all his people for upwards of two months without assistance from the Commissariat, although after the loss of the sheep, he had been given another flock by the authorities on condition that the Martinière should feed them with the supply of grain brought in by the school. When all the sheep had been eaten, Schilling drew rations of beef from the Commisariat, but finding the official allowance for children under 12 was inadequate - only an eighth of that allowed for an adult - he was obliged to purchase on behalf of the College, (‘at the best terms it could’, he stressed to the Trustees) bullocks heads and necks from which was made a ‘very substantial and palatable soup’. Water was ‘furnished in abundance by a large well in the compound, and was of excellent quality, until a bheestie who had come to draw some, was struck by a cannon shot and fell into it. The school then had to resort to a large well just outside the compound near the adjoining Native Hospital.

The shortage of suitable clothing for the boys, or ‘The Ragged Fusiliers’ as the soldiers of the 32nd called them, was an equally pressing matter as the availability of food. But, as ever, Schilling overcame the difficulty: ‘... the hard work that the boys had to undergo, so soon wore out what they had on, that it was with the utmost difficulty they were kept clothed, though the supply of men’s clothing purchased at the auctions of deceased officers’ effects, and from the stores of the 32nd Regiment was very liberal, and a large quantity was made up during the siege. On the approach of the cold season, the difficulty increased, but the efforts made were successful so far as to provide every boy leaving the Residency with a pair of shoes, and complete suit of warm clothing.’

Even after the arrival of Sir Colin Campbell’s Second Relief Force on 17 November, and the subsequent evacuation of non-combatants on the night of the 19th, the trials of the Schilling’s Ragged Fusiliers were far from over. ‘The endurance of the boys was put to a severer test during the march even than during the siege. Two hackeries and a few ponies purchased on the road, provided carriage for less than half the number, so that in the forced marches amidst the greatest confusion, the majority of them had to struggle on in the best way they could, to their journey’s end, then snatch a few hours’ sleep under trees, hackeries, or sheds, with insufficient covering against the cold (for many of them had been obliged, on the first march from the Residency, when they started without hackeries or camels, to abandon their blankets), and then hurriedly to start again. Happily the exertions made to provide them with food were successful, or otherwise they would never have braved as they did the extreme fatigue of the march.’

On 15 March 1858, Schilling, together with his family, staff and pupils arrived at Benares, where two bungalows were rented in the civil lines and a level of normality was resumed. The Founder’s Day feast of 1857 was now celebrated, and looking back on the experiences of the past seven months, Schilling observed: ‘Though the boys have lost in actual knowledge during the months that they have been without school work, they appear to have gained in intelligence by what they have gone through, and they are also more self-reliant, and show a more kindly feeling towards each other than before.’

Principal Schilling’s leadership was well rewarded. He was duly voted a gratuity of three months pay, and later became a Talukdar, or noble of Oudh, with an estate worth 30,000 pounds, thereby ensuring a comfortable retirement in England. The Martiniere contribution was officially recognised in Queen Victoria’s 1858 proclamation. Although the boys were all awarded the Mutiny medal, it was not until 1932 , following a request by the College, that the British Government recognised Martiniere`s role in 1857 by presenting it with Battle Honours - an honour held by no other educational institution in the British Empire. Schilling’s remarkable achievement in bringing nearly all of those dependent on him through the siege was acknowledged by his alma mater in 1858, when King’s, London, made him an Honorary Fellow. Continuing in India, he became a Governor of the Lawrence Military Asylum, before retiring to England. George Schilling died at 58 Crystal Palace Park Road, Sydenham, on 9 February 1886, and is buried in Elmers Green Cemetery.

Refs: Appendix B to the Report of the Proceedings of the Lucknow Martine Charities for 1856-57, and 1857-58; IOL L/MIL/5/86; Modern English Biography (Boase); The Times 18/2/96; A Memoir, Letters, and Diary of the Rev Henry S. Polehampton, M.A., (Polehampton & Polehampton); The Martinière Boys in the Bailey Guard. By One of Them (Hilton); The Mutinies in Oude (Gubbins).