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 Memorials of Old Haileybury College
| Date transcribed | 2000-00-00 | | Transcribed by | Benda Cook | | Comment | Publication Date: 1894
Author: F. C. Danvers, Sir M Monier -Williams, Sir S. C. Bayley, P. Wigram, the late Brand Sapte, and many contributors.
Publisher Constable & Co.: Westminster
British Library: OIR 354.54 Held in the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections.
This book can be found online. To find out more visit our fibiwiki page on Books online containing strong Biographical Interest |
| | No. | 943 |  | Surname | Wake | | | Christian Names | Herwald Crauford | | | Decorations | CB | | | Dates at Haileybury | 1849-50 | | | Presidency | Bengal  | | | Career in India | 1851-68 | | | Other notes | Invalid Pension 1868 | | | Final Appointment 1 | Superintendent of Darjiling | | | Mutiny Service | The outbreak of the Mutiny found Wake at Arrah in charge of the district of Shahabad. There was every reason to expect the disturbances which occured here, for there was a large Rajput population, from which the army was extensively recruited, especially the 40th Native Infantry, then stationed at the neighbouring cantonment of Dinapore. Moreover their Chief, Kooer Singh, was a man who was utterly ruined by mismanagement and extravagance, overwhelmed in debt, and with no hope of recovery except by the subversion of order and the annihilation of his creditors. When, therefore, the three Regiments at Dinapore mutinied he easily persuaded them to delay their march to Dehli and join their friends and relations in attempting the destruction of the little body of Englishmen in Arrah and their rule in the district. The party at Arrah consisted of Messrs. Littledale, judge; Combe, Collector; Wake, Magistrate; J. C. Colvin, Assistant Magistrate; Hail, Civil Surgeon; Field, Sub-Deputy Opium Agent; Anderson, Assistant Opium Agent; Boyle, Railway Engineer; Syud Azim uddin Huscin, Deputy Collector; Da Costa, Munsif; Godfrey, Schoolmaster ; Cook, Head Clerk ; Tait, Secretary to Mr. Boyle ; Delparron and Hoyle, Railway Inspectors; and Souza. These, with fifty men of Rattray's Sikh Police, took possession of a small bungalow, which had been made defensible as far as possible by Mr. Boyle, on hearing of the approach of the 7th, 8th and 40th Native Infantry from Dinapore. On the morning of Monday, July 27, they were attacked by the mutineers, who were reinforced by the jail guard and Kooer Singh, with a large number of his retainers, and for the rest of the week sustained an incessant siege. But every effort to dislodge them failed. The continued fire from musketry, matchlocks, and two small guns (one on the roof or a house only 50 yards away) was answered by a spirited and more effectual one; mine was met by countermine; food was scanty, but a sally brought in some sheep; water ran short, but a well eighteen feet deep was sunk in twelve hours; all temptations to desert were ignored and derided by the Sikhs; and for seven days did this little band of not seventy men successfully resist thousands. The first attempt to relieve them from outside failed, a force despatched from Dinapore being driven back on July 30 with heavy loss, but on Sunday, August 2. Wake's diary recorded ""few rebels to be seen,"" for they had gone to meet and be crushed by Major Eyre and next morning the heroic garrison met his victorious party. Arrah was now safe, but it remained to disperse the rebels. This was done by Major Eyre, who, with a force now increased to about 500, defeated Kooer Singh and his retainers and captured his fort at Jugdespore on August 12. In this engagement Wake and Colvin commanded the Sikh Police, and were specially mentioned in the despatch. After this order was maintained in the district, but not without several expeditions in which Wake took part with the Sikhs, notably the taking of the strong fort of Rhotasgurh. |
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