Sir Henry Havelock

Sir Henry Havelock (born April 5, 1795, near Sunderland, Durham, England—died November 24, 1857, Lucknow, India) was a British soldier serving in India who distinguished himself in support of the British East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Raised in a religious environment, Havelock obtained a commission in the British army at age 20, but he spent eight restless years in England while studying military strategy. To join two brothers in India, he changed his regiment and obtained a lieutenancy in the 13th Light Infantry. He served with distinction in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26) but in 1838 was still only a captain and had seen commissions purchased over him by five others. He again distinguished himself in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42) and was made a Companion of the Bath, but only later did he receive a promotion, when serving as interpreter to Sir Hugh Gough in the 1843 Gwalior campaign.

Burdened by ill health and the debts of his eldest son, Havelock took two years home leave beginning in 1849. After returning to India, he was promoted to quartermaster general (1854) and then to adjutant general. After sharing in Sir James Outram’s Persian expedition of 1857, Havelock returned to India in the midst of the Rebellion of 1857 and took command of a mobile column. His force was too late and too weakened by casualties to save Kanpur (Cawnpore) or Lucknow from rebel Indian forces, but his series of victories in July and August brought him acclaim, and in September he broke through on his fourth try to relieve the besieged Residency at Lucknow. He was rewarded with a knighthood in the Order of the Bath and promotion to major general, but he died soon afterward of dysentery.