SINGLE CAMPAIGN MEDALS 120
The Indian Mutiny Medal to Robert Tudor Tucker, ‘the glory of the Bengal Civil Service’, who made a gallant single- handed defence of Futtehpore in June 1857, killing sixteen and wounding many more before falling pierced by both spears and bullets
INDIAN MUTINY 1857-59, no clasp (Robt. T. Tucker, Bengal Civil Service) ‘handling’ marks, especially to the obverse, otherwise very fine
£2500-3000
Robert Tudor Tucker was born in Edinburgh in 1817, the son of Henry St. G. Tucker, Bengal Civil Service. He was educated at Addiscombe and Haileybury, and arrived in India in November 1835. He served at Patna, Etawah, Agra, Azamgarh, Ghazipur, Benares, and Aligarh before, in May 1854, being appointed Civil and Session Judge at Futtehpore. His subsequent sole defence of Futtehpore on 9 June 1857, is amply told by William Forbes-Mitchell in his Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny 1857-59:
‘After leaving Lohunga, the first place of note which we reached was Futtehpore, seventy-two miles from Allahabad. At Futtehpore I met some native Christians whom I had first seen in Allahabad, and who were, or had been, connected with mission work, and could speak English. They had returned from Allahabad to look after property which they had been obliged to abandon when they fled from Futtehpore on the outbreak of the Mutiny. These men all knew Dr. Duff, or had heard of him, and were most anxious to talk to Dr. Duff's countrymen, as they called the Highlanders. From one of them I heard of the brave defence made by a solitary Englishman who refused to leave his post, and as I have never seen this alluded to in any of the histories of the Mutiny, I shall relate it.
When the insurrection broke out, Mr. Robert Tucker was the judge of Futtehpore, and like his namesake of Salvation Army fame, he combined the missionary with the civil-servant, and used to preach to the natives, who listened to him with seeming respect, but with concealed hatred in their hearts. One of the most regular attendants at these Christian meetings in the judge's house was a Mahommedan named Hikmut Oollah Khân, the native head of the police in Futtehpore, and Mr. Tucker had unbounded confidence in the friendship of this man and in the loyalty of the police. On the first certain signs of disturbance in the station Mr. Tucker despatched all the Christians, native and European, to Allahabad, but refused to move himself. My informant told me that he had stayed with the brave judge till the last, and had made his escape to Allahabad after Mr. Tucker was killed; but I had no means of testing the truth of that statement. He further stated that Mr. Tucker had sent away all the Christians to Allahabad during the night, and next day about noon he sent for Hikmut Oollah Khân, who had neglected to make his usual morning report, with an intimation that the judge wished to see him and his loyal police to make arrangements for the protection of the Treasury and other Government property. The loyal and
friendly Hikmut Oollah Khân sent back a reply that it was then too hot for him to come out, and that the judge sâhib need not trouble himself about the Treasury. Considering that the Government of the English was at an end, the police would take care of the Treasury for the Bâdshâh of Delhi, to whom it rightly belonged, and till the cool of the evening the judge sâhib might repeat his Kaffir prayers,
when the loyal and friendly Hikmut Oollah Khân, with a detachment of his loyal police, would come and give his Kaffir soul a quick despatch to Jehunnum. Such was the loyalty of Mr. Tucker's trusted and pampered friend!
The message of Hikmut Oollah Khân opened the eyes of the too confiding judge, but he did not flinch from his duty. Mr. Tucker had been a mighty hunter in his day, and possessed a good assortment of offensive and defensive arms, such as rifles, fowling-pieces, and hog-spears. He carefully arranged his ammunition and loaded every rifle and fowling-piece which he had, strongly barricaded the doors and windows of his house, and then sat quietly down to read his Bible. At sunset he saw a large body of the police, with the green banner of Islâm and Hikmut Oollah Khân at their head, entering his compound. They advanced, and called on Mr. Tucker to surrender in the name of the Bâdshâh of Delhi, and if he wished his life to be spared, he could have it on condition that he accepted the religion of Mahommed. This he resolutely refused to do, and tried to reason with the police, to which they replied by a volley. Mr. Tucker returned the fire, and before the doors of his house could be forced he had killed sixteen and wounded many more, when he fell pierced by both spears and bullets. So died the brave and God-fearing Robert Tucker, the glory of the Bengal Civil Service, and thus ended the defence of Futtehpore by one solitary Englishman against hundreds of rebels.’
Other accounts describe how, after being overpowered, Tucker was subjected to a mock trial and executed; as a last indignity his head, hands and feet were cut off.
Tucker’s entry in Memorials of Old Haileybury College reads:
‘Robert Tudor Tucker. Haileybury 1833-1835 - Judge of Futtehpore. On June 9 the storm burst at this Station, halfway between Allahabad and Cawnpore. The mob plundered the Treasury, let loose the prisoners and destroyed the Government offices, and the officials had to escape as best they could. But Tucker refused to stir. He took up his post on the roof of the Magistrate’s office and there held the rebels at bay till he was shot down, not before several had fallen to his rifle. Not one member of the Service behaved more gallantly than Robert Tucker, one brave Englishman alone and unsupported, not hesitating to face an infuriated mob of ruffians and sacrificing the life which he might well have saved to a noble, if exaggerated , sense of duty. So much had he endeared himself to all that after his death two Hindus stood out and cursed his murderers in public, for which honest and brave speech they lost their lives.’
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